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Spore Delayed Until Q2 2008

Posted by Zonk on from the no-terraforming-until-next-year-go-home dept.

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.

16 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. The real reason... by AmIAnAi · · Score: 5, Funny

    The main Spore code is on schedule and almost complete, its just that they wanted to include Duke Nukem Forever as a side mission.

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    Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
    1. Re:The real reason... by Shark · · Score: 3, Funny

      Nah, they're too busy *playing* it internally and pretending to be working.

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      Mind the frickin' laser...
    2. Re:The real reason... by rishistar · · Score: 3, Funny

      I think they just want to see how many years they can keep winning Games Critics Awards Best Original Game at E3.

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      Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
  2. I sense a Black and White coming by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    Comment of the year
    1. Re:I sense a Black and White coming by paeanblack · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  3. Say it ain't so... by illeism · · Score: 3, Funny

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

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    Help test the /. effect at my min
    1. Re:Say it ain't so... by wolfemi1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      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."

  4. Mac Support by vertigoCiel · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Mac Support by Kimos · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's a sad state of affairs when hoping for a Mac release of a game that's a year and a half away gets you modded +5 Funny.

  5. I'm on to you, EA! by zyl0x · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

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    Blerg.
    1. Re:I'm on to you, EA! by Odin's+Raven · · Score: 4, Funny

      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".)

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      A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
  6. what really happened... by CJSlim2001 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  7. No quantum leap anymore by polarbeer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  8. phew by ObiWanStevobi · · Score: 3, Funny
    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.

  9. Re:Game or Metagame by denominateur · · Score: 3, Informative

    That has actually been done and is called GameTycoon http://www.gametycoon.de/ (site is in german) A review can be found here: http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/gametycoon/revi ew.html

  10. Re:I don't get the hype. by MeanderingMind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?"

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    Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!