Spore Coming to Consoles?

Wowzer writes "EA was previously planning to bring Spore from PC to handhelds. In an interview this week Spore creator Will Wright was quoted as saying they are looking at bringing Spore to all platforms. From the article: 'You might be playing part of the game on a handheld platform, you might be playing the entire game but maybe more avatar-based on a console. The consoles are getting kind of different now, I think there's a really interesting distinction between the Wii and the Xbox 360 and PS3. Something like the Wii offers a lot of interesting creative opportunities for the editors, with the controller.'"

Comments

Re:At this point I want only one thing

[digidave]

A few weeks ago he gave an interview and said it was still at least a year away from release.

Nice, but..

[The Living Fractal]

One of the really intriguing things about Spore, at least to me, was the way it used a random sample of species from a worldwide depository (via the net) to populate the game and create a unique experience every time you played it. I got all sorts of chills thinking about it, sort of like this kind of evolutionary programming might some day lead to an accidental AI (yes I know, very pseudo-science Sci-Fi.. but hey I'm a dreamer)

So, while I applaud the game being released on the consoles, if it doesn't have the same net-based populating code I think something will be lost. But hey, it'll probably still be cool.

TLF

The Console Plague

[Puff of Logic]

I'm really looking forward to Spore, so please don't screw it up by designing it to be "console-friendly". TFA seems to imply that the PC game will be developed first, followed by console ports. Fair enough, if that's the case. But designing games simultaneously for both consoles and PCs seems to result in console gamers saying "wow, this game is much deeper/better than most games!" while PC gamers are shaking their heads at the moronic interface while lamenting what could have been. Oblivion is a prime example of this. Grrr.

Re:The Console Plague

[PFI_Optix]

Not entirely. We have learned that some things just don't work the same on both, and trying to do both at once is a disaster.

FPS have to be dumbed down for console play. Overbearing auto aim, turning speed limits, limited control options, deeply-nested graphical menus for issuing complex commands because you only have a dozen buttons at most. If you did a simultaneous, identical release on both console and PC with a FPS, the PC version would be an utter flop because it was so crippled compared with other gams.

RTS is obviously virtually impossible with current consoles. Even the Wii isn't suited for it.

A game like spore should benefit greatly from the mouse. I don't see where character design would be nearly as easy or fun with a console controller; again, even the Wii's remote will probably lack the finesse.

The original article

[TyrionEagle]

Why link to the original article when you can link to some blog that quotes it?

If we remember other Will Wright console releases

[WillAffleckUW]

such as the Sims and Sims 2 console versions, we'll see that he normally allows a smaller subset of images (such as clothing styles, hair styles, body platforms) than in the PC versions, and that they're less modifiable.

My guess, based on his other console versions, would be that the version of Spore on a console may or may not have an online component (based on platform, most likely) but it will have a standard stock set of planet types and creature parts, which may not be quite as rich and adaptable as the PC version will be, but will have a stronger story element, with pre-scripted stories you have to follow to "unlock" additional components for later game play.

Given the wide range of features (eg hard disk storage on PS3 and xBox360 and even Wii addon versions), it may have further limitations as well.

One would definitely hope they'll delay the console release until about 3 months after PC release to:

a. maximize PC game sales;
b. hype console sales when they happen due to buzz and "being after the console launch" when fewer games are being simultaneously released; and
c. fix bugs and problems found in the PC version, since a console version tends to be a frozen code set, unless online patch updates are integrated - note while the Wii, xBox360, and PS3 all have online capability (or can add it), there is no guarantee a player will have a high-speed net connection needed for such upgrades, so it needs to work out of the box.

Re:All Platformes

[cloricus]

That is what I'd like to know... Though now that Wines dx7/8 is semi decent and I own a Mac (ppc) as well as my usual Linux boxen I'm hopeful I can play this game 0 day. It's at the top of the list of games I'm paying for this year/next which is impressive as its knocked ut2k7 from that position. And note I'm not one for paying for games that aren't worth it, unlike the last uber hype period (d3, hl2) I cannot wait for this set of games coming up and I've already saved up the monies to buy them all! ^_^

Re:All Platformes

[TwoBit]

It probably won't unless it is very popular. However, a large majority of the code compiles and runs on Linux and MacOSX now.