Big Spore News

February 13th, 2008 by Mox

I first heard about Spore three years ago but didn’t really take notice until about a year later when Will Wright’s presentation from 2005’s GDC was made available online. I was instantly hooked and committed to playing it when it was released. The trouble was, even at the time, it was at least a year from release. So I allowed myself to forget about it until May of last year, when EA announced that it was going to be delayed at least another year. Disappointed, I let it drop off my radar again.

As of yesterday, it’s got my attention again in a big way. A release date has finally been announced: September 7, 2008. Even better, a creature editor will be released ahead of time so you can hit the ground running when the full game is released. There’s also news about the Nintendo DS and mobile phone versions of the game and a new interview with Will Wright. Joystiq has collected all of their Spore coverage here.

For those that don’t know, Spore is a sim/god game that combines elements of games like Pac Man, Populous, Sim City, and Civilization. The about page of the official site gives a simple description of the game and its various phases, but I think the best way to get an understanding of the scope of the game is to check out Will’s GDC presentation from 2005 that I embedded in this post. It’s long but also fascinating.