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News of Spore Delay Miscommunication
Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog reports that the much-anticipated title Spore has been pushed back yet again from its tentative release in 2008. That's right: it's now delayed until 2009. Just to remind you, Spore was announced at GDC 2005. They have some commentary on the delay: "When you see a live demo, it's pretty much the same demo everyone sees. It may look like the whole thing is off the cuff, but in reality you're seeing a carefully scripted show. It's possible giant chunks of the game are missing, and the illusion of the title being near completion is mostly smoke and mirrors. With a game this open-ended, it's possible the development team is running into a slew of unforeseen problems." Update: 06/21 07:24 GMT by Z : Unfortunately, there's been some miscommunication here. The previous announcement of Spore's delay already included the possibility of the game not shipping until 2009. EA's fiscal year ends in March, with fiscal 2009 running from the end of this next year into the beginning of the year after. Next Generation clarifies the issue.
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
Ever so appropriate.
I can't find my
[Obligatory comparison to Duke Nukem Forever]
Should spend more time on spore and less on chessy sim city and sims ports!
We have a new contender for vaporware that may be able to challenge Duke Nuke'em Forever. Spore Forever!
didn't see that one coming.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
This fuels my fear that Spore will be another in a long line of games that sound absolutely fantastic in terms of potential, but end up terribly disappointing. I'm excited as hell about Spore and I'm hoping that the release push-back just represents an intent to release the game only when its potential has been realised. Blizzard tends to have this attitude (although they're smart enough not to talk release dates until they're pretty solid) so hope springs eternal.
Still, on balance, I'd prefer that a game be delayed and subsequently released in good form, rather than the developers saying "the hell with it" and releasing a half-baked version.
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
Notice the summary only mentions the second of the three guesses in the referenced article. At least try and give some kind of balance.
The fiscal year for EA begins in April, so this is really April 2008.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
That's a misnomer. EA's fiscal year ends march 31st. So the question is when does the year start? Meaning does fiscal 2008 start April 2007? If that's the case it's still tentative for 2008. The ever-so-fiscally savvy blog doesn't mention anything pertaining to this.
And when the fuck are we taking news off of blogs and not trade pubs?
AAahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaHAAAHAHAH
It's the Heaven's Gate of videogames (the movie, not the mass sucicide)!
I don't mean just about this game, specifically, but how many times are we shown a pre-rendered video or told a "target" release date for the sole purpose of keeping our interest piqued for a game that hasn't even a remote chance of getting out on time (i.e. Spore) or never looking like that (the PS3 pre-renders a couple of E3's ago)...and we never learn.
Someone should let EA know that buzz isn't a fixed quantity. You think you have it one day, and then in 2 years buzz depreciates into "just another game."
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
My guess is that Spore will just end up being a mini-game in Duke Nukem Forever.
You don't push a release from "2008 to 2009". Wow, that looks bad. Say, instead, December 2008 to early 2009. (since you were "aiming" for december anyway).
A whole year? Sheesh. Please don't bring up Spore again until Bush is out of the whitehouse please.
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
This seems to be a trend with much-awaited games that people make a huge deal about. The more it's publicized, the longer it takes to release.
But, I wouldn't doubt that they hold off just to incorporate new ideas and technologies while it's under development.
It would just be nice to actually have some decent games like the swath several years ago. We're sorta in a slump.
"Please, shut up. Just when I think you can't say anything more stupid, you speak again." -Archie Bunker.
The problem is the game was too ambitious to start off with. I bet they got to the point in development when they realized all this freedom is really hard to develop and implement. Now were going to see a game where it seems like they cut off our leg and we just walk in circles.
I don't care if they keep pushing it out as long as it's worth the wait. There have been too many examples of games that were totally destroyed because the publisher/developer demanded holding firm to an unrealistic release date. One of the most well known was that abomination called Ultima: Ascension that still was unplayeable even after several patches. EA demanded that it be released about 1 year before it should have been in order to meet the Christmas market for that year, and what a piece of sh!t that turned out to be.
In this case, if the Spore developers need more time to make the game bug-free and worthy of my dollars, I'll gladly grant them that time. Now, if it goes to the level of delays that we're seeing with DNF, that's a different story.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
Don't start until the game is pending an actual release.
Samples of past over-hyped games I didn't give a flying fuck about by the time they came out:
Doom 3
Black and White
Future games I won't give a flying fuck about:
Duke Nukem Forever
Spore
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever."
I remember promises of what Fable was going to be and even looking back at screens that were taken nearly two years before its release. The game looked complete then, but what I played (while still awesome) wasn't what i had originally expected. It was extremely ambitious for its time. Most of what was promised or speculated to be in there was included in the final product, but the way it panned out in-game didn't feel as much of a free-will type of deal. This isn't my gripe about Fable, but merely my prediction that spore will either need lots more time to develop or will eventually be "dumbed down."
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
Agreed. To counter the Duke-Nukem effect, I'm hoping that Team Fortress 2 ends up as good as it's looking right now. That game has been in the works forever, and what we're seeing about it today is way different much of what they've shown of it in the past, but it looks very cool now.
And that's a sequel to a game that at its core has a very simple and well-developed core (FPS). Spore is looking to be something rather different than anything before it in scope, so I'd imagine (hope) that they're having to throw out a lot of their hard work, because the chances of them getting everything right the first few times is slim to none.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
They are letting it evolve for itself.
Maybe in an era or two.
holy cow! that rules! When is it due out?
Sweet! Now the computer that I just built to handle the latest generation of games has plenty of time to become obsolete before Spore comes out.
Now... where'd I leave that noose?
Good.
Again, I repeat that I would rather a game like this be delayed until it's a good game, than rushed and buggy. Rushed and buggy seems pretty common these days, and if delaying until 2009 is what it takes to finish the game, then more power to them - I've got plenty of stuff to look forward to playing in the meantime.
As if anybody needed permission for that. Spore the next Sims? Self-delusion to the max! My guess is they playtested the thing and found nobody could make heads or tails of it. Spore is essentially a tech demo for procedural content generation algorithms.
Just this infinitely recurring zero floats into view.
... to a game like this since I read the pre-release hype about Halo. Now I'm just waiting for MS to buy EA Games and make Spore Xbox360 only or Vista only (meaning I'll probably never buy it).
Prov 9:8 Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you.
Ok, so we've all watched the demo, and went "ooh, I'd love that game". The problem I see is that Will tipped his hand a bit too early -- the ideas were there in creating a SimEverything to model the development of an entire species.
Given that, what kind of legal recourse now exists if an independent programming firm were to take some of the ideas of Spore - trading card objects, automatic content sharing, point-based evolution - and code their own Evolution game? Since Spore hasn't been released, what kind of copyrights currently exist given that it's not a salable product? Hollywood loves that tactic of producing a movie similar to another already in production (Penguin movies the last couple of years)... Couldn't someone beat Will to the punch and complete his vision before he gets to complete his vision?
I vaguely recall that Spore was suppose to be some kind of big change in the way games are developed. Something about focus on letting users create the content, decrease the art assets needed, etc. Doesn't it use like procedural textures and whatnot? I guess maybe it hasn't turned out to be such a revolution on the development side after all. (For some reason I was always under the impression that Spore was suppose to have more of an impact on how games are made rather than on how games are played... maybe I was just misinformed.)
These things take time to evolve.
Which I will not bother to buy either untill they are down on the $9.99 rack, I've waited this long, what's another six months?
We are all just people.
Forever? Reminds me on Ultima 9...
Will Wright delivers.
If it isn't ready, that's because it isn't ready.
That said, Wii Sims (or Mii Sims for the Wii, aka Animal Crossing does Anime on the Wii) is still coming out in a month.
I can live with that.
KWANZAI OVERDOSE!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
EA says otherwise.
Don't forget about Black & White as another game that was delayed, delayed, delayed, and was just not a good game at all when it was released...
...
And, yet, if you think about what they tried to do with Black & White, you realize that in some ways the model used in it is the precursor to the Wii method of game play - admittedly fatally flawed by the use of a mouse instead of a Nunchuk and Wii-mote.
I would love to see B&W done right for the Wii, and by done right I mean bug-free and totally reset.
And with a frickin option to turn off that voice
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
In an interview for GameBotherer magazine, Will Wright stated:
Well, since we started Spore a lot's happened in the industry. XPSP2 came out, making PCs safe again, then Vista with all the DirectX-10 goodness and even Apple's relevant for gaming now. Hell - consoles are amazing these days! Have you seen what the PS3 can do? Sure it's a bugger to program for, but you've got like three or six or some other number of processors in that thing! We're just not sure what to develop for though - there are too many options now.
We figure we should give it another three to five years and see which way the wind's blowing before committing to a release date. We'll probably rewrite the code a few times to pick up all the other platforms - PS3, Macs, Wii, Gamecube, Nintendo-64, Sega Megadrive, some toaster that Tim worked out how to program for and maybe, if we can find time and have nothing better to do, maybe Linux as well. But don't quote me on that last one.
"But this is Sid Meier's baby" Will Wright. ;)
I guess 2009 will be most exciting year in computing history. Not only it'll be the year of the Linux desktop, but we'll see a simultaneous release of:
- Spore
- Duke Nukem Forever
- GNU Hurd
- Perl 6
- PHP 6
- Python 3000
- Bytecode compiled Ruby
I was about to say 13256278887989457651018865901401704640, but it appears this number is private property.
They could release an evoluting game thats a great concept.
Each week they could release a patch to add features to the game.
Or maybe the programmers are writing the code for the 32 cores with 128-bit Intel Core 4 with Windows Vista Reloaded 2
you know just to be prepared... and what about DirectX 12?
you didnt see that coming!!!!
DAMN... another 5 years more....
the developer of a delayed, but bad game, at least forever is a bit shorted once it *is* released. Less time for people to remember it sucking so much.
No sig for you!!
Will's just having a bitch of a time headhunting an intelligent designer.
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
Apparently the article is just a bunch of "user generated procedural content", i.e. bullshit. c(-;
-Don
EA: Spore Delay "Misinformation"
Reports that Electronic Arts' highly anticipated Spore has been further delayed are "misinformation," the publisher told Next-Gen today. ImageIt's one of the most anticipated games of today, and any word of further delay for Will Wright's Spore is sure to make headlines.
But reports making rounds today are basically old news being made into "new" news, EA said.
"There seems to be some misinformation flying around," explained a rep in a phone interview. "Nothing's changed since our call on May 8, where [CEO] John Riccitello specifically said that we were moving Spore from fiscal '08 to early fiscal '09."
EA's fiscal 2009 runs from April 2008 through March 2009.
During that May earnings call, Riccitello stated, "...Spore is a title we have enormous confidence in. I've had the chance to review the title three times in the my short return to EA and it looks fantastic. I will also tell you that it's right up [to] the bubble in Q4 [of fiscal '08], if not sometime in early fiscal '09, so we don't feel comfortable in forecasting it."
There has yet to be a firm announced released date for Spore. An "early fiscal '09" release means that the game could theoretically launch in spring 2008.
The rep said that the rumor of the additional delay was exacerbated by a quote making the rounds in the games press lifted from the latest issue of Game Informer which says that the game is "delayed indefinitely." Apparently, the information from the conference call was misconstrued, the rep determined.
"It's the same information we said in May. Spore's progressing and it looks great," she added.
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Spore is for real, not vaporware, but it has to go through a lot of tuning before it's really fun and balanced, just like all of Will Wright's other games. It's a process called "Tuned Emergence" and "Design by Accretion", and it takes a long time, but it's worth the wait.
Sims Designer Chris Trottier on Tuned Emergence and Design by Accretion . (Chris also worked on Spore!)
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Includes three seasons in the year 2008. We could see this game as early as May 2008.
From the the Future of Games article : "In 20 years, players will look back at Will Wright's Spore as the game that ushered in the era of user-generated content."
Heh, in 20 years, players will look at Will Wright's Spore and say, "Can't wait till it comes out!"
You just got troll'd!
I'll consider getting a PS3 just to run this game. On paper and screen, Spore looks like the next addiction.
Well - unless I get that next-gen iMac 24" that is..
Stop the brainwash
It's worse actually. If you actually try to keep the buzz up for several years straight, pretty much by making an even more over-the-top claim periodically, you end up with one (or both of):
1. guaranteed disappointment, as the game can't possibly match the increasingly outrageous claims. See, B&W.
2. backlash, as people get fed up with the hype and pretty much start developping an allergy to it. See, Daikatana.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
... I'd never leave the house again.
:includes => {:really_big_fangs} :limbs, :in => {6..MAX_INT} :food_sources, :class_name => :human
acts_as_predator,
validates_number_of
has_many
Planet.find(:all).destroy!
(It is so much more fun to write Rails jokes than Perl jokes. The only problem is that there is a two-year delay between when you run them and when people laugh...)
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Well, since Ultima VIII: Pagan had the exact same problem that wasn't much of a surprise. It's a shame the Ultima series ended that way.