Forbes reports:

"How do you measure the failure of the copy protections that software companies place on their media products? In the case of Electronic Arts' highly-anticipated game "Spore," just count the pirates.

As of Thursday afternoon, "Spore" had been illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks using BitTorrent peer-to-peer transfer 171,402 times since Sept. 1, according to Big Champagne, a peer-to-peer research firm. That's hardly a record: a popular game often hits those kinds of six-figure piracy numbers, says Big Champagne Chief Executive Eric Garland.

But not usually so quickly. In just the 24-hour period between Wednesday and Thursday, illegal downloaders snagged more than 35,000 copies, and, as of Thursday evening, that rate of downloads was still accelerating. "The numbers are extraordinary," Garland says. "This is a very high level of torrent activity even for an immensely popular game title.""
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Want to watch 1UP PC Editor in Chief Jeff Green munch a mouthful of tongue-numbing Toxic Waste? Freestyle rap with 1UP Reviews Editor Ryan Scott doing hype duty? Imagine his impoverished future in which he panhandles for Peggle money outside 1UP's office?

Serious meets seriously stupid as Green, Scott, and the entire GFW Radio ensemble discuss Spore, Far Cry 2, testicles, Anglerfishes, and whatever else they want on Jeff's final podcast -- an episode so special we created this three-part video version.

The audio version of this landmark episode is available right here or via iTunes if you're subscribed to our podcast feed. If you're more interested in actually watching us, check out the embedded videos in this story (first part above, second and third below the cut) or download them via Filefront: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
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Via Kotaku:

"Well, maybe we won't have to change the filters on our office Bullshit-o-meter after all. As we kinda-sorta-maybe suspected, the cleverly named Anti-Spore website Antispore.com was not all that it seemed."
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Speaking to VideoGamer.com at a recent Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts press day at Microsoft's Reading HQ, Rare's senior animator Elissa Miller said that the time it takes gamers to play through a modern video game is pretty much "irrelevant".

Asked about the apparent move away from linear gaming to much more free experiences - LittleBigPlanet, Spore, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts - Miller said this is the kind of gaming she enjoys most.

"For some people, that's the most interesting part. I know it's what I enjoy the most. Rather than play a game through from start to finish, I like to get lost in it," said Miller.

She added: "The amount of time it takes to actually complete a game is almost irrelevant, nowadays."
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The Angry Pixel writes: "On Tuesday afternoon, EA India unleashed the icky-galacticness that is SPORE upon unsuspecting press attendees at the game's official launch event held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Delhi. General Manager Ajay Khanna was armed to the teeth with PowerPoint presentations that could apparently freeze time itself, as he went on and on trying to convince the mainstream news representatives that they were staring at something that was sheer 'fantastic' incarnate (one of Mr. Khanna's favorite words). But much like the evolutionary process itself, these things can take time. Which is exactly why you've got to bait these groups of 20-something-year-olds with a free lunch, a fancy press kit (nice job with that one, PR dudes), review copies, and a limited edition EA 2GB pendrive! Well played, indeed."
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Stuart Houghton of Kotaku writes: "The site purports to be a protest against Spore and its 'attack on Christian values' and consists of several Creature Creator movies of Penis Monsters and other Spore grotesques, alongside posts about what the author claims is the game's pro-evolutionary agenda and corrupting influence on children."
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GameViper Writes: "For the last couple of days we've seen thousands of users back lashing against EA on Amazon for their restrictive DRM which limits the game to only 3 installs. Today, Amazon deleted the most viewed negative review against Spore.

"It had 3000 out of 3300 helpful votes, was the overall most helpful review on the Spore product page, and was quoted on several news articles reporting this anti-DRM protest.And just a few minutes ago, for some weird reason, Amazon decided to remove my review." says Ericha Remarque."
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Former Maxis man and now one man development company, Cliff Harris, has told SPOnG that Electronic Arts "screwed up" with its use of SecuROM digital rights management technology (DRM) in Spore.

Talking about the tech and the consumer backlash it provoked the developer, who now runs his own indie studio, Positech, to say, "I think EA have screwed up here, for several reasons.
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In a rather unorthodox move, Maxis has made several playable prototype versions of Spore available for download.

"One of the ways in which we explore possible design directions is by building simple, playable prototypes that we can play around with to get a sense for a particular system," it says on the official site.
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The Spore game is finally in stores today. You might want to try having some fun with the available the cheats and codes. VGB lists all the codes followed by their effect in the game.
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Customers feeling burned by the anti-piracy measures in the long-awaited PC game Spore have decided to take out their frustrations on Amazon, utilizing the review feature to tear the game to shreds for its "draconian" DRM and "dumbed down" gameplay.
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EA's biggest PC game of the year and the brainchild of renowned game designer Will Wright, "Spore" hits store shelves today. The game has won Best of E3 awards and been lavished with positive pre-release coverage in the gaming and mainstream press.

So why is it getting 8s and 9s rather than 10s? And what does Wright make of reactions such as that of the New York Times' review?

On Friday, MTV had a chance to talk to Wright about the response the game has been getting, giving him a chance to clarify the goals of his design team and to reveal how he's playing "Spore."
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Gamerdeals.net writes:

"The highlights this week include Spore (PC/Mac), NHL 09 (Xbox 360, PS3), NHL 2K9 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2), Spore Creatures (DS), and The Price is Right (Wii, DS).

Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of September 7, 2008 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC!"
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Kotaku writes: Electronic Arts knows that it has something much more than an interesting IP with Spore. They also have a new sort of gaming engine. Not something like Unreal, but something that allows you to create a different type of game. So it's no surprise that they're not going to let that go to waste.
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Ripten.com writes:

We may have no idea what real aliens might look like, but some of us have a better idea than others. In a planetarium presentation that touched on Yoda, Alf, E.T. and xenomorphs, Spore creator Will Wright and extraterrestrial expert Frank Drake discussed their backgrounds, both personal and professional, and why Spore is the game that will inspire a generation of space cadets.

At the soon-to-be-opened California Academy of Sciences, set in the center of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, EA held a black tie and feathers/spikes/wings soiree to celebrate the launch of Spore.

Will Wright's speech, for the most part, focused on his own background and inspiration for making Spore, which is a story we've heard a bit about already (see David Jaffe's recent video blog about how good intentions don't guarantee a good game). Frank Drake's talk was more impressive, if only because he doesn't seem to care much about videogames, but was somehow convinced to whip up his own creature in Spore.
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On the first day of release hundreds if not thousands of people who waited patiently for Spore to be released can't take part in the online services because Spore's servers have fallen over according to EA. This results in the game being unable to verify the game's activation code which in turn results in online privileges being removed.
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IGN reports: "IGN will post its Spore review at 12:01am, Pacific Daylight Time, Thursday, or basically tonight. So come back then to find out what we think about the highly-awaited game from EA and Maxis. In fact, all you have to do is refresh this very story at a minute after midnight to read the review."
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Apparently, the Mac version of EA's Spore will require both OS X Leopard, and an Intel chip. While that isn't that bad, if it were Microsoft doing the same with Vista all hell would break loose. Fortunately, Spore is available for both XP and Vista on the Windows platform. Spore is coming out on September 7 on both platforms in the US.
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After news of Spore breaking the street date in Australia, we hear that Spore has already been cracked by a group called "RELOADED" despite it's use of SecuROM, the anti-pirating software. (the same one used in BioShock) There are currently over 10,000 people downloading the game on just one public torrent tracker. All this 4 days before the game even comes out in North America.
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GamesIndustry.biz writes: "Lazard Capital Markets senior VP, Colin Sebastian, has stated his belief that September will be an important month for Electronic Arts, as it releases two key long-awaited titles - Spore, which he expects to sell 2 million units in the US, and Warhammer Online, which he's anticipated around 650,000 sign-ups for in that territory.

However, he did warn of a difficult year-on-year growth comparison for the month ahead due to the skew last year of the Halo 3 release - although "generally positive industry sales" are expected."
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