The announcement of Darkspore's imminent, permanent shutdown was actually made in December, but, tellingly, nobody noticed. But with just one week until the curtains come down for good, the word is starting to get out, and on the off-chance that any of you are still playing it, I thought you might like to know.

“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,” EA wrote on the Darkspore forum. “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.”

Darkspore, an action-RPG loosely based on the creature editor used in the 2008 Maxis game Spore, hasn't been spoken of around these parts since 2011. In fact, the last thing we wrote about it was a piece on games that require an always-on connection to remote servers. “Gamers and the press will speak up in favor of keeping games we paid for playable,” it concludes. “The question remains, though: Will developers and publishers listen?”

It's a question that's been answered in the negative many times previously, but as a matter of principle it's still annoying when it happens. In the case of Darkspore, however, I have to suspect that its loss won't be overly lamented.