Spore Revolution

Spore gets Mixed Reviews at Leipzig

It looks like Spore will be a game you either love or hate by some of the reviews I've read.  There was a not so great one by Kotaku.  The article is entitled Spore? Or SimSim? and was published on August 24th 2007.  The author Mark Wilson says that the first 4 stages can be played in 6 hours and that he wasn't impressed by how quickly you can rush through the game.   It's definitely not as time consuming as say World of WarCraft where you can spend hours upon hours just to make it to level 20.  The real time consuming phase will probably be once you get to space because this is where people compete for rankings.

It has been stated in past interviews that you will be able to spend as much time in a phase as you wish, so I have the impression that Wilson jumped to the next phase as soon as the opportunity came up, missing some of the depth in the game.  That is my hope anyhow. And on second thought, even if it lasted no more than 6 hours to get to the space phase, this would allow you to experiment all the better to get that super race!

Another article on 1Up by Sam Kennedy, entitled Previews: Spore, was published on August 22nd 2007. This one is much more descriptive and Kennedy never gets much further than becoming a land creature, but also seems to enjoy the game a lot more, enjoying every aspect.  For people who have been following the development of the game for so long, a review such as this one seems like old stuff as we feel like we've already done all that and crave something new.  But even though we've gotten used to the idea, its still a brand new type of game that may very well revolutionize the gaming industry. 

Spore for Xbox 360, Sony PS3 or Nintendo Wii

These titles are a bit confusing.  When I first saw this headline I thought, omg, its coming out for all 3!  And it very well might, but the only thing that has been confirmed is that Spore will be developed for more consoles.  It's been confirmed for PC and DS, but for the other consoles we don't know which ones yet. What we do know is that they won't be released for the other consoles until well after they are launched for PC and Nintendo DS.   Here is the article I first found, dated August 26th, and its source.

Spore Playable at Leipzig Games Convention!

Gamespot released the article Spore Playable at Leipzig on August 7th, and was written by Emma Boyes.  According to it, there will be a playable version of Spore at the Leipzig Games Convention.  Lets not get too excited now though, we have no idea what "playable" means.  Either way, we're almost guaranteed some great new videos and information from the event, which Gamespot will be covering. The Games Convention is from August 23rd to August 26th.  I'll keep this blog updated with any new information!

Spore to Release a Demo

Yes!  There will be a demo of Spore released to the public before the actual game comes out.  When though, we do not know yet... In an interview with IGN's Dan Adams on July 10th, we've had a hint of a demo.  Here's is the quote!

IGN: Are you planning on putting out some kind of demo or beta program?

Patrick Buechner: We are going to release the creature editor portion of Spore in advance of the core game release. Probably several weeks before. We know there are a lot of people anticipating Spore and we appreciate their patience. We really want to give them the game that they're waiting for.

Several weeks before is still a long ways off, but at least we'll get to play it before its official release!  Be sure to sign up to the official Spore newsletter for updates about when the beta will be out! We'll get the chance to create the first creatures to pollinate the Spore worlds.. WooHoo!

Spore Release Date Pushed - Again!

According to this article published on August 1st by Next Generation by Kris Graft, entitled EA: Spore Will Ship When It's Done, Spore is going to be released in the early fiscal 2009 timeframe.  It was also noted that the game wouldn't be released before its finished.  EA's 2009 fiscal year starts in April 2008 and ends in March 2009, so April 2008 is the new release date.

It had been pushed just recently before that in May, for the end of this fiscal year.. or by April 2008. It would seem that release dates being pushed is about the only news we're getting! Right now, according to an interview with IGN's Dan Adams on July 10th, it shouldn't be too far beyond April 2008 since they are in the alpha stage. With the current trends though, I don't think it'll be released til December 2008.. Make that 2009.  And thats because they want to get it right.  This is both good news and bad news.... Good news because we are all looking forward to an awesome experience and want the job done right, and bad news because we've been hearing about Spore for years already!  It is very frustrating, to say the least. After all this excitement and let downs, there is still something left to be excited about...

Ricitiello said, "We will make the choice of shipping a better game than an on-time game given the high potential for this franchise."

In other words, once Spore is released we are going to hear so much about it that it will make us sick!  :D We know for sure that there will be a Nintendo DS version, but it will not be compatible with the PC version.

Spore at the SXSW

There have been a lot of articles coming out about Will Wright at the SXSW.  Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much more news on release dates or new features that we aren't already familiar with. Everyone wants to see the creature editor, but that itself is getting old as we are all anticipating its release and looking forward to hearing more about missions, quests, and gameplay related areas.

Here's a quote from an article entitled Spore: A Taste of Things to Come by Tim Gideon for PC Magazine, who got to demo the game before the keynote speech by Will Wright:

"Wright says his overarching goal is to make people understand the universe and their place in it better by playing with different possibilities and their consequences on the environment."

I'm so thrilled to hear this and hope he can reach his goal.  One interesting thing I heard him say in the video was how he was hoping being able to manipulate time and space so easily would help us think forward into our own futures.

IGN Talks Expansion Packs

IGN released an interview with Will Wright on August 9th entitled Interview: Will Wright on Breeding Spore, by Daemon Hatfield. A lot of what has been said already is being repeated, but they have some fresh expansion pack questions that really caught my eye.

Yes-  they are planning on expansion packs. I quote Will Wright: "We've thought a little about that. When you're making a game, you start out with all these ideas. Then as the deadline draws near, you have to start cutting stuff out. And that stuff is the first content you want to get into expansions."  With the next couple questions, he continues on to say that one of the things on the cusp of being cut out right now is the ability to have underwater creatures.

Spore release date pushed some more

I just read a great Will Wright interview from GameSpot, entitled EA not Spore-ing until late '07.   The article was written by Tor Thorsen, and the interview entitled Will Wright talks Spore, Leipzig, next-gen was written by Andrew Park.  Both were published on August 9th. I pulled three important facts out of this interview.

Firstly, the release date has furthur been pushed to at least July 2007.  They are in the home-stretch because all levels are playable, but they still have a lot of fine tuning to do.

Secondly, my estimate of perhaps 6GB of hard drive space might not be so far off.  My hard drive space guestimate was countered by some because they say that creatures will be taking up as little as 3kb of space.  In this article, Will Wright says that that is the compressed file size, and that every creature will be at least 3mb. 3mb upon 3mb adds up quickly!

Last but not least, there will be a playable version of Spore at the Lepzig Game Conference in Germany!  We can look forward to great new videos then. :)

Spore Figurines for a Fee

Joystiq wow'd us with Spore figurines before, and now have done it again.  On July 30th 2006, they published an article written by Christopher Grant entitled Another Spore model; get your own "for a fee". It would appear that for a fee of possible $20 USD, you can have a 3D figurine of your creature made and mailed to you. 

This poses some interesting questions. Will Electronic Arts own the rights to your creature?  If so, this would mean that they will be allowed to re-sell your creature over and over if its a hit in the game, and you wouldn't see a dime for being the creator.  Also, if you choose to use your creature in a cartoon or whatever, and make some decent income from it, you may very well be sued by EA for incurring monetary losses due to copyright infringement.  Now I don't see why they would chase such tiny players other than to scare other people, but it is still important to read the terms of use and see how much really belongs to you.  You may have created it, and call it your creature, but it would ultimately really belong to EA. Maybe they have plans for an alien cartoon with your creature and all that you would have is the pride of knowing your creature was popular enough to be there.

I believe that this is a cry to 3D studio software companies to develop new innovative software that will rival Spore's creature creator.

Spore Tip of the Spear

There is a release press from EA which mentions spore from Mercury News.  The article entitled Tired of same old boring characters? Game maker is opting for original content, was written by Dean Takahashi and published on August 9th 2006. The quote that really caught my eye in this article is the following:

"Spore is the tip of the spear,'' Gibeau said, "There is a much better return on the investment when you own everything.''

What will happen to EA if Will Wright ever left them?