For such a big game, you'd have thought Spore would release on every platform under the sun. But it didn't. Just PC, Mac, DS and iPhone. Here, Will Wright explains why.
In an interview with GameDaily, Wright says it was a matter of balancing output with creativity:
You know, we either [port the game to console] or we continue creating new applications on the PC or we kind of go into the handheld arena. I can't specifically say what the plans are right now, but really all these things are measured against each other. We can't do everything at once, so we have to say, 'What platforms would it kind of evolve the fastest on?' So you can sort of look at a straight port to the PS3 and Xbox 360 and basically have the same game we have on the PC... or we could say, 'What can we do on this platform that will help us explore different parts of the design?' I think the Wii is really unique in that sense, with the things you can do on Wii that you can't do on other platforms right now. It's represented a lot of learning for us in terms of the directions we might take it. So I'd say that's one of the under-appreciated aspects of how we choose to deploy this on different platforms.
A mouthful, yes, but we appreciate it. If only more developers could be so honest when explaining why games don't launch on certain platforms, or may (as he seems to be suggesting) come to one platform later than another one.
Will Wright Confirms Future Involvement in Spore Franchise [GameDaily]