Since it's not listed on EA's fiscal calendar for 2008, the estimated date makes sense

May 10, 2007 11:26 GMT  ·  By

First of all, mere speculations sustained that the game would be out by late 2007, so take anyone's picture, print it and make a shrine where you poke their face with syringe needles by candle light. The game hasn't actually been delayed, but more moved to another "assumed" release date as Will Wright's Spore isn't listed on EA's fiscal calendar for 2008. Thus, GamingToday assumes that Spore isn't going to be available until March 2008 and that even that's a long shot.

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.

Although I haven't gotten yet the chance to play the game, from what I've seen and heard I can only assume myself that fans are literally scratching their eyeballs as they read this article on its delay. Again, pure speculations said that Spore would be out by the end of 2007. March 2008 isn't the official release date either, but the only earliest date that makes sense. So the next time we hear Spore has been delayed, don't be surprised or upset with Maxis. Nothing has been made official.