Spore fires delayzers - New ship date: Not this fiscal year

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2007-05-08 11:41pm

In a conference call to discuss today's financial results, EA said that Will Wright's highly anticipated evolution sim, Spore, is no longer in the company's plans for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2008. Most in the industry had expected the game to be released later this year, perhaps in time for the holiday shopping season.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2007-05-08 11:57pm

I'm pretty sure this whole "Spore" thing is just a massive prank that Will Wright is playing on the entire games industry.

Resinence · Post by **Resinence** » 2007-05-09 12:14am

"You will be dead before you see Spore BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA"

Sigh, they are as bad as blizzard, maybe we will see it in 2010. Though such an ambitious game I guess you would expect a long development cycle.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-05-09 12:40am

Yes Will Wright, please pee on us!

Jaepheth · Post by **Jaepheth** » 2007-05-09 12:42am

But it's just an engine! The players create the content, and from the demos given thus far it seems like it's pretty much done. Is there any word at all what they're still working on?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-05-09 12:59am

What makes you think it's 'pretty much done'? There are plenty of elements to Spore I'd expect them to be tinkering with up to and beyond launch - it's by no means a simple game.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-05-09 01:51am

Jaepheth wrote:But it's just an engine! The players create the content, and from the demos given thus far it seems like it's pretty much done. Is there any word at all what they're still working on?

Do you have any idea whats involved in making something like this?
Clearly not, so shut the fuck up.

RThurmont · Post by **RThurmont** » 2007-05-09 04:51am

I think the architectonic of what Jaepaeth was proposing was that Spore, from the demos Will Wright gave (assuming those weren't just movies made in Maya) the game looked to be in a relatively playable condition.

I personally suspect that feature creep and bloat has set in. IMO EA needs to fire whoever is in charge of the actual -development- process, go in there, and kick some ass. Ship early, ship often, and fix the suckiness in the expansion pack (hey, it worked for Sim City 3000, Sim City 4, and The Sims 2)...

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2007-05-09 05:16am

Damnit, I was really looking forward to this game. Oh well... I need to upgrade my PC anyway.

Napoleon the Clown · Post by **Napoleon the Clown** » 2007-05-09 05:35am

[paranoia]The Christian Right is behind this![/paranoia]

Really, considering just what's involved in this game I'm surprised that a working demo even came out. Hopefully it actually hits the shelves within the next three or four years.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-05-09 07:10am

FUCK.

I was looking forward to this, so much...even reserved a copy at Gamestop. (They started taking reservations about six months ago...guess they were even more optimistic than me).

I hope this game doesn't turn into another DNF, I really do.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2007-05-09 07:16am

RThurmont wrote:I think the architectonic of what Jaepaeth was proposing was that Spore, from the demos Will Wright gave (assuming those weren't just movies made in Maya) the game looked to be in a relatively playable condition.

Only if you ignore the fact many of the screens were no where near feature complete.

I personally suspect that feature creep and bloat has set in.

Based on what? Or is this another random comment? The features have remained the same, the problem is that they are VERY ambitious and hard to implement, the fact that it was playable at all at E3 was shocking.

IMO EA needs to fire whoever is in charge of the actual -development- process, go in there, and kick some ass.

Because, as we all know, predicting a complex game schedule like Spore is the easiest thing out there.

Ship early, ship often, and fix the suckiness in the expansion pack (hey, it worked for Sim City 3000, Sim City 4, and The Sims 2)...

Right, IF they did that, everyone would be flaming them, thats a sucky buisness model that dosn't work for any game, it only works for whatever is free. Sims 2 was NOT shipped early(it was also delayed) and it worked perfectly fine out of the box. Your analogy fails, because releasing on schedule something like Spore would just SUCK, and kill sales.

Crossroads Inc. · Post by **Crossroads Inc.** » 2007-05-09 03:38pm

Again I say, better to be perfect and late, then on time and crappy.

That is, IF it ships at all...

(Glares at Duke Nuke'em)

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2007-05-09 04:30pm

Crossroads Inc. wrote:Again I say, better to be perfect and late, then on time and crappy.

That is, IF it ships at all...

(Glares at Duke Nuke'em)

I agree, especially with a unique game like Spore, where you don't have to worry about it being overtaken by other games in the same genre.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2007-05-09 04:42pm

Just hope that it will not be another Black & White

Massive hype, no content.

Tanasinn · Post by **Tanasinn** » 2007-05-09 09:54pm

Will Wright isn't Peter Molyneux.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2007-05-09 10:16pm

Maybe not, but Spore sure sounds an awful lot like Black and White did. I'm taking the game's claims with a serious grain of salt.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2007-05-09 10:30pm

Faram wrote:Just hope that it will not be another Black & White

Massive hype, no content.

Amusingly, from what I've seen the game is based almost entirely on player-built content. So there probably WON'T be any content, and unless the minigames are compelling or interesting enough, the game will indeed turn out like B&W.

Even a single poor decision in the earlier, simpler games could ruin the game through 'oh god do I have to play the stupid snake game again' factor. I haven't seen anything that makes the final galaxy game look anything other than boring, either. Odds of B&W are, in my opinion, quite good.

loomer · Post by **loomer** » 2007-05-10 05:34am

You know, I will just burst out laughing if Duke Nukem Forever comes out first. I really will.

Andrew_Fireborn · Post by **Andrew_Fireborn** » 2007-05-13 04:21am

Stark wrote:Amusingly, from what I've seen the game is based almost entirely on player-built content. So there probably WON'T be any content, and unless the minigames are compelling or interesting enough, the game will indeed turn out like B&W.

Even a single poor decision in the earlier, simpler games could ruin the game through 'oh god do I have to play the stupid snake game again' factor. I haven't seen anything that makes the final galaxy game look anything other than boring, either. Odds of B&W are, in my opinion, quite good.

Honestly, that's exactly why I'm looking forward to it. I know I've said it before, but I've got a mad scientist streak a mile wide, and I only hope half of the ideas I got when I first heard of the game came to them as well.

One was for a massive beast that leeches cholorophyl from the plants it eats and funnels it into specialized cells along it's back to allow it the ability to subsist during lean times. But, I doubt it would be anywhere near that indepth. T-T

Honestly, I just want it because, likely, in cheat/freeplay mode, it's supposed to be a simple to use 3d modeller, with animation capability...

Post by **Vympel** » 2007-05-13 09:26am

I loved it when Robin Williams crashed it by making a really fucked up creature at a public demo (was it at E3?)

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2007-05-13 11:25am

Vympel wrote:I loved it when Robin Williams crashed it by making a really fucked up creature at a public demo (was it at E3?)

It was at GDC, I think. That's probably part of the delay - weird edge cases like that have to be accounted for.