Darkspore will be unplayable from March 1

Darkspore will go, uh, dark next week.

Darkspore, the oft-forgotten Diablo-esque spin off of Maxis' polarising artificial life sim Spore, will soon become unplayable. This state of affairs is the legacy of the game's always-on DRM requirement, which EA is pulling the plug on.

EA actually announced this in December 2015, but as PC Gamer points out, nobody noticed at the time.

As it is, it's not causing much of a stir, except on principle; it's pretty rubbish to not be able to play a game you paid for. Luckily (?) hardly anyone plays Darkspore, but EA's cheery exhortation to go play some free games on Origin still probably stings a bit for those who did enjoy it.

Here's the full text of the December announcement post:

Today, we are announcing that we will be closing the doors on Darkspore, effective March 1st, 2016. It’s been a great run and we hope that you have enjoyed your time with Darkspore. While it can be hard to say goodbye, keep in mind there are tons of awesome games available for free on Origin. Enjoy 48-hours of fun with Game Time titles such as The Sims 4 and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare or download the latest Origin On the House release and add it to your library.