Ex-EA employee and enormously popular developer Will Wright is apparently only halfway out of EA’s doors. Talking with GameDaily, Wright confirmed his intention to stay on as a consultant for EA Maxis (the development team behind Spore). Saying, “I’m spending a certain amount of time every month actually working with the Spore team on future versions of Spore and expansions,” Wright (seemingly for the first time) announced his plans beyond his work with upcoming venture, the Stupid Fun Club.
Additionally, Wright commented on the possibility of console iterations of Spore, frankly stating, “For us it’s really an opportunity/cost issue … we either do that [consoles] or we continue creating new applications on the PC or we kind of go into the handheld arena.” Guess he forgot about that upcoming Wii title, Spore Hero! While we’re looking forward to what Wright’s next move is with SFC, it’s good to hear the man behind Spore is still helping to develop the game moving forward. The money problem doesn’t hurt either, eh?
EA is finally bringing Spore to the Wii, sort of: Spore Herois coming this fall, but, of course, it won’t be exactly the same as the PC game. Spore Hero, as revealed to MTV Multiplayer today, is a heavily motion control-dependent adventure based on the “creature” stage of Spore. The same creature editor from the original is present in Hero, allowing players to create new life with the Wiimote’s pointer.
Players will now directly control the creature in “a series of quests and adventures in a kind of open world that you can take at your own pace.” New parts can be added that will translate to new motion-controlled moves. Some moves, like jumping, will open up new areas to explore. EA is currently “taking a look” at MotionPlus for Spore Hero, for improved sensitivity for the motion-based gameplay.
This sounds a lot like the DS’s Spore Creatures — whose sequel, Spore Hero Arena, is still scheduled for a fall release on DS.
Will "I love Wii" Wright, daddy of The Sims and Sim City, has revealed what we've all long suspected: Maxis is bringing life simulation Spore to the Wii. Wright didn't expand on when the Wii version would be ready, merely telling the Guardian that "We're doing Spore on the Wii." As many of you will know, a DS version is already in the works.
On an entirely unrelated note, turns out Wright is also something of a DS strategy fan. "With the exception of Advance Wars on my DS, there's no one game that I spend a huge amount of time playing," he said, managing to make us like him even more. Dude just loves his Nintendo.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Spore has been officially confirmed for Wii (We actually reported on Spore Wii a year ago) as stated by Spore and The Sims/SimCity creator Will Wright. He did not elaborate, so we don’t know if the game is coming at the same time as the PC version (in the second quarter of 2008) or sometime afterward.
What’s interesting is the fact that Spore has only been confirmed for Wii, DS and Mobile Phones in addition to PC . . . Xbox 360 and PS3 are not getting Spore yet officially (and forget about PSP).
And to that end, in a very interesting interview Will Wright gushed about how the Wii is, in his mind, the only “true” next-gen console. Here is a taste of what he stated in the interview:
The Guardian (G): What games do you play? And do you play for fun or research?
Will Wright (WW): I try to play innovative games that are coming out – I really love Guitar Hero, I play my Nintendo DS a lot, check out things on the Wii. With the exception of Advance Wars on my DS, there’s no one game that I spend a huge amount of time playing. I love Advance Wars – I used to play all these strategy games as a kid… Panzer Blitz, and all thesold Avalon Hill games.
G: So what set-up do you have at home?
WW: We’ve got an Xbox 360 collecting dust in the background, a Wii hooked up that we use quite a bit. I don’t have a PS3. I still, for the most part, prefer playing games on the computer – to me the mouse is the best input device ever. (more…)
Well, here's a change. Instead of putting the Wii on the level of last-gen consoles, which some developers have done recently, Will Wright believes that the Wii is the only console deserving of a "next-gen" title.
The Spore creator recently told CVG, "Somebody asked me what I thought next generation meant and what about the PlayStation 3 was next generation. The only next gen system I've seen is the Wii - the PS3 and Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement." To Wright, next-gen consoles must reach a new demographic, which the Wii has done. Furthermore, it's Wright's Xbox 360 that sits unused, collecting dust, while his Wii gets played constantly.
We don't completely agree with Wright's assessment, since we think that the Xbox 360 and PS3 bring more than graphics to the table. Still, it's nice to hear a well-known developer praising the merits of the Wii rather than dismissing it because of its weaker graphics.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Spore creator Will Wright says the real-time life sim will release on PC in roughly six months time, that’s due spring 2008. But keep in mind ambitious games like these often get delayed, that’s why the previous best guess was Spore arriving between April 2008 and end 2009.
In an interview with Radio 5 Live, Will Wright said: “We have the game fully playable at this point and it’s in final testing. We’ve had to do a lot of testing to make sure that the game is accessible by a wide group of people. I want the people who have played The Sims to be able to play Spore - I don’t want it to be some thing just hardcore gamers play.”
If you’re not familiar with Spore, in the game you start off as a single-cell organism and then create your species at every stage of its evolution, from aquatic to its first steps on land through to tribes then a culture and then finally to explore whole galaxies.
Watch the idea behind Spore evolve in this trailer:
As anniversary week winds down, we can't help but wonder: what's next? One good year for a video game console means nothing if it's followed by some not-so-great years. Fortunately, there are many fun things in store for the Wii, so we've decided to create this little guide to show you what exactly there is to look forward to.
Games to Look Forward to: We've had some excellent games released this year, and now feels like a good time to be a Wii owner because many more are on the way. In order to organize the jumbled web of excitement in our minds, we made a list of ten popular titles to look out for in 2008.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl-- Yes, we're obvious, and yes, you knew it was coming, but there's no way we could pretend that we weren't looking forward to this game. Brawl has added a lot of things to the formula of its already impressive predecessors, including the stage builder and music customization. We admit that we were also excited by the addition of somepopularcharacters to the SmashBros. franchise. This title will surely be nothing short of amazing.
Mario Kart Wii -- Nintendo's last non-portable entry in this series was widely considered a disappointment, but there are many reasons why we believe that Mario Kart Wii won't suffer the same fate. For one, the game will support twelve player racing online. We're also interested to see how the use of motorcycles in the game works out, because if done well it can add something fresh to the series.
No More Heroes -- Third party titles are important for consoles, and because we don't always know what to expect, we often anticipate them with cautious optimism. No More Heroes looks like a fun game with a good sense of humor, and you may have noticed that we've given the game a lot of coverage on this site. Sometimes we can't help ourselves, though, and we really believe that this title can be one of the Wii's best games in its second year.
Animal Crossing -- We're very intrigued by the possibility of Animal Crossing Wiibeing an MMO. It's not confirmed that it will be, but if the rumor is true, we think it can add a lot of depth to the game ... not to mention, destroy our will to ever leave our houses again.
Fatal Frame -- Do we really have to explain why we're looking forward to this game? I mean ... really? Is it not enough to say that one of the best horror series of all time is coming to the Wii? We hope this game scares at least twenty years off our lives, because really, we don't fancy getting old.
Samba de Amigo-- A beloved rhythm game with a monkey, a sombrero, and maracas. Need we say more?
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers -- Not only is this Square Enix game looking beautiful, but what we've seen so far slightly reminds us of Skies of Arcadia, which can only be a good thing. We still don't have many details on this title, but it's always worth keeping an eye out for something with the words "Final" and "Fantasy" in the title.
Spore -- You'd have to live in a hole that was located under a tunnel, which was under a pond filled with rocks and giant boats to have not heard about Spore, but you may have missed the news that the game is coming to the Wii. In this Will Wright project, you don't just create a society, you create life. The gameplay options in this game seem endless, and it's definitely worth considering next year.
Dragon Quest Swords -- RPG fans, we know you're out there. You're not going to want to overlook this Square Enix title, but we're sure that those of you worth your salt already have it on your "must have" list. If you don't know much about the game or the series, though, you can always check out these drool worthy videos.
Wii Fit-- We really don't know what to expect when it comes to Wii Fit, but we think it has the potential to be something great. Also, if the game provides a good enough work out, it might actually save us money when we cancel our gym memberships.
Okami -- Okay, so we told you ten games, and here comes game number eleven. But do you want to be the one to tell Okami that that you're not excited about it? Even though the Wiimote will work oh-so-well in a game as uniquely wonderful as this? Yeah, we didn't think so.
Virtual Console and Wii Ware It may be futile to hope that we one day get games like GoldenEye, Secret of Mana, and Mother 3 on the Virtual Console, but that doesn't mean we won't get other great stuff. This year there were almost 200 releases on the U.S.'s virtual console, which is not too shabby. By the end of next year there will probably be from around 350-400 games on the VC. We only wish our wallets could match our enthusiasm for all the games we want to buy.
What we're really excited for, though, is Wii Ware. Even just the firstfewtitles announced seem worth buying, and we think Wii Ware will be one of our favorite things about the system by the end of 2008. Sure, there are some things to be weary about, like the lack of a hard drive for the Wii, but none of that changes the fact that Wii Ware is a brilliant addition to the console. Wii Channels It's about time that we got Wii-DS connectivity, and we especially can't wait for DS demo downloads to hit our Wiis. Sure there are many other things we might also wish for when it comes to the Wii's channels, but with the recent release of Check Mii Out and the soon-to-come gift feature in the Wii Shop Channel, it's clear that Nintendo isn't planning to neglect the channel system just yet.
Conclusion We still can't believe it's been a whole year with the Wii, and what a good year it was. But the past is the past, and what really matters now is the future. Still, we don't see our love affair with the Wii ending any time soon, and the Wii's second year is shaping up to be even better than its first.
Will Wright involved in the future of Spore, consoles a possibility originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Spore has been officially confirmed for Wii (We actually reported on 
As anniversary week winds down, we can't help but wonder: 
No More Heroes
