Topic: Spore release date finally announced.

[Pugnate]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17356

From what I understand, the game has been ready for a while. They are just taking the time to spit shine apparently. They even hired the lead developer of Civ 4  (no not Mier) to help out.

[idolminds]

This game has me excited. The guys are just brilliant. For example, the demo for the game will be the entire creature editor. So you can make whatever the hell you want and run it around on a little bit of land. The cool part? Every creature you create will be uploaded to the Spore "hivemind", so when people go to buy the retail version there will already be millions of creatures to populate their game. Brilliant.

[Pugnate]

I am going to make female creatures with 4...no...5...gigantic boobs!

[sirean_syan]

I'm sure by the time you do it, it'll be outdone by some poor 5th grader. The result will be something along the lines of Jabba the Hut, except made of boobs.

[Pugnate]

hahahaha....

[Quemaqua]

This game better rock so hard.  It has so much potential, and it seems they're really taking their time with it, so I have very high hopes.  I've got up and down with it, but I'm definitely going to get really excited when it's about to release.

[MysterD]

Here's some details on The Spore Creature Creator, which will have a FREE Edition and a RETAIL Edition.

Spore Editor Details [April 25, 2008, 8:10 pm ET] - Viewing Comments
EA and Maxis follow up on word that free and retail versions of the Spore creature editor will be released in June (story) with an official announcement that fills in more details, including pricing:

    Redwood City, CA - April 25, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) and Maxis today announced that a free downloadable demo, and complete retail version of the Spore™ Creature Creator will be available starting June 17, 2008. The Spore Creature Creator gives Spore fans, and those who are creatively curious, the first hands-on opportunity to design their own species and share it with their friends. All creatures designed with the Spore Creature Creator can be imported into the full retail version of Spore for PC and Mac when it launches on September 5, 2008 in Europe and September 7, 2008 in North America.

    “We are thrilled to finally be putting the creative tools of Spore into the hands of players around the world,” said Will Wright, chief designer, Maxis. “The amazing creations players design this summer will help populate the game universe we all enter when Spore ships this September, so in a sense, the Spore Creature Creator is the birth of Spore.”

    The free demo version of the Spore Creature Creator will be available worldwide via download from www.spore.com. The demo lets players shape, paint and play with an unlimited number of creatures, using 25 percent of the creature-making parts from Spore. Gamers can then share these creations with their friends, including seamless uploads to YouTube. The demo will also be included in the The SimCity™ Box, which ships on June 23.

    A complete retail version of the Spore Creature Creator will also be available in North America for $9.99 and most European territories for €9.99, which gives players access to all the creature-making parts in the game.

    Spore, the highly anticipated game from the creators of The Sims™, gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even UFOs. Players can then seamlessly share their creations with the world or explore infinite new galaxies created by other gamers.

    Consumers can visit www.spore.com to sign up for the Spore newsletter or check out all-new screenshots and video of the game. Members of the media can visit EA’s press site at www.info.ea.com for information about all of EA’s games.

    Spore Creature Creator retail version is not available in all territories.

[gpw11]

Well, I certainly have mixed feelings about that.  If it's just the demo version than fine, but if the actual ingame creature editor is like that then it looks like Que was right and I was totally wrong; we're about to get raped.

[idolminds]

Well, the free demo is cool with 25% of the creature parts to play with. If you want you can go buy the retail version which gives you access to 100% of the parts.

The full retail game comes with the full creature creator, obviously. This is just early access and junk.

With that said, I think $10 is a bit too much for this pre-release creature creator. Once the game itself comes out you will have zero use for it anymore, and the game comes out less than 3 months after the creator. You know, $5 I probably would have grabbed it. Or even if the thing came with a coupon for $5-10 off the full game then it would be fine. Or fuck, just make it a pre-order bonus. Charging for it separately seems wrong.

[MysterD]

Charging for it separately seems wrong.

I'm guessing EA came up w/ this idea. 

[MysterD]

Spore's system requirements have been revealed.

Spore System Requirements Unveiled
by Chris Faylor Jun 10, 2008 2:16pm CST tags: Spore
Publisher Electronic Arts has released the minimum system requirements for EA Maxis' long-awaited galaxy-spanning evolution simulator Spore.

Spore is slated to arrive on PC and Mac September 7, with a Nintendo DS edition, titled Spore Creatures, hitting on the same day.

The game's creature creator will be available for PC and Mac on June 17, a move meant to help populate the title's vast online universe.

      FOR WINDOWS XP
          o 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
          o 512 MB RAM
          o A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
          o At least 6 GB of hard drive space

      FOR WINDOWS VISTA
          o 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
          o 768 MB RAM
          o A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
          o At least 6 GB of hard drive space