GamesRadar - Spore

EA sets up 'Spore' at Fox (News)

Oct 2, 2009

EA sets up 'Spore' at Fox: Twentieth Century Fox has paired up with Electronic Arts to turn the publisher's popular "Spore" game into an animated creature feature, with "Ice Age's" Chris Wedge attached to helm.

Gaming's would-be innovators (Feature)

Sep 16, 2009

We recently took issue with the claim that “gaming has not yet had its Citizen Kane”. As you can see, we managed to find 25 games that qualified for that title – and you had plenty more suggestions besides.

We’d have had no trouble whipping up a counter-list of dismal flops. ...

Spore Patch Released (News)

Jul 30, 2009

EA has released a new update for their title Spore, now available for download.

Spore Update Released (News)

Jul 23, 2009

EA has released the latest update for their life sim Spore and it's expansion Galactic Adventures, now available for download.

Sims 3 Piracy Rate Outpacing Spore's (News)

May 28, 2009

The amount of users downloading The Sims 3 from torrent sites indicates that the title's long-term piracy rate could top that of Spore, the most pirated title of 2008.

The EA PC title, which isn't due for release until June 2 in the States, was leaked to torrent sites two weeks ahead of its planned launch. And according to BigChampagne, a company that monitors file sharing, it was downloaded at least 180,000 times between May 18 and May 21.

That figure outpaces the 400,000 illegal downloads of Spore over three weeks, reports Bloomberg, presumably referring to the period leading up to the title's release last year. Spore went on to be illegally downloaded some 1.7 million times during the last three months of 2008.

33 iPhone games for REAL gamers (Feature)

May 12, 2009

If you’re fortunate enough to own an iPhone or iPod Touch, you’re also unfortunate enough to have tried browsing the gadgets’ application store. With over 35,000 downloads currently available, finding the quality in all that quantity is growing increasingly difficult, frustrating and costly. ...

Spore 100 Million Creations Milestone (News)

May 1, 2009

Sporeillustrated: Despite a fast start followed by some big setbacks, Spore celebrates its 100 millionth creation. Let's take a look at how Spore got to the huge milestone achieved on April 30th, 2009 at about 5:10pm EST.

Spore Galactic Adventures detailed (News)

Apr 28, 2009

EA has revealed some details for the upcoming Galactic Adventures expansion of their PC life-sim title Spore.

Will Wright Confirms Future Involvement in Spore Franchise (News)

Apr 22, 2009

GameDaily BIZ just got off the phone with legendary game designer Will Wright, who as you know recently left Electronic Arts to pursue his entertainment think tank, Stupid Fun Club (of which EA is a co-owner). Although Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis, reassured us when the news broke that Spore would be in good hands and that Wright's legacy and the culture he instilled at Maxis would help steer Spore's future, Wright today confirmed with us that he will actually still be providing feedback to EA on Spore and other projects.

EA Releases DRM De-Authorization Tool (News)

Mar 31, 2009

As you may already know and bitch about, some EA PC games only allow the owner to install the game on five machines. Back in December, EA released a de-authorization tool for Spore which allowed users to switch these five authorizations around between machines. Now they've unveiled a new tool that allows you to do this for over a dozen different games with SecuROM.

Spore expansion Galactic Adventures arrives June 23 (News)

Mar 25, 2009

Spore Galactic Adventures, the first of four upcoming expansions for EA Maxis' Spore, has received a release date of June 23rd via an EA press release. No pricing was announced as of yet.

Boasting more than just a content pack, Galactic Adventures brings a layer of gameplay to the space exploration portion of the main game as well as adding a separate branch of Spore to play in.

GDC: Lessons Learned From Spore: Its Science And More (News)

Mar 25, 2009

As part of the Serious Games Summit, journalist and and consultant Margaret Robertson investigated Maxis' Spore in the context of serious games -- and in that exploration, made smart insights into the more general interest and debate around the title.

Challenged at the end of her presentation in the Q&A session that Spore was never intended to be a serious game, Robertson admitted that she should have been more up front about that.

LittleBigPlanet, Braid, Left 4 Dead lead game developers choice award finalists (News)

Feb 9, 2009

Gamasutra writes:

"Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet leads the nominees for the ninth annual Game Developers Choice Awards with seven nominations, organizers have revealed.

Number None's Braid follows closely with five nominations. Among the nominations for LittleBigPlanet is the coveted Game of the Year award.

Other nominees for that category include Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, each of which received a total of four award nominations; Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto IV, which earned a total of three nominations, and Lionhead Studios' Fable 2. Winners will be honored at an awards show taking place during the 2009 Game Developers Conference."

Spores tackles LittleBigPlanet as Maxis throws down the creative gauntlet (News)

Jan 24, 2009

Both Spore and LittleBigPlanet are games that ride the "user generated content" train that seems to be so popular these days. Despite the fact that LittleBigPlanet benefited from its appealing central characters and PS3 exclusivity (which always guarantees press and fan attention), Maxis is confident that it still rules the user created content roost, and that LBP hasn't stolen its hype.

Maxis: 'Spore expansion can top LBP' (News)

Jan 24, 2009

CVG: "Spore senior producer Morgan Roarty has been weighing up the similarities between the Maxis game and Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet, as well as their relative strengths. Speaking to us at a recent EA event, Roarty contemplated whether LittleBigPlanet had stolen all of the hype surrounding user created game content in recent times."

Over 65 Million Pieces of User-Created Content Shared for Spore (News)

Jan 22, 2009

GamingShogun writes, "The Spore franchise is evolving! With more than 65 million pieces of user-created content shared online, fans from around the globe have gravitated to the game's powerful creativity-centered experience and massively single-player content sharing site. This year, the award-winning Spore franchise continues to..."

Maxis shelved plans for story-based Spore expansion (News)

Jan 22, 2009

Spore's forthcoming build-your-own-quest expansion, Galactic Adventures, is not the add-on that Maxis first planned. According to senior producer Morgan Roarty, the studio's initial concept was to introduce a story that would be told across several of the game's stages.

Four new Spore titles for '09 - Including Wii/DS version (News)

Jan 22, 2009

CVG Writes: EA Maxis has confirmed plans to release four new Spore products in calendar year 2009.

Speaking to us at a recent trip to EA's UK headquarters, Spore senior producer Morgan Roarty laid out the franchise's roadmap for the upcoming year.

Maxis is developing the core game's first expansion pack, the LittleBigPlanet-esque Spore: Galactic Adventures.

The expansion's targeting a "deeper variety of gameplay" based around Spore's space stage, and the overwhelming majority of its new content will be created by the Spore community using new editing tools that'll allow players to customise their own planets and create their own adventures to share with other gamers.

Spore Galactic Adventures: The new LittleBigPlanet? (Preview)

Jan 22, 2009

The low-down on Spore's DLC game creator and what we plan to make with it. ...

TGR News Roundup: January 7, 2009 (News)

Jan 8, 2009

Today's news gathering has everything the TGR staff truly loves: boiling hate, Spore and Uwe Boll being publicly disgraced.

First Spore Expansion, "Galactic Adventures" Due In Spring (News)

Jan 8, 2009

Super sim Spore will get its first expansion pack in the form of Galactic Adventures this Spring, according to an invite from Electronic Arts. And, no, the Spore Creepy and Cute Parts Pack doesn't count!

While retailers like Amazon, GameStop and Play have had Spore Galactic Adventures listed for a March release for a week or two now, EA made the expansion official today. It's planning to reveal details on the Maxis-developed expansion later this month at an event in San Francisco.

PC letdowns of 2008 (News)

Dec 26, 2008

TVGB: "I bet everyone is feeling pretty good during this holiday season, so I wanted to take some time to rain on the parade a bit by taking a look back at 2008 and revisit some of the major disappointments gamers had to deal with in the PC gaming world.."

EA Games to release DRM-free titles on Steam (News)

Dec 22, 2008

EA has signed on with Valve's highly popular digital distribution program Steam to distribute their games including recent releases, and with some added good news. Titles such as Spore and Mass Effect that have come under heavy fire for DRM usage, will no longer have any SecuROM protection. All games will use Steam's DRM.

New Game Releases for the Week of December 21, 2008 (News)

Dec 20, 2008

Gamerdeals.net writes:

"Well... what can we say... the week of Christmas is not the best time to release a new game apparently..."

Spore On Steam Has No SecuROM (News)

Dec 20, 2008

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.

Turn Your Spore Creature Into a Physical Statue (News)

Dec 18, 2008

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.

Spore De-Authorization Tool Released (News)

Dec 18, 2008

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..."

Spore Coming to Steam? (News)

Dec 17, 2008

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.

Spore Creepy & Cute Explorer (News)

Dec 15, 2008

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!

Spore's Huge DRM Backfire (News)

Dec 8, 2008

"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

Video Game Installs Anti-Piracy Software (News)

Nov 29, 2008

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.

Spore MashON Comic Book Creator released (News)

Nov 20, 2008

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.

New Spore Patch Available (News)

Nov 18, 2008

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.

Spore Developer Goes to Bat for Used Game Merchants (News)

Nov 17, 2008

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..."

Time Announce Top 50 Inventions Of 2008, One Game Makes List (News)

Nov 1, 2008

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"."

EA Game Banning Forum Post "Misunderstanding", C&C Community Manager Issues Apology (News)

Nov 1, 2008

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..."

EA Announces Impressive 'Spore' Sales, Big Lay-Offs (News)

Oct 31, 2008

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."

EA Forcing Good Behavior: Get Banned on their Forum and You're Banned from their Games (News)

Oct 30, 2008

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:"

Spore (Screenshots)

Oct 28, 2008

You, too can be a Sporn star (Feature)

Oct 22, 2008

You know the mod scene is really taking off for a particular game when it gets a nickname. In this case, though, Maxis and EA aren’t thrilled about the online moniker given to the Spore modding scene. “Sporn” may be accurate when you look at some of the explicit creations floating around the web, but it isn’t the most media-friendly name for a game aimed at all ages.Yes, Will Wright’s fantastically addictive ...

Spore Gets A New Patch (News)

Oct 20, 2008

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.

Spore Receives Breakthrough Award (News)

Oct 19, 2008

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.

Spore Outsells Microsoft Office: September's 20 Best-Selling PC Games Revealed (News)

Oct 18, 2008

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)

What Will Wright Thinks About Spore's DRM (News)

Oct 16, 2008

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."

Riccitiello Says DRM a Minority Controversy (News)

Oct 15, 2008

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."

EA confirms Spore expansion packs (News)

Oct 14, 2008

EA confirmed Monday that two Spore expansion packs were planned for the life-creation sim title, and will be available over the next few months.

The first expansion, called the Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, will be released on November 18. The expansion will add 100 or so new parts to the wildly popular Creature Creator in two fairly obvious categories: cute and creepy. The pack is available for both the full game and the Creature Creator.

Wait, There's TWO Spore Expansions On the Way? (News)

Oct 14, 2008

Today Electronic Arts confirmed that the Creepy & Cute Parts Pack expansion pack for Spore will be available on November 18th. In the same press release, they also revealed that Maxis is working on a second expansion.

EA Confirms Workaround for Spore Mac Patch (News)

Oct 13, 2008

Loot Ninja writes:

"I just heard back from EA with a functional workaround for installing the v1.1 patch for Spore on the Mac. I'm sure by now you've heard about all the wonderful issues with the patch. But after spending a few hours, I now have everything up and running with the newest patched version on my MacBook Pro."

Spore Expansion Available For Pre-Order (News)

Oct 12, 2008

A week or two ago, something called Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack - an expansion for Spore - appeared on Amazon and Gamestop's online catalogues before being quickly taken down. Well, the listing is back up now along with box art.

Spore Expansion Pack Sneaks Up At Online Game Shops (News)

Oct 4, 2008

It looks like the first addon for Spore will arrive very soon indeed. Called the Spore Cute & Creepy Parts Pack has a retail price of $19.99 and will be available on the 18th of November.

Holy Crap! Spore Created StarCraft Amazes Us (News)

Sep 26, 2008

Kotaku Writes: "The great thing about Spore is all the stuff we can make. No, make that, the great thing about Spore is all the stuff really talented people can make. Check out these images from Korean site Ruliweb of in-Spore created Starcraft Terran faction buildings and vehicles. Check out the Vulture, Siege Tank, Goliath, Wraith and Battlecruiser! The attention to detail is astounding. There are three words for this and they are "only in Korea". Have a gander in the gallery below."

Brad Wardell on Spore DRM and the Gamer's Bill of Rights (News)

Sep 25, 2008

1UP writes: "The latest DRM scandal is upon us. It seems that every few months now, PC gamers take up their pitchforks and storm the Internet with anti-anti-piracy furor. DRM, short for digital rights management, has been unpopular with a certain tech-savvy crowd for years, but the outcry over the limitations placed on this year's biggest PC game, Spore, is unprecedented. The game continues to receive a downpour of one-star ratings by Amazon.com users (average current rating: one-and-one-half stars), and many online pundits speculate that the game, which hit file sharing sites before the game's release, is well on its way to becoming the most pirated game in history. Already, two separate concessions have been made to the angry mob: Electronic Arts, the game's publisher, upgraded the number of installs customers get per disc from three (installed on different machines) to five. Later, they added the ability to allow multiple players to have their own accounts on a single copy, since in its original form, Spore wouldn't allow different members of the same household to play their own games on one disc."

EA responds on Spore bannings (News)

Sep 25, 2008

Boomtown reports: "Electronic Arts has quickly denied that Spore owners will have their accounts terminated for discussing DRM issues on the official forum.

Yesterday we reported on forum posts from moderators which threatened to bring the banhammer down.

Now EA has stated that banning users is not an official policy.

"These comments are absolutely not true or in-line with EA's moderation policy," EA told Kotaku. "They were made by an over-zealous community volunteer who does not work for EA. Anyone who looks at the boards will clearly see that DRM and other issues are freely discussed on the Spore forums, alongside other topics about the game."

Spore sells over a million in just over two weeks (News)

Sep 24, 2008

Will Wright's universe sim Spore has sold over one million copies since its launch earlier this month, EA has just announced. Since hitting store shelves on September 7th for the PC, Mac and Nintendo DS, gamers have created over 25 million creatures, vehicles and buildings, all viewable online over at Sporepedia.

Spore dominates US PC chart (News)

Sep 24, 2008

GamesIndustry.Biz writes: "Spore and Spore Galactic Edition have taken the top two spots of the US PC software sales chart for the week ended September 13, according to data provided by NPD.

EA Maxis' title knocked The Sims 2 Apartment Life down to third place, followed by Spore Creature Creator in fourth.

World of Warcraft: Battle Chest dropped down to number five, preceding The Sims 2 Double Deluxe at six, World of Warcraft at seven and World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade at eight.

Warcraft III Battle Chest secured a spot at ninth place and Crysis closed the chart off in tenth place."

EA Sued Over Spore DRM (News)

Sep 24, 2008

Several disgruntled Spore owners have banded together to file a class-action lawsuit against Electronic Arts, claiming that the game installs software onto the machine that cannot be removed (even after uninstalling the game) and can actually effect the performance of your computer's Operating System.

EA threatens to cancel Spore accounts (News)

Sep 24, 2008

Eurogamer reports: "EA has threatened to ban the Spore accounts of members discussing DRM issues on the official game forum.

"SecuROM has been discussed and discussed so much and it causes arguments in threads," barked a moderator. "If you want to talk about DRM SecuROM then please use another fan site forum.

"Please do not continue to post these threads or you account may be at risk of banning, which in some cases would mean you would need to buy a new copy to play Spore."

Spore Receives The Amazon Star Treatment (News)

Sep 24, 2008

dailygamesnews.com - This isn't the usual positive type of Star Treatment... remember when gamers went completely apeshit at the Fox News report on Mass Effect's nudity and slated the guest analyst's book on Amazon's website, through their star rating system giving it a massive amount of one star votes?

Same is happening for Spore...

EA Announce Christmas 2008 Family Gaming Line-Up (News)

Sep 24, 2008

Today, Electronic Arts have announced their UK Christmas 2008 family gaming line-up. While many of these titles will already be familiar to both Casual and Hardcore Gamers, there may also be one or two surprises...

Gamers force EA to change draconian DRM! (News)

Sep 21, 2008

beefjack.com writes: "EA did not consider that one of the biggest things to put gamers off of select PC titles such as Spore, would actually occur before the game was even installed.

Digital rights management (DRM) is a means of controlling the amount of machines that programs can be installed onto in an effort to crack down on internet piracy......"

Spore v1.01 Patch Released (News)

Sep 18, 2008

Electronic Arts has released the first PC patch for their life sim title Spore, updating the game to v1.01.

The update fixes several bugs, addresses community complaints, and implements a few new cheat codes. Though it isn't explained if this patch includes the claimed DRM fix.

Here are the complete patch notes...

'Spore' DRM Update - EA Loosening One Restriction In 'Near Future,' Offers Defense (News)

Sep 17, 2008

Stephen Totilo of MTV Multiplayer writes: "Since "Spore" launched on PC earlier this month it's been the subject of thousands of complaints about the Digital Rights Management (DRM) measures implemented by EA to stave off piracy of the blockbuster game.

With so many issues swirling about restrictions and spyware and whatnot, I checked in with EA about the big ones and got several updates."

The Fate Of The Missing Underwater 'Spore' Stage (News)

Sep 16, 2008

MTV Multiplayer writes: "Jump to 2:08 in the video and you'll see the one part of game designer Will Wright's 2005 Game Developers' Conference unveiling of "Spore" that didn't make it into the final game. What happened to the 3D underwater stage that appeared to follow Cell Stage and precede Creature Stage? It's not in the final game.

I asked Wright about the omission during our interview two Fridays ago.

He said: 'We were originally going to have underwater civilizations. You could play Tribe and Civ underwater. But we did a lot of prototyping of that, and we never got a satisfactory interface. It was really way too hard to use. So we ended up cutting that and forcing the player onto land primarily for usability reasons.'"

SPORE Being Played Millions of Minutes Per Day (News)

Sep 15, 2008

Now that the furor over SPORE's DRM is starting to subside it's a good time to look at how the game is doing in the market.

One good way to check is how a game ranks on Xfire, and SPORE comes up big as number 5 on the Xfire most played list. In fact, over 3.7 million minutes per day are spent playing SPORE.

One could argue that this proves the DRM issue is a non-issue; or on the flip side, this number would be double or more if the DRM debacle hadn't happened.

Spore breaks into Euro charts (News)

Sep 15, 2008

GI.Biz writes: "Titles for both Nintendo and PC platforms have dominated the Spanish and German software sales chart for the week ended September 7, according to data provided by Media-Control GfK International.

PC titles occupied five of the top ten places in German software sales chart, with EA Maxis' Spore coming in at number one and followed by The Sims 2: Apartment Life at number two.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky secured fourth place, while the Settlers: Rise of an Empire came in at six and Spore Galactic Edition at eight.

The Spanish chart was more centred around Nintendo titles and saw Wii Fit take the first place, followed by Wii Play at number two. The Sims 2: Apartment Life came in third, while Mario Kart Wii and the DS title Cooking Guide: Can't decide what to eat? came in fourth and fifth places respectively."

TalkRadar 18 (Feature)

Sep 12, 2008

After a long two-week absence, Shane Patterson rejoins the crew just in time to celebrate TalkRadar’s 18th birthday. With our podcast finally old enough to vote, buy cigarettes and go to the mall by itself, we briefly put aside our usual yammering for a weirdly serious talk about the ethics of software piracy. ...

Spore's Piracy Problem (News)

Sep 12, 2008

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.""

Jeff Green's Farewell GFW Radio in Audio and Video (News)

Sep 12, 2008

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.

AntiSpore Answerable To A Higher Power - Rick Astley (News)

Sep 12, 2008

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."

Banjo dev: Game play through time 'almost irrelevant' (News)

Sep 11, 2008

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."

SPORE Launch Event in India, Bollywood Actor and MTV Jockey demo Creature Creator (News)

Sep 10, 2008

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."

Bizarre Anti-Spore Website Takes Issue WIth Stance On Creationism (News)

Sep 9, 2008

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."

Amazon Removing Negative Reviews for Spore (News)

Sep 9, 2008

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."

Former Maxis Man: Spore DRM is a Screw Up (News)

Sep 9, 2008

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.

Finish Spore with a Star Destroyer! (Feature)

Sep 9, 2008

Did we play Spore correctly? We have the sinking feeling that we were supposed to be using Spore’s dynamic editors to create our own original creatures, vehicles, and cities. ...

11 Playable Spore Prototypes Released (News)

Sep 8, 2008

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.

All Spore cheats and codes revealed (News)

Sep 8, 2008

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.

Spore customers lash out at DRM, sabotage Amazon score (News)

Sep 8, 2008

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.

Will Wright Reacts To Critical 'Spore' Reviews, Reveals Personal Playing Style (News)

Sep 7, 2008

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."

New Game Releases for the Week of September 7, 2008 (News)

Sep 6, 2008

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!"

EA Considers Licensing Spore As a Platform For Developers (News)

Sep 6, 2008

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.

Drake's Function: ET Expert Praises Spore (News)

Sep 5, 2008

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.

TalkRadar 17 (Feature)

Sep 5, 2008

TalkRadar welcomes its very first industry guest this week, Mr. Seth Killian of Capcom fame. He’s involved with all things community, primarily at the Capcom Unity blog and jaw-droppingly hardcore Evo tournaments. Far more interesting than that, however, are his tales of Street Fighter hustling at arcades, infiltrating E3 and harassing the company enough to finally give him a job. See kids, you too can live the dream. ...

Spore's servers fall over on release day (News)

Sep 5, 2008

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.

Spore (Review)

Sep 4, 2008

DEAR WILL WRIGHT,

May I call you Will?

Will, I bet you feel like expectations for Spore passed the unreasonable stage about a year ago—around the time you appeared on The Colbert Report, actually. And I’ll admit that probably no one outside your development team has had higher expectations for it than I have, except possibly your blood relatives and the guy who counts the money at EA. ...

Spore Review Coming Tonight (News)

Sep 3, 2008

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."

Spore for Mac Requires Leopard, Intel Chip (News)

Sep 3, 2008

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.

Spore Cracked by "RELOADED" Group (News)

Sep 3, 2008

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.

Spore expected to sell 2 million in US in September (News)

Sep 3, 2008

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."

Ones to Watch: PC Games for September 2008 (News)

Sep 3, 2008

via Aeropause
- "We have passed the doledrum months of Summer, including a mindnumbingly boring August, and are entering the beginning of the annual onslaught that is Christmas season game releases. From here on out until December, we will have more game releases that the rest of the year combined.

So sit back, relax and check out some of our picks for the month of September on the PC gaming platform. Word of advice, save your money as it is going to get expensive."

PC Games gives Spore 71%, talk of release date online embargo emerges (News)

Sep 2, 2008

Leading German mag PC Games has reviewed Spore at 71 percent, VG247 has learnt today.

Will Wright appearing in Oxford Street tomorrow for fan Q&A (News)

Sep 2, 2008

EA's just confirmed that Will Wright's to appear on Oxford Street tomorrow for a surprise Q&A session with fans.

Spore Street Date Broken (News)

Sep 2, 2008

The Spore street date has been broken. The game was due to launch on September 7th in the US, and September 4th in Australia, however EB Games Australia are already selling the title nationwide. This is both the regular and Galactic Edition.

PC Gamer reviews Spore in latest issue (News)

Sep 1, 2008

UK mag PC Gamer has published the first UK review of EA's Christmas mega-risk, Spore.

CNN: 'Spore' creator ready for game's debut (News)

Sep 1, 2008

Creating life forms from scratch is only a piece of the final game, which allows players to go from squirming singled-cell organism to fully fledged space-dwelling civilization. Published by Electronic Arts and developed by Wright's Emeryville, Calif.-based studio Maxis, "Spore" takes a microscopic look at players' choices and their repercussions.

Unlike Wright's people simulator "The Sims," which went on to become the best-selling PC game of all time, the ever-changing gameplay in the five levels of "Spore" fluctuates based on decisions made by the user about their species, such as choosing to become a carnivore over a herbivore or deciding to destroy other creatures instead of socialize with them.

Spore Leaked (News)

Aug 31, 2008

An Australian user of the Facepunch Studios Forums managed to snag a copy of Spore almost a week before the US gets it.

Spore - Civilization phase (Video)

Aug 29, 2008

SimCity creator Will Wright is creating his most ambitious simulation ever: one for the entire universe.

Pre-Download Spore Now (News)

Aug 29, 2008

Kotaku Writes:

"f you pre-orded Will Wright's upcoming opus Spore from the Electronic Arts Store you can hit up EA today to pre-load the game."

"Once pre-ordered you can use the EA Download Manager to download 99 percent of the game to your computer. That's the good news. The bad news is that that last 1 percent of Spore is going to take you 30 minutes to an hour to download and install on on Sept. 7 when the game hits North America."

Will Wright impressed with phallus... (News)

Aug 28, 2008

TVGB: "…monsters. I got you there, didn't I? Finally thought you were going to get the inside scoop on Will Wright's wang. Well no such luck (or misfortune, depending on how you look at these things). This little story is all about the legendary game maker's opinions on the more sordid creatures that were created with the Spore Creature Creator. As you have probably seen all over the web people took the chance to create some very, ummm, special looking creatures with the game. Does this offend Mr. Wright? Not a chance."

Will Wright Doesn't Mind Naughty Spore Creatures (News)

Aug 28, 2008

Will Wright is not offended by the explicit monsters some folks have created using his evolution simulator, no matter which private parts they may resemble. In fact, Wright said he's been impressed with the indecent beasts spawned by a slimmed-down edition of "Spore," his much-anticipated but difficult-to-describe game.