After all those years in the works, for all the hype the game garnered and the buzz it created, Will Wright’s epic game Spore has actually delivered. No doubt there were moments where everyone involved with the project at Electronic Arts probably feared this could be a flop along the lines of the Sims Online. Instead, Spore is growing like the blob with no signs of slowing down.
The game, where you begin with a mere single cell organism and lead it to intergalactic civilization – the epitome of god games if there ever was one – has reached sales in excess of one million units. Sort of anyway, but that’s because Spore isn’t actually selling as a single component.
Recently release numbers from NPD’s PC game chart covering September 7 to the 13 show that Spore occupied three of the top four game software slots, including the base game Spore, a deluxe Spore Galactic Edition and the Spore Creature Creator. There is also a Nintendo DS version of the game as well
Many people do seem to be playing god too, and at present there may be more digital life in the Spore universe than life on Earth. GameDaily spoke with Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer on Spore, to discuss this latest smash hit from EA Maxis, and she explained that at current time gamers have been creating life non-stop.
“I think what's most impressive to all of us at Maxis is the number of creations that have been created since the release. Before launch we were at about 3 million and that's now jumped to more than 30 million and counting.”
Life, at least this digital variety, began even before the game was officially released. The Spore Creature Creator was released earlier this summer to give players a chance to get started making and designing various life forms. And so far Spore shows no sign of extinction.