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EA shuts down the studio behind 'SimCity'
The studio that created SimCity and The Sims is no more. Today, EA confirmed that it will shut down Maxis Emeryville, displacing the folks primarily responsible for the aforementioned titles. In a statement, EA said that it'll relocate Maxis' development to its other offices in Redwood Shores, California; Salt Lake City; Helsinki; and Melbourne, Australia. The company plans to move forward with projects already in the works, including an expansion pack for The Sims 4 and ongoing support for the existing The Sims and SimCity faithful. Those two are massively popular PC titles, and the latter finally arrived on Mac in 2013 with players everywhere encountering a truckload of launch issues.
Darkspore removed from Steam following server complaints
Electronic Arts' Darkspore has been removed from Steam, likely due to server-related issues that make it unplayable. The top-down action RPG, which requires an always-on connection, has suffered from server problems since launch in 2011, according to Polygon. The latest missive on the game's official forum thanks players for supporting the game, and says the connectivity issue has been resolved. It concludes, "We will continue to support Darkspore, so feel free to continue to discuss the game here." Darkspore continues to be available on EA's Origin digital distribution service. Curiously, an earlier message on the forum (since removed) suggested an end of support for the game. "Darkspore is no longer developed. It is for almost all intents and purposes an abandoned title," it read. It went on to urge customers to contact EA customer support for any technical issues and that "Error Code 4" had arisen for the "majority" of Darkspore players. Update: A representative for EA informs us: "Steam is in the process of relisting Darkspore on their service. It should be returning in the near future." "Maxis continues to support Darkspore and its servers. We recently resolved a problem where players were having issues connecting to the game." The representative continued, "The [initial] 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."
36 Origin PC games on the cheap until Sunday
When it comes to digital distribution services, EA's Origin is the new kid in school. And who wants to hang out with the new kid? Nobody, that's who, unless the new kid has pockets full of candy. And by candy, we mean really cheap video-games. From now until tomorrow, you can promise to be Origin's best friend forever in exchange for 36 PC games and/or expansion packs on sale for $4.99 each, including Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Spore, Mirror's Edge, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, and Littlest Pet Shop. Whether or not Origin's popularity on the playground will last when the candy runs out remains to be seen, but for right now we're willing to trade our chocolate milk for a copy of Sim City 4. [Thanks, Thomas!]
Darkspore review: Give it a hand
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.%Gallery-99913%
Gaikai is live with streaming demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2 and more
Following more than a year of media demos and beta testing, cloud gaming startup Gaikai is letting the public try out the fruits of its efforts: Demos of Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Spore and The Sims 3 are all playable from within your web browser. That is, if you have the bandwidth -- we don't, apparently. (Granted, we're on gratis Wi-Fi here at GDC.) You might have better luck at home: You can visit Gaikai's site where you'll be prompted to launch Mass Effect 2. "Just wait and if your connection quality to our Server is fast enough," instructs CEO David Perry, "one of several pop-up designs will appear." Additionally, taking a survey about the service will grant you access to the Dead Space 2 demo. Spore and The Sims 3 trials can be found here and here, respectively.
Massively Exclusive: Darkspore reveals the Viper
Unless you're relatively new to gaming, you've undoubtedly heard of Maxis -- the developer behind the The Sims. Maxis and Electronic Arts have decided to use concepts from Spore to create a brand-new dungeon-crawling isometric online RPG called Darkspore -- and we've secured an exclusive first look at the Viper hero that gamers will be able to play in this upcoming title. With venomous damage-over-time attacks, enormous blades built into its muscular body, and the ability to add even more spines covered in poison, this beast is deservedly subtitled the "toxic ravager." It's got lots of damage, lots of carnage, and by the looks of it, lots of fun! While this is one of those borderline-in-the-MMOeque-neighborhood type of games, we understand the world is persistent, and players will be able to gather gear and customize their characters as they level up within the powerful Spore engine. Darkspore will feature both a single-player mode and groups of four players in the basic co-op multiplayer modes. We haven't heard concrete numbers on PvP battles, so perhaps the game will cross into the truly massive at that point. For now, you can check out the exclusive video for Darkspore's newest hero, Viper, behind the break.
Darkspore trailer offers a glimpse at four-player co-op
Not only are friends great when you need bail money at 4 a.m. (don't ask), but they're also good for fighting monsters and stuff in Darkspore. At least, that's what we hear from people who actually have friends.
Darkspore PvPreview: Arms and legs thrashing
Darkspore's been introduced to us as "Spore meets Diablo," and seeing it in action reinforces that early pitch -- the game has six abilities on a bar across the bottom, and health and mana bars on either side, while characters that appear as if they were generated in Spore hack and slash their way across the screen. But what EA really wants to do with Darkspore, says Michael Arsers, software engineer on the title, isn't just clone an action RPG with Will Wright's funny toys. They want to answer that question everyone had after Spore originally released. "A lot of the criticisms on Spore," he told me recently, "were that there were a lot of cool tools, but where's the game? And that's what we were trying to get at here." So you might be forgiven for thinking Darkspore is the product of some weird genetic mashup of game genres -- it basically was. "The team that started this production was a very core gamer, WoW arena/DotA kind of crowd, and so we really wanted to take the creatures from Spore and put them in a hardcore game," Arsers said. "We have this great Creator technology, so how can we leverage and make a core game with that?" We've already heard a bit about the singleplayer side of the title, but no true hardcore game is complete without some player-versus-player (PvP) action, and so Arsers was excited to show off the PvP Arena mode that he and the team are working on.%Gallery-106625%
Will Wright gifts design docs and personal papers to Museum of Play
We already knew that Super Fun Club's Will Wright was a swell guy, but his recent donation of "personal papers and design documents" to the Strong National Museum of Play places him firmly is really swell guy territory. The International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) -- an institution within the museum -- has collected nine notebooks from Wright, featuring "original drawings, sketches, and notes for four of his SimCity, The Sims, and Spore games." Some of his donation will be on display this coming November as part of the "eGameRevolution" exhibit on the museum's second floor, for those interested in taking a peek. ICHEG director Jon-Paul Dyson spoke of the donation in a statement (via 1UP), "These papers document the creative process behind some of the most important games of our time. They have transformed our society, and we are pleased to preserve this record of how Wright created them." Wright lavished the ICHEG with equal praise, saying, "I know of no other institution that is covering the topic as comprehensively as they are." Wright's work will otherwise be housed alongside an enormous arcade collection -- what the ICHEG deems "the most significant games ever manufactured -- from Computer Space (1971) and Pong (1972) to Space Invaders (1978) and Pac-Man (1980) to Donkey Kong (1981) and Tetris (1988)" -- as well as an over 10,000-strong console game library. In other news, we totally know we're going when the Zombie Apocalypse goes down.
EA giving free game to disgruntled APB buyers [Updated]
reddit_url = "http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/09/27/ea-giving-free-game-to-disgruntled-apb-buyers/"; Tweet Ticked off about the recent closure of Realtime Worlds' All Points Bulletin? Well you're not alone, and surprisingly enough it seems like Electronic Arts has heard your cries for justice. According to reports from CVG and SavyGamer, the publishing giant is ponying up a free download from the EA Store for customers who purchased APB via Valve's Steam digital distribution platform. The list of possible freebies is nothing to sneeze at either, as it includes BioWare darlings Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins, as well as Spore, The Saboteur, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and several more. There's currently no word on refunds or compensation for those who purchased the ill-fated urban crime MMOFPS from retail outlets or other digital shops. [Editor's Note: Having just gone through this process myself, I can tell you that it's easy and virtually painless. Simply visit www.ea.com, choose your country of origin, visit the support link in the upper right hand corner, and log into your EA account. Once that's done, click the "contact us/email us" button to create a new question to ask the EA support representatives. Select APB as the game in question and tell them that you own the game, where you bought it, and that you'd like to take advantage of their refund offer. The representative will ask you to make a list of games you'd like (pre-order titles are excluded and only games in the EA store are being offered) and that's it! Once you send your list, they'll give you a game (most likely your first choice) and you can download it using their instructions. ~Seraphina]
Dead Space, Mirror's Edge and Spore on sale at the EA Store this weekend
Wanna dodge the sun's harmful rays and get some gaming in within the air-conditioned comfort of your home? EA's been offering discounts on its PC lineup every weekend; a revolving door of its best and brightest for a pittance. Through Sunday, Dead Space, Mirror's Edge and Spore share the spotlight -- you can get each game for $10, $5 and $20, respectively.
Maxis' Spore-based action-RPG to be announced at Comic Con
The schedule for San Diego Comic Con 2010 was updated earlier today, adding a few game-centric panels focusing on titles like Guild Wars 2, Red Faction Armageddon, Epic Mickey and more to Saturday's proceedings. However, one panel in particular caught our eye: "Video Game Reveal: Maxis Studio." According to the event's details, the panel will see a handful of members from the Maxis dev team unveil "a brand new, Sci-Fi Action-RPG based on the DNA of Spore." This sounds like it could be the Spore title referenced in EA's Q3 2010 investor's briefing, the name for which may have surfaced in the company's recent trademark of "Darkspore." We might just learn what happens when good Spores go bad when the panel unfolds Saturday, July 24.
US Army eyes acoustic trapping for filtering bacteria from water
Don't bother asking "why" when it comes to governmental wishes -- just accept the fact that the US Army needs a more efficient way of filtering bacterial spores from water. All jesting aside, the actual process of filtering water and investigating what types of critters are swimming about is surprisingly complex, and currently, it still requires a good bit of human interaction to overcome clogs that frequently occur. Thanks to a little research going down at MIT, it's looking like sound may be the answer. Yeah, noise. The Army is funding a project that'll determine whether an acoustic standing wave would be able to jostle things in a way that clogs would be avoided, and if it pans out, mad scientists could even monitor water quality remotely. We told you telecommuting was a beautiful thing, now didn't we?
EA registers trademark for Spore's possible evil twin, 'Darkspore'
Oh, sure, Spore's a nice enough guy. But ... don't you sometimes wish he had a bad streak? You've always been attracted to the lone wolf, the rebel, the ne'er-do-well -- that goody-two-shoes Spore wouldn't know the first thing about satisfying your desire for unwholesome behavior. You know who does? His edgy twin brother, Darkspore. At least, we're assuming EA's recently registered trio of trademarks for "Darkspore," discovered by Superannuation, are reserving the title for the franchise's next, considerably darker iteration. Is it possibly the Spore title hinted at in EA's Q3 2010 financial report? Or is it an unexpected evil twin, making a soap operatic surprise entrance? Only time (and possibly EA's press conference at E3) will tell.
Be a Spore Hero for less with Amazon deal
Ready to add more genetic diversity to your Spore game collection? Amazon is offering the chance to get the latest Wii and DS variants in the franchise at a nice discount. The action-adventure Spore Hero for Wii is $17.99, while the DS fighting game Spore Hero Arena has been knocked down to the impulse-buy price of $10.99. Don't take too much time making the natural selection about whether to buy one or both: as Amazon's Deal of the Day, these offers will be gone tomorrow.
Will Wright to produce reality show with user-created storylines
That sneaky Will Wright always seems to be working on something amazing and/or secret, but this one caught us by surprise: His next project is actually a television show. He's working on The Creation Project in conjunction with Current, and eventually the show will involve viewers picking and choosing different storylines that will eventually be produced as two half-hour episodes of a real TV show. According to leaked planning documents, there's a big online and mobile component with the show as well, including a possible tool that would allow users to make and discuss their own storyboards. Of course, all of this is still in the planning stages, but that's okay -- it gives us plenty of time to work on our script about a game developer whose game is just too brilliant to be good. It'll be a hit for sure.
Nokia X6 16GB announced, Comes Without Music
Nokia's just announced a 16GB version of its crowd pleasing, capacitive touchscreen X6 to compliment the current 32GB model. As expected, the new handset offers many similarities to its sibling, including a 3.2-inch widescreen capacitive display and 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a dual LED flash. Unfortunately, this device is Comes with Music-deficient, meaning that you'll have to load tunes onto the device the old fashioned way (though it's not like that ever seemed like a big deal to begin with). In addition to EA's Spore, this bad boy includes Asphalt4 and DJ Mix Tour by Gameloft and an all-new Ovi Maps (with free walk and drive navigation, Michelin and Lonely Planet guides). Available in four colors, including black, white, white with yellow highlights, and white with pink highlights. Expect to see this one roll out sometime this quarter for a price to be announced.
Spore Creatures creeps onto iPhone and iPod Touch
Remember Spore? EA would like you to, this time by means of a seriously retooled version of the Nintendo DS release, Spore Creatures, for iPhone / iPod touch. Announced during GDC 2009, the game hit Apple's iTunes App Store today as a top-down affair costing $6.99. Like almost every game released under the Spore banner, we suspect that the creature creator is its strongest element. We can't imagine the actual game -- which has players adding new parts to their creatures in order to tilt-control them past obstacles -- will really have legs, so to speak. But hey, we could be wrong ... or you could just wait for the lite version to find out for free. Spore Creatures ($6.99): %Gallery-83854%
Dr Pepper giving away free EA DLC with every purchase
We can only imagine the planning meeting at Dr Pepper HQ, during which someone shouts "We must garner that critical gaming demographic! How will we ever best something as inimitable as Game Fuel?! It's got 'game' right there in the title!" Instead of copycatting the naming idea, though, Dr Pepper recently detailed an already announced partnership with EA to give away codes for downloadable content. The promotion details lists a handful of games -- Mass Effect 2, Battlefield Heroes, The Sims 3, Spore, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 -- which have "unique DLC" tied to them. Rather than forcing an unknown amount of soda purchases out of its customers, we were told this afternoon by a customer service rep that "Every bottle wins." More specifically, each bottle contains a code that can then be redeemed on the Dr Pepper website, thus allowing participants to choose their system and DLC from an available list. We flatfooted to the local AM/PM and didn't spot the prize-bearing bottles, but we'll update this post with more information as we get it.
Steam users report Spore online account issue
Yes, some adventurers are still exploring Spore and its would-be vast, online universe -- at least, they're trying to. Since late last year, some Spore buyers who purchase the game through Valve's Steam distribution service have been unable to access the game's online component. The issue seems to be related to the serial number that's required when setting up a Spore account, but not provided with Steam copies of Spore. Users who contacted Steam were told that Valve is working with EA to fix the issue and to continue to play offline until a fix is delivered. A Steam representative, posting in one forum thread, addressed angry users, claiming, "The ETA for a fix is 'as soon as possible.'" In the meantime, if you're about to buy Spore from Steam ... just buy it somewhere else.
