EA: Spore Will Spawn Money for Us

With Will Wright's long-awaited evolutionary life-sim Spore finally done and on its way to stores this weekend, publisher Electronic Arts's tone towards the game has turned financial.

"It's a Will Wright project that carries a level of expectations for quality and, frankly, success," EA Games president Frank Gibeau told Gamasutra. He anticipates the game will serve as "a platform on which we can build a very large and enduring business," much like developer Maxis' previous blockbuster The Sims 2.

Rather than sell content add-ons following the traditional business model driving The Sims series and downloadable content for current games, Gibeau sees Spore taking a new direction. "The idea is so gigantic -- creating and controlling a universe -- [that] we can take it in lots of different ways," he explained.

As an example, Gibeau thinks that the upcoming Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii versions of the game can be a part of that business platform. "They're not going to be [simply] ports to the Wii [and other systems]," he assured. "We're going to look at how to bring that idea to life on those platforms in a unique way."

Gibeau alludes to a concept already explained by Wright himself. "Spore on almost any platform is going to be different and tied to the unique aspects of that platform," Wright said last week. "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."