Spore Creatures Now Outnumber Known Earth Species

GBC writes "AFP is reporting that, as of a week ago, the number of creatures in the "Spore" database exceeded the number of known species on Earth. They are created using 'Creature Creator,' which is available in a free (with limited parts) or paid download at the Spore website. Will Wright seems extremely happy with the progress so far: 'We hit 100K in 22 hours and a million by the end of the first week. The numbers are just blowing us away.'"

Comments

DRM on Creature Creator?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've mostly been staying away from Spore because of the fairly restrictive DRM it's supposed to be shipping with. Anyone know if the creature creator tool also installs the DRM?

I just recently re-formatted and re-installed windows, and I'm trying not to bog it down again with crapware like DRM systems that drag down my system performance.

Personally, since I can't get the full game without DRM, I'm not sure I'm too interested in the CC even if it *doesn't* have the DRM, since it's not *much* use creating a creature but never playing the game.

Tricky Geniuses at Maxis/EA

[Babbster]

Apparently, Will Wright and company weren't at all satisfied with the idea of people creating monstrous amounts of after-market content for their Sims games. Not only have they whet the appetites of all the people who enjoy the Creture Creator for the retail game, but they also get to sell Spore right out of the gate as having "millions of creatures available online." The only expense involved was building the software for creature creation, and they would have done that anyway. Brilliant!

Re:Tricky Geniuses at Maxis/EA

[SamSim]

It's why Blizzard is one of the only group out there that makes a good product - Damn the release date! A better game is better for everyone in the long run.

Quoth Shigeru Miyamoto: "A late game is only late for a while. A bad game is bad forever."

Re:Me too...

[Clovis42]

If the average person spent a mere five hours on a creature

It's more like .5 hours. I put my 12 year old brother in front of it for the first time and he made an impressive looking creature in about 30 minutes. It is an amazingly simple tool to use. If the other parts of Spore are as streamlined and elegant as the Creature Creator it'll be one of the most impressive games in years. I doubt that will be the case, though. There are some tutorials on the Spore website. You can watch a Maxis employee throw together a nice mantis in about 5 minutes.