Spore Delayed Until Q2 2008 107
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.
I sense a Black and White coming (Score:5, Insightful)
No quantum leap anymore (Score:5, Insightful)
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:No quantum leap anymore (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:phew (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I sense a Black and White coming (Score:5, Insightful)
If a game can stop being "all that good" with the passage of time, then it was never great to begin with.
Much to learn, my young padawan. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Teasing isn't nice. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I sense a Black and White coming (Score:3, Insightful)
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's games don't have their faults, and I'm especially starting to feel burned by the combo of "publish and forget" and "one million and one expansion packs!" business strategies that Maxis has adopted under EA. But publishing games while failing to deliver most of what was promised isn't shown as Sid's particular failing if you check his CV.