MTV Multiplayer reports that Will Wright, possibly the most famous game developer of all time, has left EA as of today. Wright, creator of Sim City, The Sims, and more recently Spore, will be focusing instead on his project the ‘Stupid Fun Club’, a company that is owned by himself, EA, and another mystery shareholder. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities”, Wright said, adding that the company will “create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms.” Despite leaving the company, EA gets first dibs on Wright’s new gaming projects.

EDGE reports the impossible today: EA taking DRM out of a game. The Sims 3 will reportedly ship with just a serial code and no online activation needed, and no restrictive and unnecessary DRM. The head of the Sims 3 studio, Rod Humble, described DRM as “overly invasive”, and added that serial-based verification is “a good, time-proven solution” to basic piracy.

Obviously, the Sims 3 will be pirated, there’s no doubt about that- but in light of the Spore controversy, people are less likely to be downloading it simply to say “fuck you” to EA this time. In a way, I’m glad that Spore was pirated so much; it seems to have shown EA that DRM just makes things worse for everyone.

It’s Spore. Were you surprised, really? All that DRM nonsense, all those lackluster reviews, all those pirates urging folks to fight the power by pirating this game. Rounding out the list of the year’s most stolen are Assassin’s Creed, The Sims 2, Crysis (still? come on guys), and more. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at number seven? That seems random.

When it comes down to it, though, it’s a damn shame that what a lot of us will remember Spore for is for being downloaded hella much. Then again, there are people who will say that EA deserved every dollar they didn’t get for this game. What’s your guys’ take? Does Spore deserve the decidedly undesirable title of “most pirated game of the year”?

Source: Torrent Freak

Well well well, what we have here is a failure to communicate — or so it seems. You decide. We reported late last night that an EA community staff member on the Command and Conquer forum advised posters of a policy change that would allow them to ban individuals banned from forum access from their line of games as well.

The comment has apparently been contradicted by an unnamed EA rep. I say “apparently” because the word “automatically” is used in the statement given, and in my opinion, it does not completely deny what the community staff member warned gamers.

Here is the statement:

“Players who have been banned from EA Forums are not automatically banned from online access to their other EA games … “

The EA rep then added:

“Players can be banned if they breach the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct in a forum, game or service. Each forum, game and service is managed independently by customer support representatives responsible for that specific forum, game or service.”

So is this simply a case of corporate double talk? Is the EA rep uninformed or was the community staff member talking out of his/her ass? Saying that it won’t be “automatic” doesn’t mean that EA isn’t giving community staff members the power to ban your game access if they so choose — at least not in my eyes.

My gut tells me that the EA community staff member spoke the truth not knowing how far his words would spread, and that this is nothing more than an effort to clean up the mess.

I’m curious to hear what you think. Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Source: Gamecyte

UPDATE: C&C Community Manager has issued an apology for his previous statement, stating that it was all just a misunderstanding. Read more…

A recent post by an EA Community Staff member on the company’s Command and Conquer message board outlines changes to their policy, stating their intent to link a gamer’s forum account to their EA gaming account. Why does this matter? Because EA is planning on banning those who get banned on their forum from their games as well.

The post by the EA Community Staff member can be seen below:

Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you’d actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It’s all one in the same, so I strongly [recommend] people play nice and act mature.

All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but its what we have to do.

Those banned will stay banned, but like most other internet services, its not that hard to create a new fake e-mail account. However, its a lot harder to get a new serial key =)

While I am not a fan of fanboy or over the top argumentative banter, this still seems like it is a bit much. Is it just me, or is there a hint of corporate greed in this disciplinary action? Maybe it’s the smiley face after the “harder to get a new serial key” comment that is getting under my skin, but I am not agreeing with this move.

They are essentially saying that if you have the financial means to be an asshole (i.e. you’re rich bitch), you can be as nasty as you want as long as you keep feeding their corporate machine. I have a bad feeling about this.

Aterthought: What do you think of EA’s policy change? Are you happy to see them lay the smack down, or do you think they are going about this all wrong?

Source: forums.ea.com

UPDATE: The community staff member comment has apparently been contradicted by an anonymous EA rep. I’m not sure if I buy it though. Read More…

UPDATE 2: C&C Community Manager has issued an apology for his previous statement, stating that it was all just a misunderstanding. Read more…

Game auteur Will Wright attended the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards ceremony in New York, and Jim Reilly of Kotaku was there to ask him what he thought about the controversy surrounding his game.

“It was something I probably should have tuned into more. It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore. They had a plan and the parameters, but now we’re allowing more authentications and working with players to de-authenticate which makes it more in line like an iTunes.

I think one of the most valid concerns about it was you could only install it so many times. For most players it’s not an issue, it’s a pretty small percentage, but some people do like wiping their hard disk and installing it 20 times or they want to play it 10 years later.”

Spore and distributor Electronic Arts came under fire for the perceived draconian tactics employed by the software’s DRM. SecuROM software essentially limiting Spore to one install.

Incensed gamers rallied around Spore, citing SecuROM as little better than malware which led to a grassroots boycott of the game.

Source: kotaku.com

They say that if you give a man fish they’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish they’ll eat for a lifetime. Well, give a Korean a game other than Starcraft and they’ll play it for a day, but if you give them Spore they’ll turn it into Starcraft. That’s what happened here. Some intrepid fellow was so frustrated by Spore’s shallow as heck RTS gameplay that he had to make it look as much like Starcraft as possible to even keep playing it. And he succeeded – look at those Siege Tanks!

Source: Game|Life

A press release received today from EA announces that Spore has sold 1 million copies and the amount of creatures uploaded has hit 25 million. Those are pretty impressive numbers considering the game shipped just three weeks ago on September 7th.

I have yet to play the game and would be interested in hearing the thoughts of our readers. If you have played the full version of the game, please let me know what you think of it in the comment section below.

Full press release available after the jump.

SPORE BEGINS WITH A BIG BANG!

ONE MILLION GAMES SOLD AND 25 MILLION CREATIONS UPLOADED

Emeryville, CA – September 24, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that Spore™ has sold through more than one million copies at retail worldwide on the PC, Mac® and Nintendo DS™, since shipping worldwide on September 7th. Spore, developed by EA’s Maxis™ Studio, is also available on mobile phones including the iPhone™. To date, gamers have used the creativity tools in Spore to populate the universe with more than 25 million creatures, vehicles and buildings available to view in the Sporepedia™ at www.spore.com/sporepedia.

Spore has been well received by game critics – with a Metacritic index of: 85.

“Spore is a hit,” said Frank Gibeau, president of the EA Games Label. “Will Wright’s latest delivers an incredibly diverse game that appeals to casual gamers and the core alike. We’re off to a great start moving into the holiday season and believe Spore will deliver a platform of creativity for gamers of all stripes for years to come.”

“We’re humbled by how quickly the community has taken to the creativity tools in Spore,” said Lucy Bradshaw, vice president of Maxis and Spore’s executive producer. “It’s amazing to see the sheer imagination represented in the hundreds of thousands of creatures, vehicles and buildings that have been uploaded around the clock since launch.”

Spore – rated E10+ — gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships.

To download a free trial of the Spore™ Creature Creator, please visit www.spore.com. For screen shots or more information about Spore, please visit our press web site at http://info.ea.com

Hal Halpin, the president of the Entertainment Consumers Association, a non-profit consumer advocacy organization for gamers, has spoken out against EA’s DRM policies for Spore, calling the game’s restrictive DRM a breeding ground for future generations of pirates and a “giant leap backwards” for anti-piracy initiatives.In a guest column at GameDaily, Halpin wrote:

This DRM did nothing to combat the cracking of the game. In fact, it essentially helped in training legions of customers how to become pirates and legitimized their rationalization in the process. With each additional negative story – which seem to be released hourly – you can almost hear the collective cringing of anti-piracy executives who know that they have all been forced to take a giant leap backwards due to this fiasco.

Whether you agree or not with Halpin, I think we can all agree that it’s a damn shame that such an interesting and important game has been overshadowed by all this.

Just when you thought all this Spore stuff couldn’t get any worse, it does. Even though the Spore manual says otherwise, you cannot have more than one EA Spore account (for uploading your creations to Sporepedia and the like) for each copy of Spore. Explains an EA rep on the official Spore Forums:

That section in the manual was a misprint and will be corrected in future printings of the manual. There is one Spore registration/account per game/serial code so you are correct in that you cannot make multiple accounts at this time.

Pretty big slip-up there, if it actually was one. This is a really big deal, obviously, because Spore’s community features are one of its biggest pluses, and one of the main reasons why some people, despite thinking the gameplay mediocre, might want to keep playing. Plus, if you’ve got a significant other or kids, then you’ll naturally want to have multiple accounts for each person. EA’s community rep, thankfully, did mention that she understood that kind of need, and was forwarding the message to the team.

From the mind of Will Wright comes the hype juggernaut Spore. We’ve been watching and waiting for this game for long enough to watch actual evolution take place, but was it worth the wait?

First off, I’m not taking any of the crazy DRM issues into account here, as this is a game review and not a review on EA’s licensing practices, so be sure to read the many other articles on the issue on this site here, here, here, and here. I’m going to focus on the game itself. With that little disclaimer aside, let’s discuss the game itself.

Spore tasks players with evolving a single-celled organism of pure cuteness on up through several stages until they become a galactic superpower of cuteness. From the mind of Will Wright, you can see the cartooniness that made him ass-tons of money from Sims expansion packs — it’s prevalent in this game while the seriousness of the game that made him famous (SimCity) has gone the way of the dodo.

There are five stages of the game, each a separate evolutionary stage that plays slightly different than the last. The cell stage is by far the shortest and plays quite similar to a little game called flOw. It could very easily be a flash game for free on some website somewhere. The main goal here is to eat and survive.

It’s here that what you eat for the rest of the game is determined, and it’s the only time in the game where you’ll be able to change from a herbivore mouth to a carnivore mouth, thus changing what you can eat. You can even put both on your cell and eat EVERYTHING. What you eat is tracked on a history graph, and at the end of the cell stage, wherever you are on the graph determines what your creature will eat for the rest of the game. Once you’ve eaten all you can, it’s time to grow some legs and crawl up to dry land.

Once on land, the game transforms into a watered-down third-person adventure game where you can either attack other creatures or make friends with them. Your main task is to get DNA and parts to evolve into a more efficient killing or dancing machine. You’ll also now have to contend with hunger, and your diet choices from the cell stage come into play here, determining what you’ll be able to eat.

Herbivores will eat fruit from trees while carnivores will be forced to either scavenge for dead bodies or make some creatures dead to eat some meat. Omnivores, of course, can eat whatever they want. The nice part is that this has no bearing on your attitude towards other creatures at all. You want to be a meat eater and still make friends? No problem there. I mean, you’ll obviously not be able to make friends with everyone, as you’ll starve to death, but there is nothing stopping you from being a very social meat eater.

It all comes down to the parts that you put on your creature. Certain parts give certain stats that directly determine what your creature will be good at. There are trade-offs, of course, so you can’t be great at everything, but mix and match enough, and you can probably tackle whatever comes your way.

One evolutionary step after another and you’ll gain the ability to bring along friends in your flock. This is a great way for socially focused creatures to survive — make friends with brutal slayers of animal kind to protect your goofy dancing ass and you’re set.

Once you’ve accumulated enough DNA, you’ll evolve to the tribal stage. The sad part of this is that it’s the end of customizing your creature. The most you can do in the tribal stage is play a little dress-up. It’s neat and all, but depending on what your creature looks like at this point, the dressing up may be a pain. It’s sort of hard to put a head on something that is covered with horns and eyeballs.

The game itself transforms into a very generic real-time strategy game, where food becomes the most important thing in the world to your race. Other tribes will pop up and you’ll have the choice to either make war with them or play sweet music for them till they fall in love with you and start sending you food. Once you either befriend or destroy the other tribes, it’s time to form a civilization.

Now that you’re civilized, you once again can custom build some stuff, namely your planes, tanks, and boats. The creation tools are again the highlight of the stage, though economic and religious vehicles tend to be a little too… goofy for my tastes. It’s hard to take a tank seriously when the weapon of choice is a giant pipe organ and some horns.

The actual gameplay here isn’t that different than the tribal stage — instead of ordering your creatures around, you’ll be building vehicles and sending the vehicles around… though you’ll still be doing basically the same as before. You won’t be able to win by allying with the other cities, though. You pretty much have to take them over, but how you go about it can be a little different.

You’ll start off either religious, economic, or militaristic. Again, this is determined by your actions in the previous stage. You can’t actually change your style, but if you take over a city with another focus, you can choose to keep the focus of that city. This can be a bit of a burden if you’re looking to change your overall focus from what you started with to something else.

Religious and military takeovers are basically the same, though religious takeovers don’t seem to actually cause a war. Either way, you still drive up to a city and try to take it over. Economic takeovers, however, require you to be friends with the other city, and then set up a trade route. Trade routes make you extra money, and once they get to a certain point, you can buy out the other nation’s city.

Once you get all the other cities flying the flag of your nation, your race builds a spaceship and you can take to the stars.

The space stage is sort of a strategy game, though it’s a pain in the ass to manage your empire as you are just a ship flying around doing stuff (more on that in a bit). The goal of the space stage is to expand your empire, with a little caveat that you should focus on getting to the center of the galaxy. This is the one overarching mission, and it can be completely ignored if you so choose. The space stage is really where the “simy” sandbox style play that made Will Wright famous finally comes through.

The problem with the space stage is that you go from a relatively simple game with a moderately… moderate difficulty to a freakish beast of complexity. Not that it’s overly complicated really, but for only having one ship to control, it’s insanely complex. Imagine trying to control a game of Civilization, only instead of the omniscient control, it’s feels like a third person shooter.

To tell your city to build a wall, you’ll have to run Link or Marcus or Snake or WHOMEVER over to the city and then say, “Hey, build a wall.” Meanwhile, some town four hundred miles away calls and says, “Yo! We’re being attacked over here!” Being that you are the sole military unit in this freaky game of civilization, you have to run the whole way back to that city to protect it. It has potential, but the size of the galaxy in Spore works against it here.

That’s not to say it’s all bad. You do get tools eventually that allow you to place better turrets and such things to reduce your need to go to these planets for every emergency, but you’ll still end up going there, as the only way to make money in the space game is to sell spice. The only way to get spice is to fly to one of your planets that is gathering the spice and pick it up, and then fly around finding people willing to pay top dollar to buy it. There is no automated way to just bring in money in the game.

It wouldn’t be too bad, I suppose, but the buyers of the spice have random prices for the stuff, so it’s not like you can just, say, pick up all your pink spice and take it to planet X to make a shit-ton of money. Just because planet X paid a hundred-thousand space bucks ten minutes ago doesn’t mean anything now.

It makes the whole thing a giant time sink that just feels like busy work. People who’ve played any number of MMO’s will feel at home with the system, as it feels like they’re just trying to keep you busy doing mundane work so you’ll keep giving them your money.

It’s sad that the space game has the most problems and it seems to be where the focus of the game is. You could very easily start up a cell and run to the space stage in less than an hour if you really wanted to, while the space stage potentially has no end. With a purported half a million stars and who knows how many planets, taking over the entire galaxy would be quite time consuming to say the least.

Overall, the game is fun, if a little bit of a pain. Each stage is basically a very generic version of other genres of games and this keeps things pretty fresh, but they are VERY generic. If you’re a hardcore gamer then it might be kind of a let down, but for the casual crowd it’ll probably be a learning experience.

My wife is a causal gamer, and it was amazing seeing her struggle with some of the stuff in the game. Like a lot of The Sims players, she’s never had even a slight interest in RTS games, so things that came second nature to me, or seemed overly simplified, were confusing and difficult for her.

The thing that both my wife and I gathered from the whole experience, though, was that the game is incredibly fun, even though most of the fun simply derives from the fact that you made these things. There is something that is just awesome about flying to some other planet and seeing something new or something that you’ve made yourself in another game.

The pollination system, or whatever they call it, keeps the game fresh and interesting no matter what, and I have yet to see any giant penises… though I did find an entire planet of walking Sylvester Stallone heads. There is also something frightening about the idea that someone right now could be playing the game and coming across some of my crappy creations.

All in all, I’d say it’s a pretty good game. Making creatures and vehicles is by far the most fun, but the fun carries over to the rest of the game simply when you use those creatures you’ve created to do other things. The learning curve is a little steep at times, and that’s further complicated by the fact that each stage plays like a completely different game than the last, making it more of a learning wave. The space stage is definitely flawed, but is still a lot of fun.

I’d say the biggest problem with the game is that it falls in some kind of neutral zone of gaming. Fans of The Sims (who this games seems to be marketed for) will find it a bit difficult, and the AI can be absolutely brutal at times, whereas fans of SimCity will find the game simply too simple. The potential is there, but it falls a bit short. Even so, the entire idea of the sharing of creatures, buildings, and vehicles keeps the space game fresh and new for a lot longer than you would think.

It’s nothing to do with penis monsters. No, today’s scapegoat is evolution. One militant creationist – who describes herself only as a “good Christian woman” – has set up a blog to campaign against Spore. Did we also mention that Will Wright is evil and that she’s killing EA on the stock market? I’m not joking.

The site, Anti Spore, only appeared in the world on 8 September, after its creator’s son asked for a copy of the game. She regales:

It looked innocent enough at first and has “E for Everyone” ESRB rating.  But don’t be mislead, apparently ‘everyone’ means everyone they want to teach evolution to.

This entire game is propaganda aimed directly at our children to teach them evolution instead of creationism.

I created this blog to find support for and follow my progress in letting Electronic Arts know that their biggest attack on Christian values to date will not be tolerated.

We can not allow the gaming industry to invade our homes and poison the minds of our children.

After all, their billions in revenue and all the advertising in the world are no match for the power of God.

Ironically, Anti Spore is very much moving into realms of propaganda itself. Remember that Will Wright chap? GCW does. She used to like him. Now he’s evil.

He created Sim City, a fantastic game that celebrated the earth that God created for us and allowed you to use all your God given abilities to make an ideal society. But if you ever felt like you had too much power, God would come in with a tornado or an earthquake and put you back in place.

You would think that as a member of the Episcopal Church, a smart man like Will Wright would not be capable of creating Spore. However, we must be reminded that the Episcopal Church is the only church in America that ordains homosexuals on a regular basis.

It goes on. GCW feels sick that none of the 8,500 EA employees had “enough Jesus” to make a stand against Spore, despite the rather obvious fact that most of them will have had nothing to do with it. But perhaps the biggest point of misguidedness came in a post on 9 September, when she noted that EA’s stock dropped.

“Today EA’s stock is down almost a dollar. I hope that the information about Spore I am making available helped in some small way.”

Pity she hasn’t been looking beyond her remit to notice that the knock-on from EA’s SecuROM DRM in Spore and Red Alert 3.

Despite being one of the most anticipated games of this year, some people are not overly happy with the overbearing and unnecessary DRM EA have placed on the game.

To “protect” the game, EA have kindly added SecuROM DRM (Digital Rights Management) to all copies. This limits the number of installs you can make (in Spore’s case, 3) and requires you to activate the install over the net. But it gets worse. Over the past few years accusations have been made of the software and the stupidly high level of access it has on your PC.

For some reason, SecuROM requires the highest level of access to your data possible, higher than the average user gets. It can then watch and tinker with whatever it wants, and send that information to whatever server it deems fit. When BioShock came out, there were accusations (since semi-cleared) of SecuROM acting suspiciously like a root kit because of this.

It seems many Amazon buyers are none too happy with the discovery of SecuROM on their legally bought copies of Spore and have had a mini-riot in the reviews section. There are currently more than 200 single-star reviews, giving the game an average score of 1.5 stars (out of 5).

The most popular review, written by Erich Maria Remarque, points a very damning finger at the DRM:

First of all, the game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you’ll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That’s not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect).

EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because “it’s not financially feasible” to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.

When will these companies learn that treating people as guilty before proven innocent will only ever do harm? The irony to all this is that it’s possible to get a copy of Spore without the DRM, but you’ll have to go through the illegal, piracy channels to get it. Yaaar.

Via: Fred Beneson’s Blog, Team Teabag

We may have no idea what real aliens might look like, but some of us have a better idea than others. In a planetarium presentation that touched on Yoda, Alf, E.T. and xenomorphs, Spore creator Will Wright and extraterrestrial expert Frank Drake discussed their backgrounds, both personal and professional, and why Spore is the game that will inspire a generation of space cadets.

At the soon-to-be-opened California Academy of Sciences, set in the center of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, EA held a black tie and feathers/spikes/wings soiree to celebrate the launch of Spore.

Will Wright’s speech, for the most part, focused on his own background and inspiration for making Spore, which is a story we’ve heard a bit about already (see David Jaffe’s recent video blog about how good intentions don’t guarantee a good game). Frank Drake’s talk was more impressive, if only because he doesn’t seem to care much about videogames, but was somehow convinced to whip up his own creature in Spore.

Drake’s creation, based on what he considers to be the most successful aspects of homo sapien combined with a few of his own ideas, is a tall, green, two mouthed, three eyed, four armed monster called “super sapien”. Like us, it can stand on two feet, keeping its head up high and away from danger. Unlike us, it has chlorophyll in its skin, a third eye in the back of its head, some extra limbs (for bringing in the groceries), and a second mouth directly over the stomach to avoid death by choking.

Drake’s a brilliant astronomer and theoretician who came up with the famous Drake Equation, and watching him play with Spore’s creature creator was amusing. He seemed genuinely convinced that Spore will influence a generation of kids to the wonders of science, but part of his argument was that modern science fiction doesn’t inspire kids, and that videogames that are not scientifically-based are not helping kids to become more creative.

While games like Spore, The Sims, and Sim City should be lauded for touching on aspects of science, sociology, and urban planning, other games offer academic value as well. I’ve learned a lot about tactics from playing Starcraft, history from Civilization, and the importance of the second amendment from Resident Evil 4. A lot of games have some scientific or historical basis, and even those that don’t (the dumb, fun, summer blockbusters of games) at least encourage creativity in the forms of art design, writing, and direction.

After the talk, we had a preview of the Academy’s stunning planetarium, which was hypnotic. Our “tour” of the universe included the solar system, Milky Way galaxy, and our nearby cluster of galaxies, all the way out to the Cosmic Background Radiation, or as it’s known in the scientific community, “God’s stinky fart”.

Spore, the next step in mankind’s quest for knowledge, comes out on Sunday.

Miscellaneous observations:

Private aside to the person with the digital camera and bright red flashbulb: When we’re all trying to enjoy the planetarium, STOP TAKING FLASH PHOTOGRAPHS EVERY TEN SECONDS, you inconsiderate asshat.

Also, some attendees were fascinated by the food, which is actually the exact wrong thing to focus on when you’re supposed to be evaluating videogames.

But hey, look, miniburgers! That was a cow once, right? Cows are animals, we eat them, it’s part of the great circle of life. It all ties together. Delicious food. Buy Spore.

You might have thought Will Wright might have pulled a facepalm when people started creating genitalia based creatures. Not so – he thinks they’re ace.

“When you give players creative control, you have to expect they’re going to do the unexpected,”

says Wright, though I would argue that creating a walking phallus is far from surprising.

“It’s amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren’t messing up the experience for others.”

Wright also revealed that possible console versions wouldn’t be direct ports, but would be tied to each platform’s strengths – arguing that the difference between a keyboard, controller, and Wii remote was case enough. He also mused on the possibility of a sequel, even though the full game hasn’t been released yet.

“I don’t think we could design a sequel to Spore until the fans showed us what they like,” he says. “I think there’s going to be a fair amount of learning over the next few months. What’s important for me is what sort of stories the players are using the game to tell. Games that have the longest legs are the ones with the most narrative density.”

Best hope the players can get past this particular brand of storytelling.

We all know the story of how many days it took God to make this and that, but what we don’t know is how  long EA kept Big G at bay before the process actually started. Well, the delays attached to Spore are officially a thing of the past, and the product, which at one point seemed destined to be called “Big Willy’s Penis Planet”, has finally gone gold.

Will Wright’s Spore will hit next month on multiple platforms and devices. The Apple iPhone application blazes the way on September 4th, while the Nintendo DS, PC, and Mac versions of the game will split cells on US store shelves a few days later on the 7th.

Full press release available after the jump.

EA AND MAXIS ANNOUNCE THAT SPORE HAS GONE GOLD

Long-Anticipated Game from Gaming Luminary, Will Wright, is Complete and in Production;

Hits Store Shelves September 7

Redwood City, CA – August 14, 2008 –The wait is almost over! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Maxis today announced that Spore™ the most anticipated video game of the year from the creator of The Sims(TM), has gone gold and will be available for the Mac and PC at retailers September 5 in Europe and September 7 in North America and Asia Pacific. Spore™ Creatures for Nintendo DS™ and Spore™ Origins for mobile phones will also be available globally September 7.

Players who preorder Spore or Spore Galactic Edition from participating retailers will receive a coupon good for $10 off their next purchase of custom merchandise at www.zazzle.com/sporestore. For the ultimate Spore fan, the limited Galactic Edition will contain the ‘Making of Spore’ DVD, ‘How to Build a Better Being’ DVD (a 50 minute National Geographic Channel documentary DVD hosted by Spore mastermind, Will Wright), ‘The Art of Spore’ hardback book, an exclusive Spore poster, and a premium 100-page Galactic Handbook.

“We are so excited to finally get Spore into the hands of fans and players,” said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis. “The Maxis studio has had an absolute blast creating Spore, but the fun is just beginning. The most engaging stories are truly the ones people create themselves, and we can’t wait to see how players not only craft and explore the Spore universe, but hear what stories they have to tell as a result.”

Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box, allowing fans to create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. Players can then seamlessly share their creations with the world via the Sporepedia™ and explore infinite new galaxies created by other gamers*.

EA has announced a partnership with Planetwide Media, allowing Spore content creators to share their creations with friends through the use of Spore E-Cards.

The service will be free, however it will require you to register. Once registered, players will be able to log in at MashON.com/SPORE, and bring their “Spore creatures to life”. Card options consist of various backgrounds, clip art, and word bubbles. When your design is complete, you can then email it to friends or share it via one of many social network options.

Spore box art announced … uhhhh what can I say … it’s very colorful, very boxy, and very artsy! Will Wright kicks ass, and I am pretty sure that Spore will too.

Spore will will be available on the PC, MAC, and Nintendo DS. Get your hands on a copy of the game September 7th.

Ripten TV is back and ready to kick you right right in your face-part. I’m here at E3 08 counting down the top 5 crowd pleasing moments of the EA press conference.

N’Gai Croal, videogame and internet writer for Newsweek magazine, has determined that since Youtube, Spore, Little Big Planet, and Wikipedia are almost completely dependent on user generated content, this makes Web (and Game) 2.0 something like the 21st century equivalent of textile mills or coal mines. Sweatshop labor– really? Hyperbolic much?

N’Gai’s been on the mark before– his “Who’s Being Naive?” column is required reading if you want to begin to understand the complex and weirdly Hollywood relationship between game publishers and journalists– but I can’t help but feel he’s being a bit alarmist in talking about these modern-day online “sweatshops”.

One quick point is that there are real sweatshops still in existence, and the conditions can’t be better than the average Wikipedia editor’s computer den. Those textile mills and coal mines may not be common in America anymore, but in the impoverished nations of the world, a day job creating Youtube clips probably sounds pretty sweet.

But another point N’Gai is missing is that Youtube and Spore don’t solicit their users’ content through economic pressures or necessities. Nobody is born into a poor family of laborers who toil over the perfect level in Little Big Planet.

The key question N’Gai asks is, “is it really entertaining to update a Wikipedia entry?”, and this is a question that he answers incorrectly. His assumption is that it’s not, and therefore people are being used as cheap labor.

But actually, it’s a lot of fun to update a Wikipedia entry. Thousands of volunteer editors wouldn’t do it for free if it wasn’t. And yes, that alone justifies the effort. Tooling around with the Spore creature creator is a blast, and that doesn’t make everyone into some unofficial EA employee.

The really smart game developers are learning to harness the interest people bring to a collaborative project to create something that is equal parts product and popular movement.

There’s a straight line to be drawn through to viral marketing as well– people will distribute their own advertising materials just because it’s seen as fun or cool on its own. This doesn’t turn your average person into a Madison Avenue advertising executive, so spending an evening creating a custom level in Unreal Tournament 3 doesn’t make them into unpaid computer programmers either.

As the tools to make such creations possible become easier to use, and that line between professional and amateur development is blurred, we’re not becoming sweatshop laborers. We’re just becoming smarter consumers.

Source: Newsweek

Computer giant HP is offering an exclusive edition of the Spore Creature Creator, complete with double the number of body parts of its free-to-download little brothers.

The HP website VoodooDNA is hosting the free, exclusive download, though I’m curious whether the “exclusive” download is also a “limited” download.  Best not to chance it.  You can head over to their website and snatch it up now while we know it’s still there.

While you’re doing that, let’s take a moment to reflect on the creatures that never were.  Think of all the creations you were unable to make because you refused to pay the five bucks for the full version.  Imagine the embarrassment they felt knowing they were only half of what they could have been.  Well, no more!

Seriously, though.  If you only picked up the free version of the Creature Creator so far, throw that junk in your recycle bin and get this upgraded version.  Your penis will be better for it.

UPDATE: HP’s Creature Creator has apparently suffered from some massive shrinkage.  What was thought to be double the number of creature parts is in actuality only an extra 10%.  I’m pretty sure this was not a case of intentional pants-stuffing on HP’s part or else they wouldn’t have contacted us.  I’ve been assured that the graphic on their page is being updated as we speak.  Thanks go out to Shay Fan for keeping us informed.

If you are interested in getting a public demo of Spore by Will Wright, the chief designer himself, and you just so happen to live in the San Fransisco area, head on down to The Apple Store on One Stockton Street, Saturday June 21st between 7PM and 8PM. Full press release to follow.

Legendary Game Designer Will Wright to Appear at the Apple Store in San Francisco on Saturday, June 21st For Public Demo of Hotly-Anticipated New Game SPORE

Who: Industry Icon Will Wright, the Chief Designer from Maxis, an EA studio. Wright’s games are some of the most popular and acclaimed titles of all time, including SimCity and the mega-hit The Sims, which recently celebrated 100 million units sold.

What: Wright will provide a public demo of his latest project, the hotly anticipated game Spore. One of the most ambitious games ever made, Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even UFOs.

Where: The Apple Store

One Stockton Street

San Francisco, CA 94108

415-392-0202

When: Saturday, June 21st

7:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Alright Spore gamers, we all did it (present company included), but it needs to stop.

Our community, as well as the Youtube community, has fallen victim to Spore genitalia madness. In just a few short days, Spore has overtaken the DS PictoChat as the choice among gamers for the “penis creation”.

If you just go on Youtube alone and search for the words Spore & Penis you will receive over 500 and counting penises (complete with scrotums). Keep in mind the demo has only been about for a few days now, and it is just that — a DEMO!

Anyone looking to make the argument that gamers are generally immature will not have to look far for plenty of well endowed ammunition. Oh well, it’s still pretty damn funny.

EA however, does not share our sentiments when it comes to the wild world of Spore Creature Creation. A recent article posted on CVG reports that EA is prepared to ban users who use the software to create creatures they deem “violations” of the games terms of service.

With that said, I am not sure how much longer the fun will last, so I will share a few of my favorites with you while I still can.

I would rather the boogie man under my bed thank you!

I swear I’ve seen this one at a club around San Francisco

It seems as though he can’t stop touching it.

Oh so cute, he has penis kids.

Wow, those are floppy

It’s ah-so human like.

He’s proud to show off…

Should really get that growth checked out.

This is the video that marks the beginning of a new era in art:

Exotic, Erotic Spore Creatures.

Source: Gamevideos

Good news for those of you waiting to get their hands on Spore’s fully working Creature Creator, which is out on the 17th of June. EA’s UK PR manager, Jonathan Goddard, was at hand to inform us that the cost of the Creature Creator will be taken off the full retail price of the Spore game, due in September.

This incentive offer is only for UK customers and only those that made the initial pre-order for Spore, at selected incentive stores.

“In the UK, anyone pre-ordering the full Spore game, due out on September 5, through either EA Store or via selected retailers (GAME and Zavvi) will get a disc containing 100 per cent of the CC (Creature Creator). The only cash they will part with is whatever the pre-order deposit is (typically a £5). This money is deducted from the retail price of Spore when it arrives in September, meaning that the full CC is to all intents and purposes free in the UK.”

The limited component edition of the Creature Creator will be available as a free download from Spore.com next week. The download allows players 25% use of all the items that the full Creature Creator contains.

EA must get a kick out of teasing the public like this, releasing information about Spore ever so slowly, like a stripper carefully removing her clothing one by one. This time, they’ve unveiled the Tribal Stage, the third in the Spore evolutionary chain. Naturally, they’ve also released some screenshots to keep folks salivating.

The Tribal Stage starts you off in a (surprise!) tribe, with a number of powers available to you depending on how you did in the Cell and Creature Stages. You’ve just discovered tools and use them for a number of tasks such as hunting, fishing, or domesticating wild animals. I wonder if discovering tools involves your tribe being inspired by a mysterious black obelisk.

Anyway, you can also buy more tools, use these to buy tribal accessories, and of course use them to make new friends or enemies with other tribes. Whichever route you take with your neighboring tribes (peaceful or aggressive), take over five to dominate the continent and form a civilization.

Those who can’t wait to get their hands on Spore need only wait until June 17th, when a demo version of the game’s creature creator will be made available on the game’s website. Hit the jump for details on what you can expect.

The demo will give you access to 25 percent of the body parts available in the full game. There will also be a handy feature for uploading your creation to YouTube for the world to see.

However, if the demo doesn’t satisfy your every need, you’ll be able to pick up the full version of the creature creator for ten bucks.

And here’s the best part: any creature that you design, either with the demo or the full version, can be used in the full game when it hits in May. No worrying about having to re-create your beautiful creation.

Source: Euro Gamer

I tap ‘n dragged some long skinny arms onto my oblong-bodied creature and watched on the top screen as his animations automatically changed to accommodate them.

The creature editor for Spore DS made an appearance on the expo floor at GDC today and the demonstrator gave us some exclusive information as we chose more goofy body parts to mix ‘n match on our model.

This Spore version is built from the ground up for the Nintendo DS and focuses most on the creature game, which means making the distinction between a more aggressive or more social animal. Socialites have the advantages of mini-games, petting, and friends who might even follow you into battle.

Combat uses a combination of stylus driven slash attacks and bio attacks, which use up an energy bar. As you unlock evolutionary parts to stick onto your creature, some of these might generate regen properties, but otherwise you’ll have to stick to the old fashioned way of eating flowers to regain energy.

Most of the game is about exploring the world, where there are things to dig up or smash. Quests range from saving a planet to thawing out fish for a hungry NPC. Speaking of NPCs, you’ll be able to populate your environment with your friend’s creatures, all via a Wi-Fi trading system.

If you can’t wait for more creature creation, don’t miss the juicy news that the PC character editor will be available early, with youtube integration included.

Among the flurry of details released today about Spore, coming September 7th for the PC, one interesting tidbit might have been missed along the way. When you create your custom alien race, spaceship, or vehicles in Spore, you can upload videos of them to your Youtube account with just one click from inside Spore.

The creature customization is easily the most impressive thing about Spore, a game that seems very impressive throughout. While on tour at Maxis Studios, we caught a peek at alien designs that borrowed liberally from some other intellectual properties, from a spaceship that looked like the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, to aliens that looked like Spongebob Squarepants and the cast of South Park.

The ability to share these creations on Youtube with such ease should mean that we’ll see a lot of great customized characters and vehicles. Nearly any types of sci-fi or fantasy vehicles you can think to build, from X-Wings to the USS Enterprise, are possible in Spore. Sharing them online means that while lawyers trying to protect these IPs might get all worked up, there’s no way for other companies to police this content in the same way that City of Heroes was dinged for allowing users to create their own in-game X-Men.

We think this new feature is stunningly disruptive. If you thought that custom Miis were great, like the online videos of diminutive Hitlers and Kim Jong Ils, you haven’t seen anything yet.

At the tail end of last year there were many voices asking if 2007 had been the best year in gaming history. Regardless of how you would respond to that question, 2007 without a doubt saw the release of a number of really fantastic titles. What any gamer should be excited to hear is that 2008 is shaping up to be at least as equally fantastic with huge releases imminent on all platforms. Word came down from on high today that there is a new name to be added to the list of things to drool over, and it’s a big one—Spore.

EA and Maxis have announced that Spore, Will Wright’s holistic mega-sim, will release for PC, Mac, Nintendo DS and mobile phones on September 7, 2008.

Now in the final stages of testing and polish, Spore will allow players to create civilizations from scratch, seemingly control every aspect of their development, share what they create and explore the creations of others.

Broad in appeal, huge in scope, drawing on the strengths of a single player format while encouraging strong community and leveraging the joy of playfulness and creativity, the promise of Spore is immense. At a time when PC gaming is supposedly struggling, Spore seems like the title that could turn that kind of statement on its head in the blink of an eye. And now it isn’t just some halcyon mascot of days past on an ever-receding horizon—the universe-in-a-box will be in eager hands in a matter of months. I for one am anxious to see if the game delivers. After all, it isn’t often Will Wright makes a new game.

Hit www.spore.com for all the latest official bits and pieces.