MrSamuel

I predict they are taking the same approach as Nintendo. TV Show, toys, card game, cell phone, AAA video game, etc.

It took 6+ years for Nintendo to ready the Pokemon franchise for launch.

EA never thought that the SIMS would take off like it did. This time they know. Expect them to really raise the bar in terms of building and creating a "Brand" with Spore. This takes A LOT of time.

Dsgnr8

dsgnr8

I have predicted for 2 years now that I thought if things did not change that PC gaming could become just downloads and independent publishers only. No more AAA titles, no more big publishers involved in PC gaming, no more multi-million budget PC games. Nothing has changed in the last 2 years, so with one year to go, I think it is too late. In terms of number of releases, income produced, innovation and originally in the genre and publisher support, PC gaming is really in the doldrums, despite the odd quality release, in general terms it just not have the clout any more, and the decline seems permanent. The delay of Spore and Bioshock along with the much lower number of PC game titles generally, along with a rise in low quality low budget titles and an increase in interest in PC retro and independent gaming, all show the decline and fall of PC gaming. It has happened in less than 10 years, and as a 20 year plus PC gamer I will mourn it's passing. Luckily, I still have my Commodore 64 and I can still play all my 300 PC game collection, thanks to DOSBox and VDMSound, along with me still having a Win98/XP dual-boot system. I hope you have had the same foresight, as by the end of next year, I doubt there will enough PC game releases to allow you to have it as a hobby any longer!

uk_john

duncan_922

It's going to be like any other thing with too much hype. People will expect so much from it that there will be nothing enjoyable left to surprise you.

IMO, I've already played the entire game. We all have. If you put together every demo video out there, that's the game. That's it. No more surprises, they already showed us the entire game. It's like wanting to see a movie and having the previews tell the entire story and all the best scenes in it. Oh wait...

I've learned my lesson. I'm never reading onlilne info about a game ever again. I just want the synopsis, and wait for the game to come out. No more spoilers plz.

By the time the game comes out, I will have been following Spore for nearly 5 years. That's a long time. Hell, I graduated college in less time. You'd think with an entire team they'd be able to do something productive. I've been on a data team before in a company. They have meetings about having meetings. How about they do some work and stop setting up all these conferences and demos?

MatchNL

Cro

Ghede

Sharktopus

Knukleur

Shumina

kylenalepa

Hylian-Hero

It would be cool if you could design a race of carnivorous plants (that can move). I would definitely become a fanboi then!

paydirt76

honestly this is the one game i wouldn't mind playing a broken release of. patches are fine.

planetidiot

praecipula

Will spore be the 2000s version of Duke Nukem Forever?

trekkie

oeli

Apreche

Nuff said. LAME.

explodingman

Jack Loftus

Crackers! NOT FAIR I say.

I just want it on my PC, but then it would be nice on the Wii. Maybe even the DS.

Launch the PC version and we'll wait for the console versions later. Thank you. WE WANT IT NOW!

smook

Jilkon

Good luck Maxis, I'll be waiting patiently, please take your time.

TokeYo

Strifer

I just want to know: why showing the game for more than a year to the press, on the internet and so on, if you are going to release it in 2009???

ansiaaa

platinum

iamshinek

Will Wright is water, and Spore is the grapes.

I feel your pain.

lytnngseed

Waka in Japan

Darkest Daze

Daran

elevenoverzero

ch0rx

It would be pretty exciting to be involved in a design project like this just once in your lifetime.

Tacobake

We *already* knew Spore was getting delayed till next year and possibly *late* next year. That falls into fiscal 2009. Which starts in April 2008.

There is no news in this at all that we didn't already know. Period. Game Informer is perfectly capable of being wrong, and EA can't stop them from printing things like that. Seeing how *EA* themselves are not announcing it as being delayed indefinitely, all we've got is that Game Informer bit. Is there a scan of it so we can see the phrase in context?

Rebochan

joelface

Toad

"Seemed" is the operative. Those videos seemed to show a complete game, but the difference between what he was saying was happening -- "this is all done procedurally," "this is procedural too," "this over here will be completely dynamic," etc. -- and what was actually happening could have been very, very different.

At the time, he probably thought the engineers could bridge the gap between the two in a matter of months, and they came back and said "Uhh, not going to happen, hombre," and now they're scrambling.

They can't release it half-assed after the promises that have been made. It would be a laughing stock. Let's just hope they can eventually come close to something resembling the grand ideal put forth in the demo's.

OneFreeMan

protozoider

Hopefully it doesn't get pushed back further.

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

I agree. I have a feeling that, while the game looks complete, and fully fleshed out it doesn't mean that it is a good, enjoyable game.

Take for instance COD3. Here was a game with alot of promise, we saw great graphics, heard the Developer Diaries on the rich multiplayer component and in the end the whole game just didn't feel "right". It was an ok game, but something just didn't work.

I would suspect that the same has happened with Spore. It's a nice concept, interesting, but is there something cruical missing that makes it fun? Is it just next generation tamagotchi?

xRiOT

If the game were in a state that it might be released in less than a year, they would not permit the phrase "delayed indefinitely" to be uttered by anyone in an official capacity. They would set a date and re-delay if necessary.

This announcement most likely means Q2 '09 or beyond.

OneFreeMan

jmote

I've watched all the videos. I've been pretty underwhelmed. Whenever I watch game videos (or really any kind of promo video), I always try to think about the implications of what I'm seeing to the larger work. Whenever I've seen Spore videos, I've kind of gotten the feeling that that's really all there is to it. I've never gotten the feeling that there's this massive underlying world growing around you, or that you really even have much control over everything.

I could be wrong, of course, but this is one of those games that I've actually gotten less excited about the more I've seen of it... and something can't be right for that to happen.

badasscat

This isn't really *new* news, anyhow, EA had mentioned a month or two back that Spore wouldn't probably hit this fiscal year, which is the 08 fiscal year, so it only makes sense that they're now saying 09 fiscal year. Keep in mind if the game was released as early as April 1st, 2008 it would fall under the 2009 fiscal year. Spore could theoretically come out in less than a year, but not in time for Holidays 07.

Slyght

Yes we do. We also know the difference between "attempted" and "accomplished."

OneFreeMan

Cyber

CocaColaZero

100 bucks says they release it tomorrow.

TheJordanator

Nobuyuki

nya-chama

ITR

Manimalius

it's been in projects for a year+ now, that means it's going to be a 3 year game? What the fuck?

SliceWarriorX

I feel the same way. Sure, I'm a bit disappointed now. And when I think about it, I'd rather be a little dissapointed today about indefinite release dates than endure massive disappointment when I get a cruddy end product (if they are in fact doing as you figure they are).

This game is a bit of a gamble on Wright's reputation as a guy who knows very well what he's doing.
Let's hope it doesn't end up a flop.

Gauphastus

modifiedbears

If you want a five minute flash-in-the-pan, that's fine, but it isn't going to be a "great" game. Will Wright is willing to prolong the birthing process long enough to make sure his ideas get presented in a successful manner.

Personally I don't care about "Spore" specifically. All _I_ care about is good games. If Spore is a winner when it comes out, I'm willing to wait as long as that takes.

Coherent

sirpilf

justhesh

Zim

To have a game where so many things are going on... well, that's tricky to manage player space. Once you have reached space and beyond, what motivation is there to go all the way back to pool stage and do it all over again?

humilitybecomeshim

mrdietsoda

Fugue

Urafaerie

scndmg

I could only reason that delaying games will hurt EA's bottom line, period. It's not a case of they want to hawk those expansion packs, it's a case of they'll have to.

I think that EA is letting it slip says a lot, though, about the faith they have in the project. Seriously, how many other EA games have you EVER heard of going more than 6 months late? I think Godfather was 4 months late? Other than that?

I do think probably, though, that it was a mistake for WW to show off the game at such an early stage, but that's probably pretty obvious at this point.

Backward_Z

We've seen some amazing tech demos. But in all of the demos I've seen, I really haven't seen anything that's a GAME.

The Sims underwent a whole lot of iteration before we got what we got. It took them a while to get the baseline GAMEPLAY down. Spore's looking very much like the same thing. It's really spiffy, but it needs.. something. Goals? External motivation? whatever.

If the sims were just 'little computer people' all over again (go look it up, youngun) it would have tanked.

joeymojo

knulpm

Damn you Siiiiiims!!!

Fujoshi

Evin

appledumplingsfromhell

3inst3in

Call me cynical, but I'm prepared to be disappointed.

OneFreeMan

themunk

Baboon

I can't help but feel it's going to look a little dated by then.

TheDetective

Spore is fast becoming a cockteasing
Lucy holding the football out for
Charlie Brown to kick.

But he never gets to kick it because
she's holding it further and further away.
And there is the sneaking suspicion
that it may disappear entirely.

Even though this game isn't out yet,
like a bad pop song it's getting
killed by overplay.

Games are increasingly becoming that
friend who you're supposed to meet for
lunch but who's always late.

Sullyville

Evin

I'm worried about this Spore slip. I know that it will be compared to Duke Nukem Forever, but what I'm more worried about is that it will become Daikatana part 2. Long development time, huge promises, and flat gameplay.

The longer this game goes unpublished the greater the hype will become. Greater hype leads to higher expectations, and most times expectation outweighs the game.

baberg

SpishackCola

Spilt_Milk

On top of that i can see how they can have trouble getting the full game running on a PC that's considered "average"; they might want to wait for dualcore and quadcore processing to become more mainstream.

Can't say i'm very disappointed about the delay though. This is one of those games that needs to be released when it's done, no sooner. Unless it turns into the next Duke Nukem.

JCtheMC

ReginaldTheSeventySecond

SmilingPolitely