Darkspore Message Board

Darkspore is back on Steam, EA tells us today. You can find it in the store. They've confirmed that Error 3, which was blocking players from saving changes to their heroes, has been fixed. Though not widespread, a few people are still reporting difficulties of logging in due to Error 73003, but EA promises they're still looking into it.

I still wonder what sort of mad sparkle in EA’s eye led to the birth of Darkspore, but its ensuing post-launch existence has somehow managed to be even stranger. While the game itself was largely (and sadly) unremarkable, its early DRM server issues have since evolved into an eyeball-and-tendril-flailing monstrosity, rendering the whole thing entirely unplayable for some since May. Recently (possibly as a result), Darkspore was de-listed from Steam, though it’s still available on Origin. EA’s now claiming to have put the offending bugs to bed, but Steam continues to only carry spores of distinctly lighter shades.

(more…)

Earlier today we linked to a report from GameTrailers noting that EA would not be supporting their 2011-released RPG Darkspore in the face of persistent errors. The moderator on the forum in question where this alleged announcement took place, however, is not an EA employee, EA said in an email to Kotaku today. Here's the statement we received: Maxis continues to support Darkspore and its servers. We recently resolved a problem where players were having issues connecting to the game. The post in question came from a moderator who is not an employee of EA. That post has been updated to reflect accurate information. Players experiencing technical issues should contact help.ea.com for customer support. No word yet on whether the game will be back on Steam—as of this writing Fahey tells me it's still not in the Steam store—even after the connection issues have, as EA says, been resolved. We've asked EA and will update this post as we hear more. To contact the author of this post, write to tina@kotaku.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.

GameTrailers reports that Darkspore, EA's always-online action-RPG from 2011, has been pulled from Steam following complaints about game-breaking network issues. An announcement on the game's official forums says that these bugs will not be fixed as the game is "for almost all intents & purposes an abandoned title."

In his resume, level-designer Jordan Patz claims to have "worked with Maxis to modify Darkspore for release on Xbox/PS3." Wasn't that just a PC game? The résumé has since been modified: it now links to a YouTube video of a flying cat. Very Suspicious. [joystiq] More »

Darkspore appears to be headed to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, courtesy of developer Naked Sky Entertainment (Microbot). Twitter-based internet detective Superannuation spotted a reference to the port in level designer Jordan Patz' resume (PDF link), which says he "worked with Maxis to modify Darkspore for release on Xbox/PS3."

Though EA has never officially announced the title for anything other than PC/Mac, a recent interview on GameRant with Maxis executive producer Mike Perry indicated that the game could be ported to consoles if the community demanded it. It seems, however, that plans were already underway. When contacted, EA offered a "No comment," and we've yet to hear back from Patz or Naked Sky Entertainment.

Has the Spore franchise evolved into something truly heroic? Find out how Darkspore stacks up in the GT Review!

If Diablo and Pokemon had a baby with Spore as the midwife, you'd ... well, you'd probably be scarred for life if you looked directly at it. But you'd also end up with Darkspore.

This sci-fi themed hack-and-slash role-playing game puts you in the role of a Crogenitor, a near-extinct race of advanced beings once responsible for seeding the galaxy with engineered life. Long ago, a figure named The Destroyer experimented with an unstable form of genetic engineering called E-DNA. Using it, he created an army of powerful mutant creatures called Darkspore that went forth to conquer the known galaxy. Awakened from hypersleep, your role is to assemble a collection of heroes, modify them, and take it back.

A strange beast shambles this way: Darkspore! ‘Tis the progeny of Maxis, sim-creators, and it is… an action RPG? A bold genetic strangeness, then – but is it a virile cross-breed or an inbred abomination? Let me take some time you tell you wot I think.(more…)

Pair up for some co-operative campaigning across the stars in Darkspore.

Go to war with friends in Darkspore's online play mode.

Those of you with allergies had better take your antihistamines, because with action RPG Darkspore coming out tonight experts are warning of epidemics of play fever. You know, because it’s like hay fever but with a game, and the game has “spore” in the title… and I think hay fever might be caused by spores. It’s either caused by spores or ghosts, I’m sure of it.

Never mind. The Darkspore launch trailer’s out now, anyway, with clips of the game interspersed with various pieces of lukewarm praise from gaming sites. See it for yourself after the jump.(more…)

Here's the last trailer for the latest game from Maxis, minus Will Wright.

A new breed of Action-RPG is upon us. Experience the Diablo II style combat in a whole new way with Darkspore on PC.

From SimCity through the development of the best-selling The Sims, Maxis has been a hugely influential development studio and has owned the simulation genre. In 2008, the company released Spore, which was the studio's most ambitious simulation to date, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. Rather than ...

Check out the melee prowess of Skar in this Hero Spotlight for Darkspore.

It's been far too long since you've played god with the genetic makeup of poor, defenseless cryptozoological monsters -- why not dip your toes into Maxis' dark, action-RPG followup to Spore, obviously titled Darkspore? The game recently entered open beta, allowing players to dungeon delve through the first few levels until the beta client goes kaput on April 22. The retail release is scheduled to follow on April 26.

You can download the beta client on our sister site Big Download, but you might want to check out the minimum system requirements posted after the jump before you spend all of that precious bandwidth. It's the currency of the future, you know? Like dirt and paper in Waterworld.

Meditron is a repair-bot, one of the only heroes that can cleanse debuffs! This trailer shows Meditron in action--can you handle it?

We’ve talked a bit already about Maxis’ strange action-RPG reworking of the tools and ideas of Spore, which they’re call DarkSpore. But now you can have a look for yourself over on Steam, where there’s an open beta until the game’s launch on 26th April. Probably worth a look if you like to loot the genetic materials of your fallen enemies, and honestly, who doesn’t? There’s a four-pack pre-order bundle up there, too, for encouraging of the co-op. I think you will want to try before you buy.

Steam makes it easy to get into the beta program for Maxis' Spore spin-off Darkspore. Just head to the Steam web site and install. Darkspore was recently delayed until the end of April. More »

Darkspore's evolution toward retail maturation has been stunted, and the game won't crawl out of the development ooze now until April 26 in North America (and April 28 in Europe). Previously, its birth date had been set for March 29.

Along with EA's delay announcement on the game's forums, the publisher announced that an open beta for the edgier take on the Spore franchise would begin sometime in April. It would seem the company is still making sure all the mandibles and exoskeletons are reticulated properly for the game's four-player co-op, squad based PvP and robust hero editor.

Electronic Arts has delayed the release of Darkspore a month, the publisher announced. The game will now release on April 26 in North America and April 28 in Europe and Asia Pacific territories...

Discover the enemies your hero will encounter in the sector of Scaldron.

Players who have registered for a chance to join the beta may receive beta keys soon!

#trailer In case our hands-on with Darkspore's action-packed single-player and competitive multiplayer battles weren't enough to whet your appetite for the game, perhaps the full beta trailer will do the trick. More »

#handson Spore is an amazing creative experience diluted by a broad gameplay focus. Darkspore has one focus: Building a better killing machine. I took my monster squad to task in story mode and player-versus-player combat and lived to tell the tale. More »

Collect, customize and engage in combat in what Maxis promises will be a new breed of RPG.

#video Players who pre-order Darkspore will get early access to Maldri and some neat loot. More »

#video Darkspore hero Andromeda is one of the 25 heroes coming to EA's strategic action-RPG computer game. More »