Electronic Arts just killed off two of their Darkspore related trademarks.

This one and this one. The main game trademark was renewed though ("2011-11-16 - Extension 2 granted").

Looks like they simply abandoned the trademark and never bothered to file an extension. This means that there won't be any Darkspore "Caps; Jackets; Pajamas; Pants; Shirts; Sleepwear; Sweat pants; Sweat shirts; T-shirts" or "Action figures; Board games; Hand held units for playing video games other than those adapted for use with an external display screen or monitor; Modeled plastic toy figurines; Playing cards."

I don't know if I can live without my Darkspore PJs and Action Figures.

They're definitely not as confident in the game as they once were. Do you remember all of that major hype about the game? I guess they were really expecting it to be quite popular, but now they're realizing that it's not going to be as big as they had initially hoped.

Fun Fact: I didn't even KNOW Darkspore was out until I noticed the trademark changes. It came out last APRIL?? Guess I blinked.

There has also been some simultaneous forward momentum on ALPHA CENTAURI, THE SIMS SOCIAL and FLY WITH ME.

It appears to be more than just maintenance (e.g. renewing old trademarks that they might use one day), and it looks like they've been approved for publication. Meaning that they'll appear in their gazette for other organizations to challenge before "fully approved".

"Fly With Me" is a new game, probably a flight simulator. Sims Social has already begun. But I'm most interested in Alpha Centauri (one of my favorite games.) I'll check around to see if there have been any new announcements.. but it looks like EA is getting pretty serious now about releasing it. Hopefully, we'll hear something concrete within the next 1-2 months.

* UPDATE:

CAPCOM just created a new trademark for game called "E.X. TROOPERS" too.

I couldn't find any details online about it, so it's something that hasn't been announced yet.

And, by the way, the ex-troopers.com domain has expired and it's currently available for purchase. I wonder if that's even successful? Buying a domain, and then selling it a company who wants it?