The Spore franchise continues to evolve as Maxis, an Electronic Arts studio, today revealed details about Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena – two games built from the ground up exclusively for the Wii and Nintendo DS platforms. Building on the franchise's core tenets of creativity, exploration and adventure, Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena will immerse Nintendo fans into all-new experiences when the games launch this year.
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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.
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Few games have transitioned from the PC to the Wii. There is no "World of Warcraft" Wii, no "Company of Heroes" Wii, not even - yet - a "Peggle" Wii. But EA has been trying, first with "MySims" for Nintendo's home system and, coming this fall, "Spore Hero."

EA has shed almost no light on "Spore Hero" since announcing it in January as part of the 2009 line-up of "Spore" spin-offs. MTV Multiplayer can change that today.

Last month in Las Vegas, Stephen Totilo met with the general manager for EA's "Spore" and "Sims" studio, Lucy Bradshaw, who talked to him, among other things, about how "Spore" for the Wii is taking shape.
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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."
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Today's news gathering has everything the TGR staff truly loves: boiling hate, Spore and Uwe Boll being publicly disgraced.
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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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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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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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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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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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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...
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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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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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After an award winning showcase of titles at E3 in July, Electronic Arts today announced its product line up for the Leipzig Games Convention. EA will demonstrate the innovation and creativity of its portfolio for seasoned gamers and newcomers alike, as it leads the way with great interactive entertainment offerings for broad consumer tastes this year. On show in Leipzig are Europe's best selling franchises and consumer favourites like FIFA, Need For Speed, The Sims and Harry Potter, a wide range of casual and family titles for Nintendo platforms including LITTLEST PET SHOP, Boogie SuperStar, Zubo and MONOPOLY, brand new IP like SimAnimals, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space...
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MCV: New title can have same 'long tail' effect as Will Wright's last smash, says publisher
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After the deluge of great games that were released in 2007, you might think that this year's crop of titles are destined to underwhelm when compared to the likes of Bioshock, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Super Mario Galaxy, and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. However, a number of high profile games scheduled for release over the coming months should have gamers everywhere doing the pee-pee dance in anticipation, giving 2007 a run for it's money as the best year of video games ever.
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From Gizmodod:

"I've got good news and better news. The good news is that the iPhone is getting multitouch games that use the accelerometer and every bell and whistle of the iPhone for controls. The better news? Developers such as EA are on board and they're bringing the insanely anticipated game Spore to it. All 18 levels. Yes, this is real. Oh mercy."
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GamesIndustry.biz's Phil Elliott writes: Although most people seem to agree that there's a healthy anticipation building around the forthcoming Will Wright project, Spore, there's also some feeling that its publisher Electronic Arts must manage expectation about its performance and appeal.

"I think Spore will do at least 3 million units as a packaged product, and if it's as good as it looks, it has the potential to do twice that," said Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter.

And the simExchange is currently predicting that the PC and as-yet-unannounced DS editions of the game could combine for 7.5 million units in its lifetime, while its analyst Jesse Divnich believes it could fall "victim to the expectations that EA has set up for the title."
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Maxis' ideas for Spore are so vast that the game as it exists today represents only one percent of what the developer could do with it, according to producer Thomas Vu.

"Speaking as a developer, we always want more. With a game like Spore, when you start imagining what could be in there, the scope of it is enormous", Vu told CVG last week.

He explained that, because of Spore's nature, Maxis had to sit down and be very specific about what it wanted to include, but said that "This is like less than one percent of the things we could possibly do"
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The Wii version of Spore, which was reconfirmed at an EA analysts' event today, has not yet been dated. However, it may not be the only version of the ambitious evolution-civilization-space-exploration sim to hit next-generation consoles. Speaking to analysts, EA Games president Frank Gibeau said that Spore is "already in development" for the newest generation of consoles, "Wii included." He did not specify further platforms, and EA reps could not clarify his comments as of press time.

In addition to dropping hints about new platforms, Gibeau also hinted that Spore might not be entirely free of charge. He told analysts that the online mode of the game could be an "opportunity" for an "expanded digital revenue stream." He did not elaborate if said stream entailed microtransactions, in-game advertising, subscription fees, or any combination of the three.
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