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Spore Delayed Until Q2 2008

Posted by Zonk on Wed May 09, 2007 07:47 AM
from the no-terraforming-until-next-year-go-home dept.
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georgewilliamherbert writes "CNet has the news that EA is reporting a slight loss for the quarter. It expects profits for the year to fall short about ten cents, hitting a high of $1.20 as opposed to the expected $1.31. The company's share price was down 3% in extended trading yesterday. The reason for these adjustments? EA reluctantly announced that Spore has been delayed until Q2 2008. ' Redwood City, Calif.-based Electronic Arts said it taken out Spore, a game where players build organisms from scratch, from its financial projections for the fiscal year ending in March 2008, adding that the game could be delayed until fiscal 2009. In the fourth quarter ended March 31, the company said its net loss widened to $25 million, or 8 cents per share, from $16 million, or 5 cents, in the year-earlier period. Excluding items, the company earned 6 cents per share versus 14 cents in the year-earlier period.'" From a technology perspective, this thing seems at least as complicated as some Massive games; makes perfect sense it would take about as long to build this title as a game in that genre.

Related Stories

[+] Spore to Ship 'When It's Done' And Not Before 135 comments
Citing the sheer potential of the title, EA executives John Riccitiello and Frank Gibeau stated in a conference call yesterday that Spore will not ship until it is finished. Next Generation reports: "'It's one of those breakthrough products that might come across the industry every three, five, seven years ... We could not be more bullish for the potential of the franchise as we are right now,' said Riccitiello. He said that he still expects the game to ship in the 'March, April, May' 2008 timeframe. However, Riccitiello said, 'We will make the choice of shipping a better game than an on-time game given the high potential for this franchise.'"
[+] Spore About Six Months Away 90 comments
SimCity creator and all-around genius Will Wright recently publicly stated that Spore is about six months away. Whether that's six months from completion or release isn't said. CVG has his comments from a recent interview with Radio 5 Live: "Spore's an ambitious game - which he admits - that's essentially a life sim. Players start off as a single-cell organism and then create their species at every stage of its evolution - from its first steps on land through to tribes then a culture and then finally it's off to explore the galaxy. 'We've had to do a lot of testing to make sure that the game is accessible by a wide group of people', Wright went on to explain. 'I want the people who have played The Sims to be able to play Spore - I don't want it to be some thing just hardcore gamers play.'"
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Spore Delayed Until Q2 2008 25 Comments More | Login /

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  • The real reason... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AmIAnAi (975049) * on Wednesday May 09 2007, @07:49AM (#19050415)
    The main Spore code is on schedule and almost complete, its just that they wanted to include Duke Nukem Forever as a side mission.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Shark (78448)
      Nah, they're too busy *playing* it internally and pretending to be working.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by sammy baby (14909)
      Unfortunately for the developers, they didn't actually develop the DNF side-mission code themselves - they're letting it evolve directly within the game. Unfortunately, the element of chance involved means that they'll have to play it an infinite number of

    • Re:The real reason... (Score:4, Funny)

      by rishistar (662278) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @12:01PM (#19053589) Homepage
      I think they just want to see how many years they can keep winning Games Critics Awards Best Original Game at E3 [gamecriticsawards.com].
      [ Parent ]

  • I sense a Black and White coming (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blakey Rat (99501) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @07:51AM (#19050437)
    Man, this game is great! Wow! ... Ok, it's delayed. Ok, another delay. Hm, ok, that preview doesn't look as impressive as it once did. Man, this game isn't really all that good.

    • Re:I sense a Black and White coming (Score:5, Insightful)

      by paeanblack (191171) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @09:11AM (#19051189)
      Man, this game is great! Wow! ... Ok, it's delayed. Ok, another delay. Hm, ok, that preview doesn't look as impressive as it once did. Man, this game isn't really all that good.

      If a game can stop being "all that good" with the passage of time, then it was never great to begin with.
      [ Parent ]

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Chyeld (713439)

          Black and White had years of hype-machine following it, proclaiming it the best game ever with the best AI, most creative premise, best writing, etc. All the magazines and websites had previews. Then as the months dragged on and it was delayed, the hype started to dissolve. Then when people actually played the game, the hype disappeared... turns out the game was never that great to begin with. Same thing could happen to Spore. Look at how much hype "The Movies" got before it came out, and what impact has it had on the industry? Next to none.

          There is a trend that you are missing in the examples you are providing, one that is far more telling as to why those games were well hyped flops and why few people fear the same about Spore.

          Hint: The initials P.M. come into play.

          I'm not saying Sid

  • Say it ain't so... (Score:4, Funny)

    by illeism (953119) * on Wednesday May 09 2007, @07:54AM (#19050455)
    By the time this comes out it will have become a full-fledged fern...
    Also - insert DNF joke

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jimstapleton (999106)
      Sadly the continuous delays made me think more of vista...

      *cry*

    • Re:Say it ain't so... (Score:5, Funny)

      by wolfemi1 (765089) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @01:10PM (#19054959)

      By the time this comes out it will have become a full-fledged fern...

      Actually, it will come out as a pot of petunias, whose final thought will be "Oh no, not again."

      [ Parent ]

  • Mac Support (Score:5, Funny)

    by vertigoCiel (1070374) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @07:55AM (#19050467)
    Hopefully this extra time will allow them to release Spore on more than just the PC at launch. Will Wright has said he wants to port this game to as many platforms as possible, and I'm praying for a simultaneous OS X release.

  • I'm on to you, EA! (Score:5, Funny)

    by zyl0x (987342) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @08:06AM (#19050559) Journal
    Will Wright is dead. They're just delaying the game because they don't want to upset anyone. It's like Weekend At Bernie's, but not funny anymore.

    ..I guess that makes it more like Weekend At Bernie's 2.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by elrous0 (869638) *
      I *KNEW* he smelled slightly worse than normal at the last developers' conference! That explains it!

    • Re:I'm on to you, EA! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Odin's Raven (145278) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @12:20PM (#19054007)

      Will Wright is dead. They're just delaying the game because they don't want to upset anyone.

      I thought the delay was due to them using the game to re-evolve a replacement Will Wright. Last I'd heard they've achieved a coder with three brains and six eyes, but only one foot and no hands. They've been trying to teach it to code by hopping up and down on a large keyboard, but it's not working out very well. (I believe they've nicknamed the creature "Won't Write".)

      [ Parent ]

  • what really happened... (Score:4, Funny)

    by CJSlim2001 (988471) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @08:10AM (#19050591) Homepage
    is the programmers got a DMCA take down notice for code within the game. Seem that someone emailed the MPAA, letting them know that all species in Spore are created in hex. Guess they took offense to highly aggressive baboons and HD-DVD sharing 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0.
  • I don't understand why everyone is so hyped for Spore. It seems like it's just the sims but you can make creatures. Maybe I just don't buy the marketing about evolurionary traits or whatever, but spore looks like another person/animal raising sim which wil

      • Re:I don't get the hype. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by MeanderingMind (884641) * on Wednesday May 09 2007, @09:22AM (#19051317) Homepage Journal
        I'm guessing they're having trouble with the following things.

        1. Inappropriate content management. How are they going to filter for crass people who make walking embodiments of MA material?

        2. Transitions. Moving from an amoeba to a fish isn't a boolean moment. If you watch the videos, you see them constantly skip the transitions and go from clearly an amoeboid to clearly a sea dweller to clearly a tribal society etc. Transitioning is obviously difficult to get right.

        3. Choices. There's a huge amount of fervor and expectation centered around this game, and I think they want to avoid "obvious" criticisms. Things such as "Why can't I have a creature with no legs?" "Can my creature have two brains?" "Why does my civilization have to be on land?"
        [ Parent ]

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by TheThiefMaster (992038)
          It's been shown that you can shape the main body of your creature however you want, only the mouth, feet, hands, etc. are pre-made pieces, and you can place them wherever you like. And there's 30+ of each to choose from, not to mention the whole automatic

  • No quantum leap anymore (Score:5, Insightful)

    by polarbeer (809243) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @08:32AM (#19050773)
    Perhaps if Will Wright stopped appearing at every single games/computers/electronics conference, he would have more time to finish the game.

    Seriously, though: EA seems to think that Spore is such a unique game that it will sell no matter when it is released. I'm not sure about this. Plenty of companies are working on creating more dynamic and procedural content for games, such as the NaturalMotion software for simulating the human body. If EA/Wright keep postponing it, Spore will not feel like the quantum leap it was supposed to be.

     

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by elrous0 (869638) *
      At this point, he HAS to go to every conference. Getting back into his office would mean having to fight his way through EA investors with torches and pitchforks.

  • phew (Score:4, Funny)

    by ObiWanStevobi (1030352) on Wednesday May 09 2007, @08:34AM (#19050799) Journal
    I was wondering how I was going to get the wife to allow another computer purchase this year. It's much more likely that I can convince her in Q2 2008.

    BTW, what is the record on longest development time for a game? In Q2 08, Spore will be just shy of a decade. IMO, anything Will Wright has spent nearly a decade on has to be truly awesome.

      • Once you leave your mother's basement and discover that females do exist in other forms than internet porn and men pretending to be women in chat rooms, you might begin to understand. Until then, AC, there is little other help I can offer you.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rbarreira (836272)
      No, in the meantime the code will get bloated enough to warrant the need for a better computer...
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