As if you didn't already spend enough time on Facebook stalking your ex or laughing at pictures of people you knew in high school, Maxis has given you another reason to sit on the social networking service all day long. 

Spore Islands is a new Facebook game that allows player to compete against one another for survival. You'll create an island in the 2D title, design evolving creatures, invite friends to the island, or send your own creatures to friend's islands. The idea is to dominate islands, becoming the most powerful species on Facebook. Which, when you say it like that, sounds totally weird, right? 

Players progress is tracked on both Global and friends-only leaderboards, so you competitive types should head over to the Spore Island page to get you creature on. Anyone playing? Let me know what you think. Facebook kind of scares me.

For once, we are getting a videogame-based movie that actually makes a lot of sense. As reported by Variety, Fox has acquired the rights from EA to produce a Spore movie, and while few specifics are known about the film at this time, there are some names attached to the project.

"From every perspective -- visually, thematically and comedically -- the world of Spore provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen," says director Chris Wedge. Having previously directed Ice Age, I think he's a suitable candidate for the gig, although he's no Uwe Boll.

The movie is set to be produced by Blue Sky Studios, while EA Entertainment's Patrick O'Brien and Maxis Studio's Lucy Bradshaw will both serve as executive producers. Finally, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland (The Princess and the Frog) will be writing the script for Spore.

Out of all of the films based on EA properties that are in the works -- The Sims, Army of Two, Dante's Inferno, Dead Space, Mass Effect, and probably something else I'm forgetting -- I believe this one seems like it has the most potential to be successful with its target audience.

Who wants to launch pesky gaming software when you can just get the job done in a browser? Electronic Arts understands where you're coming from -- you want to be able to create a Spore creature in the same place that you check your email and download your porn. 

Introducing the Spore Creature Creator 2-D, a Flash-based application that features 250 some-odd body parts to design your own unique monster-pet-thing. The program offers the ability to start a creature from scratch, or import from the massive Sporepedia. Once finished, you can embed the little bastard on your Facebook, or terrorize your friends with it by way of email. 

As I'm writing this, the Web site -- www.spore2d.com -- is down, so I can't make my own creature. Curses. Yay, www.spore2d.com is up now! Why don't you play around with it a bit and show us what you come up with? 

Spore is kind of becoming the village bicycle for gaming genres. Sure it started out as a ambitious simulator, but now its also been an adventure game, an RTS game and an odd DS game. Up next for a ride is platforming and fighting and the system to do it is the Wii. Spore Hero is the Wii's version of the game that lets you create a creature and then throw him into a planet saving adventure.

In the above trailer you can see how the Spore Creature Creator has been modified for the Wii, and how to make a Spider Bat. After that some action takes place. I'm not sure exactly how the multiplayer fighting will work, but being able to create your own fighter and use its different aspects is pretty interesting. Sadly, this will probably be geared too much towards kids to really get very deep or interesting. To tell the truth I'm more interested in the single player aspect of the game and how creature creation will affect it. Leave the monster fighting to the Pokemon. 

Shacknews brings even more bad news today as a series of layoffs have hit Maxis, the developers of Spore, The Sims and other Sim titles. Electronic Arts told Shacknews that:

"Often in the video game industry, the size of a studio fluctuates in response to business conditions. In this case, EA has taken action to reduce the workforce at Maxis as we focus the business and focus Maxis."

EA would not say how many people have been laid off, but Shack reports that there was a “sizable exodus” from Maxis.

As of late, there's been a rash of layoffs going around after the games were released. In this case, Maxis is still working on Spore Hero for the Wii and Spore Hero Arena for the DS, both of which should be out later this year.

EA announced today that two new games in the Spore franchise will be appearing on Nintendo's consoles this coming fall. Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena will be making their way to the Nintendo Wii and DS respectively on October 6th in North America, followed by the rest of the world on October 9th.

Based on EA's description from their press release (see below the fold), the games revolve around you controlling a single monster you can create and modify as they embark on an epic quest to save their world. Hey, wasn't that the plot of the incredibly poor Spore Creatures on DS? It looks and sounds as though EA is attempting the same formula with this one, and adding a multiplayer battle component for the monsters.

I hope it's better than I think it's going to be. The Spore games always sound interesting but I haven't yet seen anything that lives up to the potential that the franchise has.

Hit the jump for videos of both Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena as well as a press release from EA announcing their impending arrival. Then, hop into the gallery and have a look at some screenshots.

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Hey there Dtoiders. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other on the front page, hasn’t it. Well, the short story is that I’m back from my lengthy absence; and just in time for E3, no less.

So then, what sort of mind-blowing, videogame related news do I have in store for you? Uh, well, there are some new screens for EA’s recently announced Spore spin offs Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena -- for the Wii and DS respectively -- in the gallery. There’s also some logo art, so feel free to check that out too. If you’re into logos, and such.

As Nick told us earlier this month, Spore Hero is an action-adventure game that will see players designing a creature and leading it across its planet to avert some sort of cataclysm, whereas Spore Hero Arena will be a world-hopping arena-based fighter. So sort of like a Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch with more customization, I guess.

If you were wondering WTF http://www.spore.com/wtf was all about, wonder no longer. Electronic Arts has announced that the upcoming Spore expansion, Galactic Adventures, will get free downloadable content designed by the folks behind Robot Chicken.

“We’re bit fans of Spore, so teaming up on Spore Galactic Adventures was a natural fit and so much fun for all the guys at Robot Chicken,” said series co-creator Seth Green.

Unfortunately, every time I think of Green I think of two things: he played a werewolf of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and his “character” is a huge prick on Entourage. But that doesn’t mean I don’t chuckle extensively at Robot Chicken, and the Spore content will probably have the same effect on me. Also, werewolves rule.

The Robot Chicken missions are said to include “exploding poo, angry yetis, rulers yielding librarians and more.” They’ll be available as a free download when the game launches on June 23.

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Electronic Arts and Maxis have officially revealed today that they’ll be bringing the Spore franchise to Nintendo’s consoles, the Wii and the Nintendo DS, this year… with a twist.

Spore Hero will hit the Wii, and is a “story-driven action-adventure” game, with players creating their own hero creature and going on some quest to save their planet. The title features Wii-specific controls for things like combat, puzzles, and more. Creature creation is also being emphasized, with more than 250 collectible parts and abilities available to customize your little heroic freak.

The Nintendo DS will be getting its own title, Spore Hero Arena, another title with an emphasis on action. It sounds like Pokémon with a Spore slant to it, an arena-based fighter where you take your created creature from planet to planet beating up other Spore heroes. The title features competitive modes for up to three friends (or foes) locally, or against one other player via Nintendo Wi-Fi.

When this information hit my inbox this morning, I was a bit confused. I could have swore that these games were announced back in January. I was half right.  

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Both Spore and LittleBigPlanet are games that ride the "user generated content" train that seems to be so popular these days. Despite the fact that LittleBigPlanet benefited from its appealing central characters and PS3 exclusivity (which always guarantees press and fan attention), Maxis is confident that it still rules the user created content roost, and that LBP hasn't stolen its hype.

"We've had plenty of noise on our day," claims senior producer Morgan Roarty, "I was already at Maxis for a couple of years working on Spore before I heard about LittleBigPlanet so I don't know if they were inspired by us.

"They don't have anything near our numbers of things created. I don't think their base editors are as easily accessible as our editors, I think we really have that on them."

Roarty made sure to note that there was "no ill will" between Maxis and Media Molecule, but he still seems very keen on telling us that Spore is better than LBP, citing that around 200,000-250,000 creatures, buildings and vehicles are created every day in Spore. He did concede that Media Molecule has one edge with the fact that whole new levels can be created, giving you more to do with the content, but that Spore will soon one-up LBP in that regard with its Adventures expansion.

Personally, I never really considered the two games similar enough to be viewed as competition and don't know why Maxis is drawing comparisons. Besides, Spore will never be as cute at LittleBigPlanet, and that's the main thing.

Last night, EA and Maxis had a little shindig in San Francisco where they revealed the new Spore expansion for PC, a new standalone Spore PC title and Spore for the Wii and DS. Like any presentation on sequels and such, Maxis first flaunted their (Spor)e-peen and showed off some really impressive numbers for Spore. 

Most amazing of all the numbers is that 65 million creations have been made for Spore to date. The game has been out for a little over five months and there are 65 million creations already! That's more than amount of hairs on my arms, guys!

Like statistics? Have some more then:

• 200,000 creations are made a day.
• 50,000 people visit Spore.com, and that's not counting the number of people that visit Sporepedia through the game itself.
• Over 6 million Creature Creator downloads.
• 1,000 postcards are sent a day from Spore.
• Over 100 videos from Spore are uploaded to YouTube a day.
• One-third of the 65 million creations are penis monsters*

All in all, pretty impressive numbers. It all adds up to being the number one new IP launch in videogame history.

*That's a lie!

Last night in San Francisco, EA and Maxis had a "State of the Universe" address where they revealed their upcoming 2009 Spore lineup. I’ll have details on the new PC, Wii and DS titles in a little bit, but the event was mainly focused on the expansion pack for Spore called Spore Galactic Adventures.

So what else is Maxis going to give players to mess around with now? The entire game! Players will now be able to beam down to player created planets, have actual adventures and it’s all completely customizable just like the creatures are. Hit the jump for more on Spore Galactic Adventures.

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We already knew Will Wright's Spore -- obviously groomed to be a mega-franchise for Electronic Arts -- was coming to the Wii, but had little other information. New details suggest the game will be called Spore Hero, and will not be a port of the PC title, but instead a new title designed specifically for Nintendo's console. 

These details come from the German GamePro, who claims to have seen a trailer for the game at a recent EA event. The magazine also suggests that a follow up to last year's Nintendo DS title is being prepped as well, called Spore Hero Arena. 

If the info does pan out, it's likely we'll start seeing more information soon, and possibly this trailer the members of the fancy press have been seeing. Are you excited for a Wii version of the title, or did last year's Spore hype wear you out?

[Via Nintendo Everything]

What would happen if you crossed an Apple product with a Spore creature? We held a contest to find out, with ten winners taking home a code each to download Spore Origins from iTunes for the iPhone or iPod Touch. 

And the winners are: 

• Kryptinite
• entrager
• Jehutus
• Atlas
• lawlflip
• someone666
• goodgamer77
• Jakysan
• unstoppablejuggernaut
• electricmole

Congrats, your check's in the mail your download codes have been emailed to the address associated with your Destructoid account. Thanks to EA Mobile for providing the codes, and to everyone for entering.

While quite a few people thought it would never happen, EA made good on its word and has just released a de-authorization tool for Spore. While the five installation limit is still in place, the tool allows you to deauthorize one of your copies to free up one of your five slots.

Unfortunately, the tool is currently only available for PC, so all you hipsters running around with different color Macbooks for each day of the week are out of luck.

While it's nice to see that EA is slowly learning that DRM doesn't work, we can hope that eventually they will abandon install limits altogether. Although, considering how many copies of Spore were pirated, it's easy to see why companies and executives have a knee-jerk reaction to shove restrictions into all their games.

The tool is available now and can be downloaded from the offical Spore Web site.

[Via bit-tech]

Have an iPhone? Like Spore? Like free stuff? Sweet.

So listen up: we've got 10 "copies" of EA Mobile's Spore: Origins to giveaway. By copies, we mean Spore: Origins gift cards featuring codes redeemable on iTunes for one copy of the game. Spore: Origins is the mobile spin-off of Will Wright's "evolutionary" PC game where you'll focus on the "cell phase" of your created creature. While I don't own an iPhone or an iPod Touch, I had a chance to check the game out at an event not too long ago and was surprised at how fun it actually was.

How to win: simply show or tell us your idea for a Spore creature/Apple product mash-up. A good example would be using MS Paint or Photoshop to add limbs or antennae to an iMac or an iPhone. There is no such thing as a "bad example" -- you have nothing to lose!

Leave your images or ideas in the comments section of this post; we'll be accepting submissions through Thursday, 11:59 PM PT. Our ten favorites will win the Spore: Origins iTunes gift cards. Good luck!

[Update: To clarify, the cards are only redeemable in the United States. I know, I'm sorry, but I don't want to hear about it -- blame Apple!]

Okay, so no such award actually exists, and if it did, I doubt publisher Electronic Arts would be proud to accept it. Spore, the game that has become completely overshadowed by its anti-piracy controversy, had topped a list of the year's most pirated games. It's the kind of irony you could bottle.

Earlier this year, we reported that Spore was well on its way to receiving this dubious accolade, and now the game that garnered well-publicized criticism for its use of SecuROM DRM has lived up to its promise. Here's the top ten stolen titles, according to TorrentFreak:

1. Spore     (1,700,000)   
2. The Sims 2     (1,150,000)
3. Assassins Creed     (1,070,000)
4. Crysis     (940,000)
5. Command & Conquer 3     (860,000)
6. Call of Duty 4     (830,000)
7. GTA San Andreas     (740,000)
8. Fallout 3     (645,000)
9. Far Cry 2     (585,000)
10. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009     (470,000) 

All pirated titles were PC games. As if you couldn't guess.

An amusing punchline to one of the year's biggest running jokes. Of course, EA refused to take the hint, and continues to persevere with SecuROM in the face of consumer backlash and huge piracy numbers.

1,700,000 copies illegally downloaded ... and publishers STILL try and pretend that SecuROM is there to prevent piracy. Somehow, I don't think so.

Surprise! Computer games ship with imperfections and then they -- get this -- receive a patch! Maxis' Spore just got its third patch, the cleverly titled "Patch 3," which fixes the following bugs: 

• Fix for "ESC" key not bringing up Options in Galaxy Game Entry
• Fix for creator backgrounds appearing on small Sporepedia cards
• Update to help keep achievements on the server in sync with achievements in the game

Additionally, to make it seem less like a "we fixed some broken crap" update and more of a "really neat new stuff for you" update, they're throwing in 24 free exoskeleton limbs for the Creature Creator. Presumably, now you can create that guy you see in the header.

And it's finally all coming together.

The furor over Electronic Arts' decision to put SecuROM in its products has resulted in two new class-action suits. They were both filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Interestingly, the allegations include EA deceptively spiking its free download, the Spore Creature Creator, with SecuROM. Richard Eldridge, who has filed this particular complaint, states that the act "constitutes a major violation of computer owners' absolute right to control what does and what does not get loaded onto their computers, and how their computers shall be used."

Dianna Cortez filed the other complaint, which is aimed at The Sims 2: Bon Voyage. She alleges that the controversial SecuROM program gave her computer problems and stopped her accessing files on her USB flash drive or iPod.

Of course, this all has to be proven in a court of law, but if the accusation of SecuROM in the Spore Creature Creator is true, then I have to seriously question what the Hell is wrong with Electronic Arts. It's free, it doesn't need DRM. The only explanation is that EA used the free download to duplicitously safeguard against future "piracy" on that computer by smuggling through the DRM in advance. That is one of the most vile things I've heard of in this growing war against piracy and second-hand sales. I'm no fan of lawsuits, but if the Creature Creator allegation is true, I hope EA gets toasted.

Today, Electronic Arts announced a decent sized patch for the PC version of Spore. The patch fixes a plethora of issues that the Spore community has vocalized having problems with, along with a few bugs.

The biggest change deals with multiple deletions and bannings in the Sporepedia. By holding down the control key, players will be able to rid more than one phallic creature in their universe. The other big change is a new kind of planet style called Cubes. If deduction isn’t your thing – Cube planets will look like cubes.

If you’re interested in the rest of the fixes, hit the break. If you have the EA Download Manager/Soul stripper, you’ll automatically be prompted to download and install the update. For those of you out there who don’t have the client, it can be downloaded here.

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According to Wired (via Hooked on Spore), a Spore expansion briefly appeared on two online retailer’s websites today before mysteriously vanishing. Both GameStop and Amazon had the expansion called Cute & Creepy Parts Pack slated for November 18th. Obviously fearing the wrath of Will Wright and Electronic Arts, the two retailers pulled the set.

Wired attempted to contact EA about the alleged expansion, but only received the “we don’t respond to rumor and speculation” line that we know all too well. Could this have been an accidental reveal by both retailers? Or is it the result of old information never getting swept under the rug?

If the expansion is real, then I have to say that the content is coming especially fast. At the same rate, I’d assume most people are getting bored of seeing a bunch of the same creatures hovering around Spore’s universe. I don’t know for sure though. Do you guys think an expansion is needed yet?

Occasionally videogames do more than entertain. These special games often transcend their own genres, capture the imagination and begin to inspire. For fans of the EarthBound series at Starmen.net, EarthBound has done just that. It has inspired a legion of fans to create, share, and take part in a larger plan to get the sequel to the series, Mother 3, to the Western world. In this case, the community has extended its passion to Will Wright’s Spore.

While Spore has had its share of problems with DRM complaints and landed itself in history by spinning off an assortment of phallic creations coined as “Sporn” it’s nice to see something beyond the complaints. Notice the detail that went into all of these builds. I’m in love with the Fobby to say the least.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of EarthBound and I’ve been waiting spectacularly too long for a release on the Wii’s Virtual Console or GBA. Yet, while we all wait, it’s cool to see what the community has done to expose the game even more.

Credits for the images are included after the break.

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It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's Captain Obvious! After all the complaints and user backlash, Electronic Arts is finally facing a class action suit over the problems caused by Spore's SecuROM DRM.

The only shocker here is that it took this long for the lawyers to sink their decaying teeth into this juicy little controversy. Now they have at last, and you can bet your arse that they are looking to score big off this one ... oh, and do something about consumer rights, probably. Here's the gist of the issue:

Electronic Arts, a leading maker of computer games, defrauds consumers through its "Spore" game, which "completely wipes their hard drive" and replaces it with an undisclosed program that prevents the computer from operating under some circumstances and disrupts hardware operations, a class action claims in Federal Court. 

The class claims that "Spore," a virtual reality simulation game, contains "a second, undisclosed program" called SecuROM, a "form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for computer games."

Consumers are not warned about the program, which is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if they uninstall Spore, the complaint states. The secret SecuROM program is "secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation on the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations," the complaint states.

First we had Electronic Arts, then we had pirates, and now lawyers are involved. At least this continuing saga isn't short of arseholes, right?

As you are doubtlessly aware by now, Spore has been at the center of a lot of controversy thanks to EA's punishing DRM. While the install limit may not be that big a deal for those wanting to keep the game, the issue of allowing only one account per copy was an incredibly transparent and backwards move.

While EA is clearly not going to back down on this policy (after all, the game could be resold if it wasn't rendered useless upon install,) it has allowed Maxis to implement a workaround. A new feature will be added in that allows multiple screen names per online account, although the number of accounts you can create remains at one. 

We are going to add the ability to have multiple Spore Screen Names for any one Spore Online Account. Here’s how this will work: for each copy of Spore that you have purchased, you will be able to have one Spore Online Account, just as it is now. However, we will be adding the ability to have five Spore Screen Names for that account. When you launch Spore, you will be able to log in with any of those Screen Names.

The content that is made and the MySpore Page will be associated with the logged in Screen Name for that account. Each Screen Name will be able to view and create content, Buddy Lists and Sporecasts that will be tied to that Screen Name. The Achievements earned will be credited to the Screen Name that is logged in at the time the Achievement is triggered. In the first iteration of this change, all Screen Names will be playing in the same Galaxy and any content downloaded by any Screen Name will be available in the Everything section.

We will be putting the ability to add Screen Names to a Spore Online Account on our website. If you already have the game, and want to add new Screen Names to your account you will be able to do so there. 

So there you go. Electronic Arts still gets to enforce control over Spore's second-hand sales, and a household with more than one person in it can enjoy the thing, albeit awkwardly and in a way that won't allow them to earn separate achievements without a full game patch, which doesn't yet exist. Hooray for compromise?

The Spore controversy continues as Electronic Arts' Mariam Sughayer has been talking to MTV and responding to the biggest complaints that people have with the game's "anti-piracy" measures. It would seem that, while EA refuses to back down on many of the issues, there is at least the suggestion that Spore's three computer install limit is changing.

That will be changed, according to the EA spokesperson, who told Multiplayer that the current limit on the number of computers that can be associated with a single copy of "Spore" is "very similar to a solution that iTunes has. The difference is that with iTunes you can de-authorize a computer [that you no longer want associated with your iTunes content]. Right now, with our solution, you can't. But there is a patch coming for that." The official timeframe for that patch is "near future."

EA also responded to fears that SecuROM installs Spyware by stating, obviously, that it doesn't. The spokesperson was also quick to point out that it found a virus in a torrent of its game, and assured customers that the only way to guarantee a Malware-free Spore was to buy it. In answer to the question regarding multiple accounts per copy, EA only reiterated that the manual section stating you could do this is a misprint. The company did not comment on the very real issue of families not being able to create their own accounts without each buying a whole new copy of the game. 

The company rep also had this to say regarding the current authentication process which runs every time the player accesses the online features:

If we were to ever turn off the servers on the game [making authentication impossible] we would put through a patch before that to basically make the DRM null and void. We’re never walking away from the game and making it into a situation where people aren’t going to be able to play it.

Well, there you go. Frankly, I'm not too sure that's good enough. To me, the worst part of this whole DRM nonsense was the restriction of one account per copy, and that's something EA is refusing to address. Perhaps because it's the most transparently greedy part of the whole thing? Who knows?

This Spore debacle is genuinely fascinating if you're interested in the consumer side of the games industry. After the Amazon backlash and the ridiculously high piracy levels, you'd think that customers angry over Spore's "draconian" DRM would have made their point, but no. Now it would seem that gamers are using the title's own content creation tools against it -- creating creatures that are designed to protest against EA's use of SecuROM!

From the simple design of a creature (?) known only as EA Sux to the more detailed Veroflraptor, who lives on the planet "EAdisappointsME," it would seem that design-savvy Spore fans have strung Electronic Arts up with its own rope. Such sweet irony.

As I say, this is fascinating stuff and it's interesting to observe how gamers have united in protest over DRM. We so very often as gamers seem to just suck up and accept whatever bullsh*t a publisher feels like dishing out, so it's somewhat refreshing to see consumers continue to take Electronic Arts to task over something they feel strongly about, even if some of the methods of protest are questionable.

Check out more Spore protest creations here.

The big mess that is Spore's DRM controversy continues as Electronic Arts has "responded" to concerns over its use of SecuROM in Will Wright's opus.

EA corporate communications rep Mariam Sughayer claims that the uproar over limited installations is unjustified because 77% of customers have only installed the game once, leaving 23% that have needed to install it multiple times. 

"EA has not changed our basic DRM copy protection system," explained Sughayer. "We simply changed the copy protection method from using the physical media, which requires authentication every time you play the game by requiring a disc in the drive, to one which uses a one-time online authentication.

"You can install the game on three computers - at your office, at home or for your family. What you can't do is make and distribute a thousand copies online."

No word at all, however, on the accusations that Spore's DRM chews up RAM like it was free candy. EA also neglected to address the fact that Spore myopically allows only one account to be created per copy purchased. As the title looks headed to be one of the most pirated games of all time, I doubt this will appease anyone. Still, it's somewhat amusing that EA has stated "you can't make and distribute a thousand copies" with Spore's DRM ... isn't that what everybody's doing right now?

I don't usually find piracy easy to justify, but considering that EA has been pig-headed to the extreme over the use of SecuROM in its products -- a measure deemed harmful to the enjoyment of the paying consumer -- it's kind of karmic to learn that Spore's piracy levels have been deemed "extraordinary" by by one peer-to-peer research firm.

Spore has been at the center of a big DRM controversy, as its piracy-protection program generated a huge user backlash on Amazon. We also learned that EA's "draconian" level of control limits people to creating only one account per copy of the game. People are understandably angry and upset at Electronic Arts for exerting this kind of dictatorial power over its customers, and it looks like they are doing what they can to punish the publisher.

"The numbers are extraordinary," exclaimed Eric Garland, boss of P2P researcher Big Champagne. "This is a very high level of torrent activity even for an immensely popular game title."

The game has been downloaded 171,402 times since September 1, and users such as "deathkitten" on The Pirate Bay are urging users to add to that figure, claiming that it's "the right thing," to do. The right thing it may not entirely be, but EA was kind of asking for it. If you punish your paying customers by using detrimental DRM, something like this is bound to happen. It also proves that SecuROM doesn't bloody work, either.

Oh Electronic Arts, how we facepalm at thee. Hot off the heels of the Spore DRM shenanigans, it seems that SecuROM has another nasty surprise in story for fans of Will Wright's latest opus.

It would seem that, despite the game's manual claiming that multiple accounts can be created per copy, Spore's DRM actually forbids it:

EA's DRM spyware on the long-awaited game Spore turns out to have an added side-effect: if you live in a household with multiple players, you all have to share the same account. The game's manual says otherwise, but after repeated queries on the EA forum, a company spokesperson confirmed this.

That's right—if you're in a household with several potential Spore players, and you want each of them to have their own account, you will have to buy multiple copies of the game.

Oh dear, oh dear. According to an Electronic Arts rep, page 52 of Spore's manual actually contains a "misprint" where it states that multiple accounts can be created. Quite the misprint. Considering that multiple accounts per game is a very standard practice, this looks incredibly shoddy. A DS game couldn't have the capacity to store three times as many accounts as a PC game. This level of forced control over one's gameplay experience is, quite frankly, despicable.

EA, will you ever learn?

I called it. While some people took it seriously, I thought it was very clearly a joke, and the curtain has finally been dropped. Anti-Spore was indeed a hoax, and the creator has let slip via that good old Internet standby -- the Rick Roll.

Our militant Spore-fighter starts out a post like this:

I think part of the problem that is going on here is that the bulk of you are ignorant as to the word of God. I don’t have these beliefs just because I want to, I have them because they are the beliefs that I was raised in. I understand that everyone didn’t have the chance to be taught these things, and learn about God as my family did so if I am going to have this kind of attention I should use it to help teach others about the words of God that helped to shape me into the woman I am today...

And then continues with this:

...But the Bible teaches us that God was not done with man. For we were His creation and He then spoke to Noah in Genesis 8:21-27 after the flood.
“21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never gonna give you up.
22. “Never gonna let you down.”
23.”Never gonna run around and desert you.”
24. “Never gonna make you cry.”
25. “Never gonna say goodbye.”
26. “Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.”
27.”Never truly believe anything you read on the Internet. There will always be cases of Poe’s Law.”

Definitely one of the most elaborate Rick Rolls I've ever seen, wouldn't you agree? Of course, the sadder message is that this site could have been believable, simply because there are enough militant nutters in the job to make it so.

I am convinced this is a joke, but some people online seem to be taking it seriously. Apparently one man has gone on a crusade to fight against the "war on creationism" that is Spore, claiming that EA's game teaches evolution to children and could "convert" kids from the way of The Lord.

Such gems include this recent posting:

I am really at a loss for words here.

It seems Will has suddenly switched gears from evolution to creation and is trying to say that in 18 days, Spore users did what God did in 7.  So all of spore users add up to 38% of God.  Unbelievable.

Just another direct attack from a man who thinks he is unstoppable.

Like I say, this has to be a joke, but if it's not, then it's still really rather funny. Is Will Wright an "evil" man who can't be trusted because the church to which he belongs "regularly ordains homosexuals?" Does EA employ 8,5000 people with "not enough Jesus" to stand up and say that the company is wrong? 

Decide for yourself. I'll be too busy setting fire to some Nuns.

Last week saw the release of Spore, Will Wright's genre-defying game of evolution and exploration. After years of hype, it seems to have delivered the goods and reviewers have been praising the game left and right for its creativity, design and ambition. 

As they've already invested so much into creating Spore as an IP, even discussing the possibility of licensing the core game itself for other developers to make games based on it, it was only natural that we'd be seeing the title make its way out to some other platforms. Now, only a week after , EA released a DS version, Spore Creatures, into the wild.

Is this another example of Maxis pushing the boundaries of videogaming, or shovelware intended to capitalize on a hot property? Hit the jump for our review.

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After fueling the hell out of people's creative juices (some a bit more "acclerated" than others), Spore is finally out for the general public to toy with as they wish. Unless you live in Europe, that is.

Not surprisingly, Spore versions of celebrities were quickly whipped up. Our friends over at MTV Multiplayer came up with some great ones, including Barack Obama (pictured above), Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Stephen Colbert and more. Surely there are even more familiar faces coming down the pipeline shortly. I was surprised to see no pregnant Angelina Jolie and fawning Brad Pitt combination, however.

Have you made any familiar Spore faces yet? if so, I'll bother you to share them in the comments.

[Thanks, Joe]

Ever since the iPhone busted onto the scene and demolished the profit margin of Nintendo and Sony’s handheld devices, we’ve been wondering what more could possibly be offered on the platform. Considering the iPhone’s massive success in the gaming sphere, an MMO would be the natural extension. It’s a good thing that Beijing-based developer WiStone is ready to step up to the plate with their mobile MMO, Anrufen Online.

Anrufen Online is an isometric MMO, designed around fighting enemies and taking care of little monsters so that they will follow your character around. The game is currently slated for Symbian handsets next year, but no date has been set for the iPhone version as of yet.

The above video is Anrufen Online running in all its glory on the Symbian platform. The iPhone version probably won’t look much better, so this may be a good barometer of quality. Looks amazing, doesn’t it?

[via PocketGamer]

As most Macintosh owners may have realized, not many triple-A titles come to the platform. Although the lack of quantity of feature games has been the classic issue, many Macintosh enthusiasts have been excited about the prospect of sinking their teeth into Electronic Arts' Spore. Unfortunately, the Macintosh version of Spore costs more than just the retail price – it may cost you a brand new Macbook.

GhostRazor has discovered that any Macbook made earlier than late 2007 is not capable of running Spore. It’s all intertwined with the rotunda of graphics cards that Apple has used over the last couple of years. Spore doesn’t support the GMA 950 card that most year-old Macbooks have. Instead, Spore only utilizes the fresh and beautiful GMA X3100.

This is a problem that I ran into after I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard expecting to be able to run Spore just fine. As you can see from this unfortunate message, Spore just doesn’t want to cooperate with me. The only option available to people like myself with a slightly older Macbook is to buy an entirely new Macbook, Macbook Pro, or iMac.

Maxis are already pursuing a very small user base by choosing to develop for the Macintosh platform, so why tighten the circle even further? Doesn't this seem a bit odd, or should I be upgrading my Mac every sixteen seconds so I can get the coolest Will Wright games?

Customers feeling burned by the anti-piracy measures in the long-awaited PC game Spore have decided to take out their frustrations on Amazon, utilizing the review feature to tear the game to shreds for its "draconian" DRM and "dumbed down" gameplay.

Spore's DRM has been accused of eating up too much RAM, causing slowdown. Consumers are also outraged that they can only install the game three times before having to deal with EA's customer support. One reviewer called Spore a rental, pointing out that EA had total control over the title's use:

EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because "it's not financially feasible" to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.

This basically means that you are actually RENTING the game, instead of owning it. The game WILL stop to function in the future. That's inevitable, because even if EA keeps the activation servers going, there IS going to be a time when EA will simply cease to exist because of financial issues or federal laws (like most business eventually do). 

At the time of writing, Spore has an average Amazon review score of 1.5 out of 5. Of the forty people who reviewed it, thirty-three have given it one star, compared to the two who gave it five. Those five-star reviews, for reference, were posted in 2006 before the game was even out. Looks like Electronic Arts has a revolt on its hands, and not even Will Wright's charming little face can smooth this one over.

We all know that Spore is a special game, regardless of how it is being received by the media and gamers alike. The little bits and pieces of technology that have been injected into the title that compose its real-time strategy or life simulation portions are distinct and have obviously taken a ton of time to create. Because of Spore’s inherent uniqueness and its pliability as a game, Electronic Arts’ President, Frank Gibeau, has been thinking that Spore could be licensed out as a platform that other developers can use to build their own games.

He mentioned his desire to possibly farm out Spore in an interview with Kotaku’s Brian Crescente. Gibeau was obviously excited about the game and the possibility of tossing it out for other developers:

What's so beautiful about Spore is that it's extremely malleable. You could add RPG or action, you could take it to different platforms, like (Web-page) flash games, the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii…It travels well to other platforms.

I can’t imagine anything more interesting that could be done with Spore. Having other developers taking apart its Civilization portion, or even evolution engine, could lead to excessively unique takes that supersede the initial experience of Spore. Perhaps 3DRealms could license out the platform and create an illustrative history of the Duke Nukem Forever development process. The possibilities are endless.

Europeans may have initially got excited when it was announced that Spore would hit their side of the pond first. Now, on release day, all might not seem so great. According to Eurogamer, some Spore users are having issues logging in to the online portion of the game.

After putting in the appropriate login information, the game is tossing up a prompt that says the user has an invalid validation code. Users don’t have codes, nor were they every asked to input one in the first place.

Electronic Arts is aware of the problem and have issued a response on their official forums. The spokesperson said that, “We are aware that many of you are having login problems with Spore. This is being investigated so please bear with us!” When asked if the investigation and subsequent fix would take hours, days, or years, the EA advocate replied that EA doesn’t “have a time frame at the moment."

Spore will be out and unplayable this Tuesday in the US.

With the September 9 release of Spore right around the corner, it's time to move past the press hype and for the marketing campaign blitz to begin!

But when it's as cool as these subway ads found in Boston's Harvard Square red line T stop station, it's kind of hard to complain. From the looks of it, they've taken over every square-inch of ad space in the station, with some pretty gorgeous looking Spore-inspired art and slogans. I guess Electronic Arts thinks all of this evolution stuff is going to be a hit with those Cambridge, Massachusetts brainiacs ... hell, it got me to visit Spore.com, and I don't even know what "DNA" stands for! (Note: I'm kidding.)

You can check out more images of the campaign in this Flickr set. Has anyone else's city been invaded by this slick-looking Spore advertising? 

It's one of the laws of human nature, that the moment a man is given the ability to customize something, a big dong is what he'll customize it with. Thus it was with Spore's creature creator, as semi sentient genitals began popping up all over the Internet shortly after release. It should be a sad and sorry statement on society, but instead it's very funny, and if you're Will Wright, it's even impressive. Yep, Spore's creator and game design legend Will Wright actually praised the skillful way in which gamers are churning out filth.

"Some of it's really good for what they were shooting for," stated Wee Willy Wrighty. "It's amazingly explicit, especially when those creations are animated. We just have to make sure those people aren't messing up the experience for others."

So there you have it, your big bouncing bollocks with eyes has the blessing of Mr. Wright himself -- just keep your bollocks to yourself. Along with sharing his praise for the dirty Sporn, Wright also talked about possible console versions of Spore. While not suggesting they're in the works, or even that they're being considered, he suggested that if they were to appear, they would be tailored for each machine in question.

"Spore on almost any platform is going to be different and tied to the unique aspects of that platform," expounded the legendary designer. "Sitting in front of a console is very different from sitting in front of a PC. Whether you're using a mouse or a PS3 controller or a Wii wand, that right off the bat is arguing for a somewhat different design."

EA recently slapped down some new screenshots from Spore that reveal a tiny bit of what users will be doing during the civilization and space phases of the game. Other than looking pretty, I think the civilization screenshots are quite revealing. The apparent depth of Spore continually surprises me.

If you didn’t know, the game is broken apart by five distinct phases. The screenshots that we have detail the fourth (civilization) and fifth (space) stages of the game. The civilization phase is all about converting your tribal unit into a full-blown city and then spreading your influence throughout the game world, much like Sid Meier’s Civilization. That means that superweapons, missionary work, and even economic influences can be utilized to make zealots of rival civilizations standing in your way.

The game closes with the space stage, and it is began by advancing your civilization technology to the point by which interstellar travel can be initiated. From here, it’s all about terraforming, discovery, and negotiating through the game’s 500,000 planets.

It looks wildly complicated, but I believe I’m ready for the challenge. To know that my phallic monsters will have the ability to not only spread their religion locally and throughout the universe is exciting. If only they could negotiate an alternate dimension, Mr. Wright.

A guy I sometimes fall asleep with drunk in hotel rooms likes to say that no one will ever win a Pulitzer for writing about Princess Peach (although our own Chad Concelmo could probably produce enough passion to take a good shot at it), but that doesn't mean that games can't hobnob with the big league.

In this instance, it comes in the form of How to Build A Better Being, the companion documentary to Will Wright's much anticipated creature feature, Spore. It premieres on Tuesday, Sept 9th at 10 pm ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel. You can also see the show by purchasing the Spore Galactic Edition, as it comes packed with it.

From the press release:

Join Wright and leading scientists in exploring the genetic information we share with all animals — even creatures we could never have envisioned.  From prehistoric fish with wrists to 8-ton elephants with trunks, get powerful new insight into the origin of species and how our prized parts came to be.  Then see how evolutionary creature-making is translated into a brave new world of gaming.

This is actually really cool. I'm a sucker for science and nature shows, so I imagine I'll be hooked from the word go. Are you into this kind of action, or would you rather pass on the science and get straight to the humping?

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The British Board of Film Classification have thoroughly laid down the law on Will Wright’s upcoming game of creature modification and evolution, Spore. The BBFC, which also rates some videogames, have decided that the ostensibly mild violence and the reference of a small alien species as “little buggers” is enough to warrant a PG rating. The rating means that there is a possibility that the game could “disturb” any child under eight-years-old. As to the reference, here is the BBFC’s comment on the matter.

…the language in the game comes late on, as the creatures and organisms at the beginning have no method of communication. Once players get to the space level, a group of aliens are referred to as ‘little buggers’ by a character training the player to fly a spaceship.

Of course, violence also plays a part in Spore. According to the BBFC, the violence shown in the game is presented as a “brief flash of red and a few spots of ‘meat’ which the organism must swim over to eat and grow.” After reading about the disgusting amount of gore in the game, I had to stop and take a deep breath. I am afraid I can no longer report on this decidedly nasty and terrible title. I can only hope that children never get their hands on Spore. Humanity’s future could very well be compromised if developers continue to spew out this filth into our culture. What’s next Mr. Wright? Are you going to include longer claws and teeth?

[via Darkzero]

This is the home stretch people -- Electronic Arts has announced that Spore has gone gold, and will be available on Mac and PC on September 7 in North America. On that same day, portable versions of Spore, Spore Creatures for the Nintendo DS and Spore Origins for mobile phones will also be available. 

There's not much else to this story other than some squeals of delight, considering gamers have been waiting for this game since President Richard Nixon announced it along with his resignation in 1974. EA reminds us that there's also a special edition of the game called Spore Galactic Edition that comes with a bunch of neat but useless stuff that will clutter your house (two DVDs, an "Art of Spore" hardback book, a poster, and a 100-page "Galactic Handbook"). 

I'd imagine "do want" goes without saying, but there has to be someone out there that doesn't care about Spore, right? Speak up so we can throw things at you. 

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While I don't necessarily condone videogame to film adaptations, I can at least understand how they might work. Max Payne, Prince of Persia, Doom -- all games with strong enough narrative to keep people in their seats for at least long enough to tear through a bucket of popcorn. 

OK, so maybe not Doom ... but Spore? According to Will Wright, a film birthed from the Spore universe is not completely out of the question. 

"With Spore, we're looking way outside the game space, such as TV, movies, etc.," he told Reuters during an Asian press tour. "We're basically planting the seeds to spread it out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game."

I'm not even going to attempt to imagine what a Spore movie could look like (note: OK, I already did -- see above image). But here's something to think about: with both Wright and EA clearly open to expanding the Spore franchise (currently only slated to hit PC, Nintendo DS, iPhones, and eventually the Wii), how long before we see it on the PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3?

It truly doesn't look like anyone is going to miss out on Spore fever, does it? 

In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Maxis co-founder and designer Will Wright talks about the seriously terrible The Sims Online, and then hints at the possibility of a Spore MMO. Interestingly, Wright begins the talk by discussing how he is utilizing Spore as if it were a massively-multiplayer online game, without those nasty “design limitations” such as fees or the inability to pause. He then likens those limitations to what eventually sunk Sims Online, specifically targeting the fees. Even though Wright seems down on the idea initially, he follows up with a bit of a cryptic statement involving the possibility of a full-blown Spore MMO:

That's not to say that one day we might not do a massively-multiplayer online version of it, but it's just not the most interesting initial unveiling of it for me.

I wonder if the idea of a Spore MMO would have been more interesting to Wright if subscription sales to The Sims Online would have taken off like expected? Although, now I’m left to question what a true Spore MMO would even be like. Would users endlessly grind monsters to get a “+3 monster claw” add-on or an epic vagina mount for their phallic creation? The possibilities are endless.

If you've been following news about Will Wright's upcoming title, Spore, you've likely already seen a wide variety of NSFW creatures made using the innovative creature creator. Some may scowl over the questionable creations, but that's what happens when you put power in the hands of the internet -- penises and tits get drawn on everything. It's like a taste of life as ruled by 4chan!

Not surprisingly, CNN took notice, as any scrap of negativity about games must be covered by the national news at the speed of light. Next thing you know, there's a new buzzword to describe the phenomenon -- "sporn". CNN spoke to the "spornmaster" , a guy who apparently sits around creating as many versions of ass to mouth as humanly possible with the creator tool. He was quoted as saying:

"I admit it is silly and juvenile, but I don't think there's anything perverted, vile or awful about it. If people find it offensive, they can simply not search for it online. No one is forcing anyone to see this content."

That's true, I can avoid extreme tentacle hentai if I want to (key word there being "if"). A far more interesting comment was made by a Spore fan who spoke to CNN:

"I consider this very similar to child pornography, at least to the extent of distributing the material to children."

Are you at home creating CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, you heathens? I thought children had to be naked for that, but apparently if a child sees sexual content, it becomes child pornography. I'm so behind on the porn times.

[Via Gamepolitics, thanks Joe]

Asking Electronic Arts if they'd like to charge for extra gameplay additions is perhaps a bit like asking a member of The Rolling Stones whether they'd like to f*ck a barely legal crackhead. Regardless, EA has answered that question in the affirmative as CEO John Riccitiello has confirmed that he'd simply love to sell us extra parts for Spore. Did anybody expect he'd be sad about such an idea?

"I would love to imagine that two years from now or a year from now the debate is whether or not we need a 'Spore' label inside of EA," stated the EA Warlord. He added that he'd enjoy the ability to "monetize, if you will, body parts, plant parts, car parts and planets as a way to generate incremental revenue on an installed base of several million active users."

"But it's a little bit like pool. I'm afraid if we spend too much time setting up the second shot, we'll miss the first shot. Right now, it's all hands on deck to make September 7 the event that matters."

Kind of brings new meaning to phrase "paying an arm and a leg," no?

[Originally posted at Tomopop]

While the quality of these pictures is not up to the usual standards we hold dear at Tomopop, I thought all of you might enjoy a sneak peek at these custom Spore figures we saw at E3 in the EA meeting room. Standing about 6 inches tall each, the figures were created just for E3. Of course, I couldn't help but wonder if gamers would like to have the creatures they make in Spore immortalized in toy form as well, so I skipped off to ask an official EA spokesperson.

Luckily, my curiousity paid off -- EA confirmed that there will be toys available in the future, although there were no dates or prices available. Hopefully you will be able to make the creatures you create in the game, the way you can with your World of Warcraft characters. However, it's likely that they will be equally as expensive, considering that they would be custom pieces. Would you buy one? From the looks of these, they could be worth the extra cash.

The surprise E3 Xbox LIVE Arcade game turned out to be none other than Double D Dodgeball (800 Microsoft Points). I'm sorry to disappoint, but if you think this is anything like Dead or Alive Xtreme 2, you're sadly mistaken. Simply put, it's a retro-style 8-person dodgeball title with Space Giraffe-esque visuals.

The second XBLA release for this week is Coffeetime Crosswords (800 Microsoft Points). It has got more than 150 puzzles of varying skill level, as well as co-op for 2 players. Yes, that's really all there is to say about it.

Next, there's EA Sports Fantasy Football Live Draft Tracker (400 Microsoft Points), which is available to the U.S. and Canada only. By creating your league here, you can then import your settings into the Live Draft Tracker, which will keep track of your stats throughout the season on Xbox LIVE.

Finally, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords has been reduced in price to 800 points, and a free pack for Buku Sudoku containing 1,200 puzzles has hit the Marketplace.

There are so many new entries to XBLA this week, yet I won't be buying anything. How about you?

Today, the NPD Group released the sales data for all US PC software sold before June 21. EA and Maxis’ penis-monster invention tool, Spore Creature Creator, came out on top of the list. Also according to gameindustry.biz, the game hit number six on the “All Categories” list among other popular titles such as Windows Vista and Microsoft Office.

The list is as follows:

1. Spore Creature Creator (EA)
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (EA)
3. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Eidos)
4. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack (Vivendi)
5. World Of Warcraft (Vivendi)
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest (Vivendi)
7. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack (EA)
8. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack (EA)
9. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision)
10. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (LucasArts)

I daresay that it looks like EA and Activision/Blizzard/Vivendi are the publishers to check out when pondering the future of PC gaming. Look at that diversification! If only every publisher knew how to create a portfolio as wonderfully unique as Electronic Arts’. It must be hard, to be so big, and have so many innovative ideas. Not to mention that new game called World of Warcraft. Anyone get a chance to play that yet? I heard through the wire that it was decent, but wouldn’t stay fresh for long.

[Thanks, Buck!]

The Spore Creature Creator is a fun tool for the industrious among us. Spawning the unique and customizable little monsters may be a lonely experience at the moment, but no one would know by looking at the numbers. According to the Spore homepage, there have been over 1 million user-created monsters since the launch of the Creator. Interestingly, it looks as though the majority of the million lack the flair of a sexual organ or a resemblance to popular video game characters.

When asked about the benchmark, executive producer Lucy Bradshaw of Maxis had this to say:

Maxis is excited, humbled and inspired by the explosion of creativity that we’ve seen with the Spore Creature Creator online.  I’m amazed at the creations I see getting uploaded to the Sporepedia, whether it’s a realistic looking bird or animal, a 10-eyed alien, or something completely bizarre and unexpected like a creature that looks like a motorcycle, it’s clear that people have an innate desire to be creative, and we’re thrilled to help them express themselves.

Certainly people are jumping behind Spore, but after test-driving the program for a week, do you guys think the well will dry up soon? It is a cold, hard wait for September 5, when you can actually do something with the creatures you create. If the Macintosh requirements were not so insane, I would be in the trenches with the rest of you. In the meanwhile, please tell me what I am missing out on.

 [Via Eurogamer]

Due to the worrying level of DRM included in the PC version of Mass Effect, one can’t help but be nervous over the upcoming Maxis-developed game Spore, which is also being published by ... *umphf* ... What? That’s weird, I seem to have blacked out there for a few minutes. Hey, where’d this mysterious, shiny box on my desk come from? It appears to be a copy of Spore, but the packaging is noticeably different. I wonder what special secrets could be hidden in this edition of the game. Let’s crack it open and find out.

• 'Making of Spore' DVD video
• 'How to Build a Better Being' DVD video, by National Geographic Channel
• 'The Art of Spore' hardback mini-book
• Fold-out Spore poster
• Premium 100-page Galactic Handbook

While none of these items appear to be truly noteworthy, they have nonetheless distracted me from whatever negative line of thinking I was originally engaged in, along with camouflaging the additional $30 in the price tag.

Aside from getting the box, it also seems that at some point in the last five minutes I preordered five additional copies, bought two more copies of the Spore Creature Creator, and designed seventeen new creatures to join the 1,000,000-plus on Sporepedia. For some reason I also have a business card from John Riccitiello in my pocket, along with some stitches in my head that weren’t there before. Hmmmmmm.

[Picture from jkh13’s CBlog]

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With the Spore Creature Creator tool package set to be available this week for the PCs, we're sure you're looking forward to designing your own unique creatures. I messed around with it a bit last night, and it's great fun putting legs and eyes where they don't belong and then watching the creature struggle with its existence.

Word on the street is that the demo software for the Creature Creator leaked a bit early on this here Internets, and it appears the perverts have gotten their hands on it already. The folks over at GameVideos brought this video to our attention, and well ... I'm not sure I can describe it without getting you fired from your job. As for the video, it may or may not be safe for work, depending on whether or not your boss thinks video of a creature screwing itself is "safe for work."

For more information and impressions of the Spore Creature Creator, check out our recent hands-on preview.

I feel I must preface this Pew! Pew! Preview! by stating that up until last night, I had no desire for Spore whatsoever. I understood the potential of the game and knew it was going to be a big deal, but I just didn't see Spore as being something that I would like -- especially since I tend to stay away from these types of games, as they will suck my social life away (damn you, Animal Crossing).

However, after getting my hands on the Spore Creature Creator, I really don't think I'm going to mind ignoring all my friends and loved ones. Hey, why bother socializing when I can just make my friends now?! 

Seriously though, Spore blew my mind last night. Hit the jump to read about my impressions of Spore Creature Creator, just one part of what's going to be a huge game.

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BioWare's technical producer Derek French has announced a surprising new copy protection scheme that requires the user to be online at regular intervals while playing both Mass Effect and Spore on the PC. If you are not online to validate your copy of either game every ten days, your product will stop working. Wait ... what?

After the first activation, SecuROM requires that [Mass Effect PC] re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez'd and gets banned)

... After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run.

I'm not really a PC gamer, but my gut instinct on this is that it's a stupid idea and I can see something going wrong. People are already reacting pretty badly to the news online, and I can see the backlash escalating, along with any number of problems that can arise from expecting paying customers to continually prove that they're not pirates. 

This just doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

[Cheers to John Berger]

It would seem that only Will Wright can decide the console war, as the versatility of the Spore creation system is put to great use here. The above image is of several buildings that have been adapted by a player to resemble a Wii, a PS3 controller, a GameCube and an Xbox 360.

Certainly cute, but more importantly, it serves to highlight Spore's adept asset creation. Could it be that we're finally close to a game that allows the creations you had intended to make, instead of a poor and shoddy shadow of the golden image that's trapped in your mind? Too many times have I known the frustration of character creation systems that refuse to give me what I want, so if Spore can do things like this, count me in.

I must confess I really haven't been hugely hyped for Spore. Images like the above, however, go some way to providing a remedy for that.

Yeah yeah, Spore's release date has finally been announced and people are really excited that it turned out not to be vaporware. In a handful of months we'll be happily building a civilization/war machine to decimate whole planets, or peacefully cohabitating if that's your bag. But god damn it I want to build weird aliens and I want to build them now! A huge part of the fun of Spore will be the mad science and creativity that goes into creature creation, and the announcement of a release date only serves to remind me that I can't do that now.

Thankfully, EA understands our torment, and following in the footsteps of Maxis' The Sims 2, has announced their plan to release a character creation only version of Spore prior to the full game's September release.  EA has yet to reveal a release date for this sweet sample of Spore ambrosia, or whether it will be released as a free download or sold as an individual game.  Hopefully they have the good sense to release this version as a free download (or as a giveaway for pre-order), but even if they don't it's highly unlikely the creature creation edition of Spore will just sit around on store shelves.

Complain about corporate greed and profiteering all you like, considering the torturous wait we've had to endure I'd gladly pay a nominal price for the character creation version of Spore, and I suspect many of my alien-hungry brethren would too.

[Via Ars Technica -- Thanks, Justin]

The day we'd all been waiting for, then grew bored of waiting for, then got excited about again is nearly here.  After years of hype and delay after delay Spore has finally been given a release date. Retailers will have copies of Spore available for PC, Mac, DS, and mobile phones come September 7th. 

The infamous Will Wright is quoted as saying, "We're in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can't wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year." A song and dance we've seen before, though never in concert with an actual release date.

Bemoan the long wait all you like, I'm nearly certain that those having given up on Spore, the heretics if you will, will soon be rejoining the fold, frothing at the mouth along with the rest of us for the next 6 months.  Sadly, the hype built up around Spore may be it's undoing, as nothing short of this game unboxing and installing itself, then proceeding to fulfill your most disgusting, deviant fantasies could possibly live up to the expectations that have been built up around it.

Hit the jump for the full release. 

[Via LevelUp and fragster]

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