If there’s one thing EA knows how to do, it’s how to milk a franchise. And it seems to be doing pretty well there, with another Spore-inspired game coming to the PC and Mac.
Originally discovered in the details of a Comic-Con panel with EA, the Spore RPG will be titled Darkspore and will be available in early 2011, according to Ars Technica.
Described as an “action RPG,” the theme will, as its name suggests, be rather dark and ominous as opposed to Spore’s original light-hearted personality. The game will be playable online.
Although Spore was originally created to be the most massive open-ended game ever – players could literally create their own universe right now to microscopic detail – it has hemorrhaged out to a variety of spin-offs, including a handful of simplistic virtual pet and adventure games on the Wii and DS.
EA has a history of doing this, as is evidenced by the dozens of titles that now sport the “Sims” name or some variation thereof (e.g., “MySims”).
Darkspore will not be completely devoid of attachment to the original Spore game, as players will have a lot of options to customize their characters and build creatures essentially from scratch. However, the storyline will be completely detached as there was really not much of a story component to Spore.
“Darkspore is inspired in part by the award-winning creature editor tech of Spore, but also in large part from the team’s own passion for gaming and prior experience,” said Lucy Bradshaw, general manager for Maxis, the EA studio responsible for the Spore and Sims franchises.
