I bought this game new, played it for 3 hours maybe. i never could play multiplayer because it just hung at finding match or whatever. It was a complete waste of money to me. but now that they've done this, i feel even more jipped. not only did their game not work whenever i tried to play it but it turns out i didnt even own it, it was just on loan.

I`d heard some people had problems with the game.
Did you ever try queues with cronies or solo play & did it work then?

I think mate & I only ever had one crash & that was when first installing it.
Worked fine ever since.

Well, until now...

It's funny isn't it. The note about the game servers going offline was posted at the end of last year. And only now are people complaining about it. That pretty much says how many people were actually still playing it.

Sure it's a shame a game has been rendered unplayable. But it was hardly a great game, nor one that still had a significant community. This also isn't the first time the game was going to be shut down. The first time was back around 2013, and enough people still played to get them to change their minds.

But that's the way of all MMO like games. Eventually there's not enough people left interested in the game to justify the costs of keeping the lights on. But to claim it's DRM preventing the game from being played is just misinformation and ignorance to how the game was structured.

It's not much different from when they shut down Battlefield 2. Some private servers sprang up, but ultimately, most people won't even bother with them.

Are you kidding me, or am I missing something? How is a game that features single-player as well as multi-player an MMO-like game and how is preventing you to play the single-player mode not DRM preventing the game from being played?

Besides, there are two M and an O in MMO. I can see no reason why this game would be an online-only game if there weren't DRM and there's nothing massive about the multi-player, since it is played with just a few other people as far as I understand.

It's not about Darkspore, it is about the fact that the publisher can pull the plug on any game at any time. Darkspore is just the canary in the coalmine, it's only a matter of time until this happens to a game people actually care about.

This is why I have zero tolerance for online-locking or even DRM in general. At first it was just the technology moving forward and old games becoming unplayable because the program would no longer run. Then it was authentication servers we had to worry about. And now you have to be online all the time to play even by yourself. It's like every time the technology gets better the end product gets worse. Why are people still buying this dreck?

Its not about this its about that. Well no shit Sherlock. But surely the game itself should be the concern for some? Even if for archiving purposes.

Ross's Game Dungeon covered this a few weeks ago, along with a petition to EA.

The same thing happened to Battleforge.

This is why you get the console versions. Still happily enjoying my PS3 version with no fear of losing access to it. Once I get a PS4, I might make the jump to that version for the expanded content.

It was designed to be played as a mutliplayer online game. Thus it was MMO like. It was 100% dependent on a server. The fact you *could* also opt to play single player doesn't change that. You can play most MMOs solo. Doesn't stop them from being MMOs. Did you not understand the developer's intention for Darkspore from the fact that it would always drop you into a public lobby with others, even if you were playing solo?

Scalpel. Blood bucket. Next patient.

Oh, if only SimonG were still around to tell us how DRM-free is a "marketing spiel" and any fears of all our DRMed games ceasing to work one day are unjustified.

Well thats the nature of all DRM, if (when) origin/uplay/steam will be shut down people loose access to thousands of games they paid for - and only piracy will redeem them singleplayer parts of their games =\ (not in this case though)

People seem to forget that when they buy drmed content - it is not just about preventing piracy - its mostly about control over you.

Oh man, don't remind me. Someone from EA actually stated after release that at no point during the discussions concerning the always-online requirements of Sim City did anyone mention the term "DRM". Liar, liar, ass on fire.