Spore Pushed to May 2008. EA - We'd Rather Release a Better Game

Back in May, gaming sites all around the world were shocked to find out that Will Wright's God game, Spore wasn't even listed on EA's fiscal calendar for 2008. Thus, GamingToday reckoned back then that Spore wasn't going to be available until March 2008, and even that particular date sounded like a long-shot. However, during a recent conference call, EA's CEO, John Riccitiello, and EA's games president, Frank Gibeau, explained how they had both spent time with the title, "enjoying it a great deal," as Next-Gen reports, but still feel there's more to be done. Thus, the game's release might eventually be pushed to May 2008.

"It's one of those breakthrough products that might come across the industry every three, five, seven years... We could not be more bullish for the potential of the franchise as we are right now," enthused Riccitiello, adding that he expects to launch the title in "March, April, May" 2008. He implied that EA "would much rather ship a better game than rush it out on time for an expected date, especially given the high potential for the franchise," reports Gamersquad.com.

Spore will be a simulation that "ranges from the molecular phase to the galactic phase." It will consist of several long phases, each with its own style of play. Will Wright, the game's designer, also mentioned that he wanted the player to be able to spend as much or as little time as they wanted in each stage. This is yet another reason for which development is taking so long. For example, if one person likes the creature stage, the game will not force him to move on until he's ready.

Spore is a "teleological evolution" game, "God game" genre to be more exact, where the player's task is to mold and guide a species across many generations, growing it from a single-celled organism into a more complex being. Eventually, the species would become sapient at which point the player sets the rules of that species' society. The goal is to progress the living being (intelligent at this point) towards space-exploration. Spore's main innovation is the use of procedural generation for many of the components of the game, providing vast scope and open-endedness.