You think The Sims was a cash cow for EA? Wait till you hear about its plans for Will Wright’s game, Spore. How about a Spore movie, a television show, game sequels up the yin-yang, or other products based upon the franchise?
That’s what the EA corporate brass plans to do. While Electronic Arts is changing direction from cranking out franchises and buying up game companies, the prospect of making Spore into another mega franchise is just too tempting to pass up for the giant game publisher, or for any game publisher for that matter.
Wright is excited about the prospects of mimicking his galaxy-expansionist game.
"With Spore, we’re looking way outside the game space, such as TV, movies, etc. We’re basically planting the seeds to spread Spore out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game," said Wright.
"We’re going to be much more intelligent about harvesting other market opportunities for Spore than we were with The Sims, which as big as it was in the game space, pretty much remains in the game space. Longer term, I think the brand of Spore potentially has a wider net to cast than The Sims did."
So should we be expecting Spore Happy Meals at McDonalds or "Spore: The Movie" soon? That’s hard to predict, but one thing we do know is that EA is serious about taking the comeback trail and grabbing the #1 spot away from Activision as the biggest 3rd party game publisher. If Spore turns out to be the monster hit it’s hoping for, it will be the first step in reclaiming the crown.
[via Reuters]
