One of the most anticipated games in the PC community is Will Wright’s Spore. The huge open-ended game revolves around the concept of being able to raise and evolve life forms from scratch; with the ultimate goal of evolving the beings to a level so they can colonize and explore space. Think of Spore as a cosmic version of The Sims.
Spore was scheduled for release later this year by Electronic Arts, but evidently, someone has sprayed Spore with some disinfectant and the highly touted game will be relegated to a later release date which maybe well into 2008 or as late as 2009.
John Riccitiello, CEO of EA said, "Spore is a title we have enormous confidence in. I’ve had the chance to review the title three times in my short return to the EA, and it looks fantastic. I will also tell you that its release will be right up [to] the bubble in Q4 [of fiscal ’08], if not sometime in early fiscal ’09, so we don’t feel comfortable in forecasting it."
Why is Spore getting delayed? Riccitiello pointed to quality issues as the culprit. ""We’re focusing on quality to make sure we build a franchise that feels more like The Sims, a franchise that we hope…to see around for some time in the future."
But delaying Spore for up to two years indicates that there are more serious problems at hand. With the Wright title pushed back so far, it maybe an indication that the entire project is being redone not just because of some minor problems but due to something even worse – the game may have not been any fun.
With additional reporting by Billy Wang
[via GameSpot]
