Gamerdeals.net writes:

"Well... what can we say... the week of Christmas is not the best time to release a new game apparently..."
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Earlier today Valve announced that EA was bringing several of its games to Steam. That's nice news by itself but there's a more subtle side effect: you can now buy Spore without having to deal with SecuROM.
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Spore may have underwhelmed a lot of gamers with its gameplay, but damn if EA isn't trying its hardest to put the emphasis back on what really made it so anticipated: creating. Their next foray into the world of promoting creating creatures? Partnering with Z Corporations and their 3D-printing technology.

Z Corporation's high-definition multicolor 3D-printing will allow Spore players to turn their in-game creations into physical, 4" tall statues.
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GamingShogun writes, "Electronic Arts has released a de-authorization tool for their much DRM-maligned Spore (also the top pirated game of 2008 fyi). This tool will allow you to de-authorize a machine registered to run Spore. This is great news for those who are done..."
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It's no secret that EA has been upset with the number of people who illegally downloaded Spore. Still, they're determined to make the game into Will Wright's next Mega Franchise, and they're so set on doing so that they may release Spore on Valve's Steam. While there's been no official announcement (or response to emails) yet, a newly discovered EULA for Spore on Steam's website gives quite a bit of credence to the rumor.
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Make your own Creepy & Cute Christmas scene with the Spore Creepy & Cute Explorer.

Load up the Creepy & Cute Christmas Explorer and find your presents. Inside each present is a Spore Creature waiting to be let free, let each of them out and pose them in any way you like to create your own Spore Creepy & Cute Christmas Scene, then take a picture and save it to use however you like!
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"Now it has become apparent that for all EA's reputation destroying efforts to ensure punters bought Spore, they may have actually acted to entice gamers to pirate the game. Forced between a choice of downloading the game for free, or effectively renting it from EA, punters voted with their clicking finger." - gameplayer reports
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The freshly-launched Spore video game that lets people play God has been hit with a lawsuit accusing its publisher of slipping devilish anti-piracy software onto players' machines.

The lawsuit filed this week in a federal court in Northern California contends that players weren't warned about tenacious digital rights management (DRM) software that stays in computers even if game programs are removed.

Spore publisher Electronic Arts told buyers that there are anti-piracy safeguards but didn't advise people the SecuROM program it used "is essentially a virus that installs itself without warning," the lawsuit alleges.

The DRM software attaches itself to the "command and control centers" of computers and can track activities, block certain operations and even disrupt hardware, according to the suit filed this week.

A US woman was named as the plaintiff in the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status to represent all Spore buyers.

The filing demands a jury trial and wants Electronic Arts forced to pay unspecified damages as well as turn over money it has made from Spore, which went on sale in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US this month.

Electronic Arts said it does not discuss pending litigation.
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MashON has released their Spore Comic Book creator. The online service allows users to create comic books using Spore imagery, sounds, music and videos from the game along with your very own Spore creatures and gameplay. You can then create your own comic book story.
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dailygamesnews.com - EA has announced a big thank you to Spore fans and to celebrate the release of Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, which ships to retailers today, gamers who download and install Patch 3 will be rewarded with 24 brand spanking-new and exclusive exoskeleton limbs for the Creature Creator.
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Kombo writes, "It is a widely held belief that used game retailers are screwing game publishers and developers out of millions upon millions of dollars annually. While this may be the case, there have been some that have made the argument that the game industry would be in worse shape without these retailers selling games at discount prices.

One such individual is Soren Johnson, a programmer on both the Civilization and Spore franchises. On his blog, Johnson spoke in the defense of GameStop saying..."
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Kotaku writes:

"Time magazine, masters of the high-brow "top XX" list, are back this week with their take on the top 50 inventions of 2008. The vast majority of them don't apply. To us, at any rate. We don't really cover the retail DNA testing industry, or the daily comings and goings surrounding the (awesome) global seed vault. No, we do games, so we're interested in the one, single video game that managed to make the list. And that game was...wait for it...yes, Spore, which came in at #20. Dubbed "the everything game" by the magazine, calling it "blasphemy, brilliance or both"."
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Ripten:

"You know that saying about shit rolling downhill? Yeah, well you better believe it does. A few nights ago, we reported that a long time EA Command & Conquer community staff member had made a forum post informing members that the company would be linking bans on the forum to their line up of games as well ...

We then ran a follow up yesterday featuring an official canned response from EA regarding the matter, and today, the C&C community manager issued a response via the forum addressing his previous comment..."
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MTV Multiplayer writes:

"In a press release to report quarterly earnings today, Electronic Arts announced that its PC game "Spore" sold "nearly" two million copies in its first three weeks of release.

That's positive news for a company that otherwise had to announce today that it was cutting six percent of its work force. Kotaku reports that that figure amounts to 600 jobs. EA's release claims that the cuts will save the company $50 million."
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Ripten: "A recent post by an EA Community Staff member on the company's Command and Conquer message board outlines changes to their policy, stating their intent to link a gamers forum account to their EA gaming account. Why does this matter? Because EA is planning on banning those who get banned on their forum from their games as well.

The post by the EA Community Staff member can be seen below:"
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dailygamesnews.com - The Spore universe continues to evolve with a new patch available now for download. In response to Spore players' and community members' feedback, this patch fixes reported bugs, tunes gameplay, offers an added way of selecting multiple items to delete/ban in Sporepedia and introduces a cool new cube planet style.
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Spore has been surrounded by controversy for the DRM choices in the game, but now they are surrounded by positive press for the "Breakthrough Award" from POPULAR MECHANICS. POPULAR MECHANICS awards all types of achievements from renewable diesel fuel to programs that work towards safe drinking water. Spore got the award for its revolutionary procedural animation system present in the game.The procedural animation system allows players' creations to interact in new and unpredictable ways.
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Shacknews Writes:

"Rollings its weekly PC sales charts into one giant monthly bundle, the NPD Group has released a list of the 20 best-selling PC games at U.S. retailers across September.

Recent releases such as Spore, Warhammer Online, Crysis Warhead and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky all made strong debuts, with classics such as The Sims 2, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Warcraft III and Diablo continuing to sell well."

1. Spore / EA Maxis / $50 (Average)
2. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning / EA Mythic / $49 (Average)
3. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion Pack / EA Maxis / $30 (Average)
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Kotaku writes: "Will Wright attended the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards ceremony at the Hearst Tower in New York City last night where he saw Spore pick up an award for Setting Benchmarks in Design, Creativity and Engineering. I caught up with him afterward for a bit to find out his take on the whole DRM situation. EA's John Riccitiello said a few days prior that he isn't a fan of DRM, but something had to be done to stop those pirates. I asked Wright how involved he was in the decision process to include DRM for Spore or if it was mostly EA's doing."
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Edge writes: "EA chief John Riccitiello says the recent Spore / DRM / SecureROM controversy was blown out of proportion by a minority of activists.

But speaking at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money Conference he admitted that DRM is intrusive, blaming piracy for the intrusion into the user experience."
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