Spore might be the most awaited and most hyped up game of the year. Will Wright, one of the most influential authors in the videogame world, is working on it, backed up by the team that designed The Sims and the various games connected with that franchise.

 

The Spore Creature Creator, which was released earlier in the summer, was met with almost universal praise, leading to a Sporepedia filled with more user created creatures than there are species on Earth. And now the game is nearing its release date, with an option already present to pre-download the game so that you can play it as soon as the official launch takes place on September 7.

 

The head of the EA Games label of Electronic Arts, Frank Gibeau, has talked about the expectations that the company has for Spore and about how they plan to further develop the concept in the subsequent years.

 

He says that "Spore is a huge priority for EA, and specifically for our EA Games label. This has been a big bet for the company over the last several years. It's a Will Wright project that carries a level of expectations for quality and, frankly, success... and we couldn't be more proud of the product and we're very excited about it."

 

The official launch will take the game to such platforms as the PC, the Mac, the Nintendo DS and the iPhone. But this is in no way the full range of options that EA Games is exploring. Other consoles, like the Xbox 460, the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, will be targeted by Spore related games, with Gibeau saying that "we believe the Spore concept and IP can move a lot across a lot of platforms over a long period of time."

 

It's pretty clear that Electronic Arts is thinking of Spore as being the new Sims, as a platform and not as a simple game, so there will certainly be follow-ups and tie-ins, with the company expecting the game to be a big commercial and critical success.