Bad news for Spore fans..

[Patrick Vykkers]

The game has been delayed again.. This time, it's been delayed to April-June 2008;
(http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv...EN784620070509)
All I can say is, firuck you third gen consoles. My hatred for thee now burns like a thousand suns.
PS3 and Xbox 360- Woo! We have slightly better graphics!
Wii- Look at MEEEEEEEE! I have a glorified joystick! Wooooo!
May you and all other commercialised useless crap burn in the fires of Hell.
Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

[Venks]

I'm in no particular rush to see Spore, all good things take time.
The game itself looks very interesting, like a combination of Sim City and EVO.

[Daxter King]

Fuck it. I fucking give the fuck up. This fucking game is so fucking annoying with its fucking delays. Fuck you devs of Spore.

[Patrick Vykkers]

Don't blame Maxis, please. Blame EA and those motherAllahCthulhuing third generation piles of repackaged, brain dead shit called the new consoles.

I would honestly rather have sexual intercourse with Don Knotts, Hillary Clinton, and a spiky pole then sit through 320 plus days of monotonous hellish purgatory.

[Daxter King]

Why the fuck are you blaming consoles, NON LIVING OBJECTS!?

[Patrick Vykkers]

Because it is primarily third generation crappy consoles (Xbox 1.2.. err, 360, PS 2.3... err, 3 and the Nintendo Wang.. err.. Joystick... err, Wii) that have caused EA's profits to go downhill because they aren't catering to fans of these overpriced junk piles.
EDIT: Also, why is U italicized?

[Daxter King]

So blame EA, and just what the fuck does that have to do with Spore being delayed?

[Patrick Vykkers]

They have delayed Spore and other games because profits are going down like an AO intro. This profit downhillity is caused by the fact they have not released many games catering to the Xbox 360/Wii/PS3 Market.

[Daxter King]

So its EA's fault, not the consoles! EA is always to blame!

[Leto]

Calm down children.

Hate the player, not the developer.

[Patrick Vykkers]

EA was practically forced to do so by market conditions. Tell me, if you had been making a poor profit and had relatively little money to spend on advertising a very valuable game, would you release it then? It's those useless consoles that created the money problem.
EDIT: What the hell has the players of a game that's not even out got to do with it being delayed? Sure, there is enormous demand for it, but that is not the primary catalyst for this extremely unpopular move.

[Daxter King]

I'm hungry.....FOR SPORE!

[SeaRex]

This is balls.

Launch title for the next-next-gen consoles. Just watch.

[Salamander]

EDIT: Also, why is U italicized?

Without italicizing one of the letters it will simply appear as ****

Lame, I was looking forward to Spore.

[Abeguy]

it is not the consoles fault, PV, that it is delayed. So your little mocking of the consoles in your first post was out of place and childish.

and this article says 2009

http://pc.ign.com/articles/786/786616p1.html

[Patrick Vykkers]

Even if they weren't responsible for delaying Spore, I still don't like them. They offer nothing truly new or innovative. Furthermore, that means it might not make it until fiscal 09, which starts in 2008, apparently.
"Analysts believe the company's sales dipped because the publisher didn't give enough support to Nintendo's Wii. "The hot console was the Wii, and they weren't in alignment in producing software," Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey told Bloomberg.com. EA had two games available at the Wii's launch last November and the publisher specifically purchased Headgate Studios last year to boost its Wii development capabilities. EA now plans to have about a dozen Wii titles by the end of this year."
Source; (http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=16083)
"EA has also struggled to gain a bigger stake in the lucrative Asian market, dominated by Nintendo Co. (other-otc: NTDOY.PK - news - people ) Last quarter the company collected 53 percent of revenue from North America, 41 percent from Europe and only 6 percent from Asia.

The company is under intense criticism from gamers upset that EA has very few titles for "next generation" consoles that debuted late last year. Last quarter EA sold a negligible number of titles for the Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) PlayStation 3 and popular Nintendo Wii.

A third of the company's revenue in the quarter came from titles for the older PlayStation 2, and another fifth from titles for Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )'s Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.

Problems ranging from the Spore delay to the paucity of PS3 and Wii titles indicate that the company is "innovation challenged," said David Gardner, co-founder of investment group The Motley Fool.

"Next gen is here now. Sony's late to the party, and EA is too," said Gardner, an avid gamer. "The best-case scenario is that Riccitiello brings his same past level of professionalism and savvy to this enterprise and turns it around in 2008.""
Source; (http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/...ap3700002.html)
And even a rant (http://arstechnica.com/journals/thum...-is-quite-nice) (though later retracted) from a Maxis man. Albeit sympathetic to the 360 and PS3

[Daxter King]

Still dont see why they delayed Spore because of bad profit. If anything, they would want to save this year by releasing it soon. Your logic needs work.

[Patrick Vykkers]

It's EA's logic not mine. Personally, I agree with you, but remember this is a high profile game they would want to milk. Milking requires LOTS and LOTS of publicity, even more than the current amounts. Which requires $$$.

[Nate]

I see absolutely no connection between Spore being delayed and them losing money. The only reason why it's mentioned is that they're not counting on sales of Spore to improve this year's profits.

[Laser]

In p.C gamer which was out 2 days ago it said this summer so i question the accuracey of your article good sir!

[Strike Witch]

Laser, you moron, magazines are printed weeks ahead.

Of course the net article would is accurate, otherwise they'd update it!

[Bullet Magnet]

Bloody hell guys! You're worse than the devotees at the Sporeum Forums!

Actually Maxis just brought on a new guy from the Civilization IV team, Soren Johnson, to help develop it. Clearly this means it is not EA's fault, much as you would all like to blame them, but a developing issue. I suspect they're having difficulties getting some of the phases to gel, specifically, I imagine, the civilisation phase. This news was released on April 18th, and I'm sure that when a new member is brought on to finish a game mere months before the most recent guesstimation of a release date that the schedule will remain the same. Seriously, I'd rather they get the game done and with what they've promised than released early and unfinished. We all know how that goes, don't we?

As I posted on the Sporeum in response to this development:

Well there you have it folks! We're going down in history as the pre-game fanbase that waited, along with that of S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Half Life 2 and others. And those games rule!

As I've said before: I'd rather have a finished title that'll last forever (or at least until the next sequel) than a crowd-appeaser that's a piece of junk. Playing the safe-route I see. If they don't live up to expectations it'll actually kill the bloated monster of a corporation that is EA, such is the cost and customer-confidence invested in Spore.

Otherwise it could go down in history like Fable, Munch's Oddysee and Halo 2, all marvellous games that were a disappointment to many because the hype they were given was pan-dimensional in scale.

What do you expect when it is the flagship title and maiden voyage of several brand new conglomerate genres? I know the time will be well spent by the guys at Maxis...

It's not delayed by a year, guys, just a few months. By the current projection it isn't even a whole year from now.

I'm actually not too bothered. While I am extremely eager to play and highly anticipate the game, I expect my own constraints on actually acquiring it contribute to by apathy.

But then I am apathetic towards just about everything. Except science, inanity and apathy.

SURRENDER TO APATHY. THE HYPNOTOAD COMMANDS IT.

[Patrick Vykkers]

On the year point; the current month is May. Spore is being released around January 2008-June 2008.
Previously scheduled released date (straight from Will's mouth)- September 2007.
Number of months between Jan 08 and Sept 07; 4
Number of months between June 08 and Sept 07; 9 (the same length as an Allahdamned pregnancy, for Muhammad's sake. And that's just the distance between the PREVIOUSLY SCHEDULED, SEVERAL MONTHS AWAY DATE. Thankfully, this is the upper limit.)
Number of months between Jan 08 and May 07; 8. (The lower limit. The lower freakin limit.)
Number of months between June 08 and May 07; 13. (That's more than a year)

Computer says no! (Release date that will ensure more than 50,000 people, short of the Duke Nukem Forever fanbase that will truly give a shit by the time this is released).

[Bullet Magnet]

In regards to recent developments this well written petition has cropped up on the fan sites...

Spore Fan Community Petition

It's just requesting more interaction between the developers and the fans, not for early releases, demos or even loads of inside information, just updates on how it's going, perhaps as a blog or something.

[Patrick Vykkers]

Interesting. The trouble is though, online petitions often never work unless you can verify every signature in triplicate. Even IP verifying and creditcard verifying doesn't work, as 1. Many people have rotatings IPs and some have muiltiple connections, even from different areas like school, work, home, internet cafe's etc 2. Most people aren't willing (and wisely) to give out their CC numbers online and 3. Most people have more than one credit card. Quite frankly, I think ID/driver's license scans are the way to go.

[Bullet Magnet]

It's just a representation of fans, proving that the will is there. No one's going to send a petition that appeared out of nowhere, full of signatures that just appeared overnight with the sort of naming and writing style and and random distribution as that. It isn't a motion for a political cause, just a cross section of he fans, and a quick search will reveal many other forums with links to it and discussion threads. Whether it does anything is another matter, but it gives the fans something to do and hope for, and is a clear voice.

[squeak117]

I'm in no particular rush to see Spore, all good things take time.

Couldn't have said it better... why the hell can't we all be patient? Instead of bitching about it, I think i'll go do some homework to improve on my schooling, because that's what really matters.
Yes, I am a fan of spore, but whining about it isn't going to do anything. Waiting is the only thing you can do now.

[Patrick Vykkers]

Have you actually sat through monotony for 10 minutes? When few other things catch you eye, monotony is gonna last a year. It's like Hell, no one wants to spend a second in it even at the cost of plucking out their own eyes.

[Bullet Magnet]

Hey, monotony is infinitely better than an incomplete Spore released too early.