It may have been rumored and pretty much outed on the internet last week, but EA has confirmed that a new SimCity game is currently in development — but it’s not SimCity 5 as previously believed.

Currently being called simply SimCity, and scheduled for a 2013 release, SimCity is expected to be the most robust game in the history of the franchise. Oh, and it’ll have curvy roads. CURVY ROADS!

If you’ve missed out on the whole Spore Creature Creator phenomenon, now you really have zero excuse to not try it out.

Electronic Arts and Maxis today unleashed the Spore Creature 2D, a web-based Flash program allowing imaginative minds to create a 2-D creature and share it with the world.

The 2-D Creature Creator makes use of over 250 body parts including antlers, wings, limbs, eyes, feet, and heads. Really, you can make anything you want. Give him a couple of heads and too many eyes, it’s your creature!

The best part? When you’re finished playing God you can use your little dude in a cute little mini-game and then share your freak-of-nature with the world via e-card. If you’ve stumbled on this story in the heat of a workday, prepare to do nothing but create all afternoon, as this app is extremely addictive.

Head to Spore2D.com to start

Mega-publisher Electronic Arts today announced the first expansion pack headed to the crazy-popular Sims 3 universe. Dubbed “World Adventures” and dropping this November 16, this debut pack is the fruit of great labor, as EA puts it, and aims to entertain you and your Sims outside of the confines of Sunset Valley and Riverview.

World Adventures invites you and your faux-family on a globe-trotting whirlwind adventure hitting such popular real-world locales as China, France, and Egypt. Furthermore, while you’re there you’ll be able to accept “challenges to search for secret treasures, learn new skills and chase down new personal opportunities, meet new Sims with unique personalities.” Not too shabby, at least you’ll have great stories to tell when you return home!

The expansion, available at retail, will cost an unnamed price at the moment, but will also yield 1,000 SimPoints good for “exclusive content” that EA says will be named at a later date.

World Adventures will also hit iPhone/iPod Touch sometime after the November 16 PC release date. Stay tuned.

For now, enjoy these screens of all the places you’ll go!

We all know Will Wright’s brainchild and altogether ambitious Spore franchise, but in a surprisingly awesome move, publisher Electronic Arts and the ‚ Robot Chicken television show from Adult Swim, have come together to create the most outrageous product ever-free DLC for the upcoming Spore Galactic Adventures.

Anyone who has seen the absurdly random and strikingly provocative Robot Chicken short can attest to the thought that if the genius creators of RC ventured into the waters of an openly imaginative video game, only one option is out there-Spore.

Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, co-creators of Robot Chicken, with the help of a dedicated writing staff, conceptualized the campaign for Galactic Adventures, and EA assures gamers that “missions with exploding poo, angry yetis, and ruler yielding librarians” will be the mainstay among more crazed adventures.

Senreich commented on his involvement with the project as such:

“We’re all gaming geeks, so when the Spore guys said they had an alluring proposition for us, how could we say no? Instead of creating absurd worlds with toys, this gave us the opportunity to create literally anything we wanted as gamers.”

Kip Katserelis, lead producer of Spore Galactic Adventures remarked in an equally excited tone about the Robot Chicken influence when he stated:

“Their Adventures truly reflect the extent of their wild imaginations as well as how the in-game Adventure Creator tool can create almost any type of story imaginable. Players can only guess the level of absurdity and fun that are in these Adventures.”

I had a chance to meet with Seth Green, Matt Senreich and the entire writing staff at the New York Comic Con in February, and it is true what they say about Green.‚  He is a very, very short man, but in his hilarity he’s a giant.‚  These men are creative masterminds and their expertise will undoubtedly help the Spore franchise.‚  That said however, Robot Chicken is a very adult show, in both cultural references and language, so to tame the guys down to an rated E level will be interesting to see.

Spore Galactic Adventures hits PC and Mac June 23 and these Robot Chicken inspired additional adventures will be available for free download that very same day.‚  No word on the length of the additional missions, but hey, free is free, right?

Check out the Robot Chicken Spore website here (at press time the site was not up and running)

Why make new games when a perfectly good original is available for rampant spin-offs?

Electronic Arts and Maxis today announced Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena-two creatures built from the ground up for Wii and DS due out this fall.

As you’d probably expect the major components of both titles are creativity, exploration, and adventure-but you know, in a different way than Spore itself did.

Both Nintendo exclusive games are due out this fall at a to be determined price.‚  What we do know however are key components to each title.

Spore Hero, the Wii-make, is set in a 3-D world (could it not be?), is story driven and allows creators (gamers) to build a character through a modified Creature Creator toolset and embark upon an epic quest filled with battles, puzzles, and humor.‚  The end goal is to, you know, save your planet from total destruction-how clichƒ©.

On the portable side of things, Spore Hero Arena is much like its big brother in that gamers will create a “gladiator” and bolster his abilities, parts, and upgrades as fighters throughout the universe are conquered through arena-type battles. ‚ Best of all, Arena will allow for 4 player local multiplayer and 1 v. 1 via Wi-Fi.

If I can pull myself away from the highly addictive creature creator on PC I may just play one of these.

There is something oddly alluring about creating newfangled and unique creatures that clearly resonated with fans everywhere as Electronic Arts and Maxis today announced the 100 millionth Spore Creation has been built since the titles’ launch last summer.

To break that figure down further, about 307,000 creations are uploaded to the Sporepedia each and every day.

And of that lofty 100 million figure, 31,017,761 are franken-creatures, which equals 19 times the number of known species on Earth.‚  However, if EA hadn’t banned “sexual deviant” creatures (we’re looking at you genitalia resembling creatures) the figure would undoubtedly be significantly higher.

Check out the Sporepedia to see the millions of creations.

And if you’ve never ventured to the Spore side of life, a free trial of the Spore Creature Creator can be downloaded here.

Legendary game designer Will Wright, creator of SimCity and The Sims has left mega publisher Electronic Arts today to head an entertainment think tank titled Stupid Fan Club and backed in principal by EA.

The Stupid Fan Club will tirelessly work to bring new ideas to video games, movies, television, the internet, and toys.‚  In the agreement, both EA and Wright will act as principal shareholders controlling equal percentages of the Fan Club.‚  In addition, any bright ideas Wright devises can be developed by EA.

“The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change,” said Will Wright. “Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms. In my twelve years at EA, I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside some of the brightest and most talented game developers in the industry and I look forward to working with them again in the near future.”

“Will has been an inspiration to our teams, and it’s been rewarding for us to bring his ideas to life,” said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “In addition to legendary games, Will’s legacy at EA will be the many talented people who worked with him and will now continue to contribute their own vision to the art of game development.”

The name Wright has been synonymous with EA since Maxis was absorbed by the mega publisher in 1989, and while the man has “left” EA officially, his future creations are likely to become, as they have always been, bestsellers.

Stupid Fan Club

The Sims 3 is set to release in June and if you are exploding with enthusiasm from the awesomely awesome debut trailer and crave something new to dwell on about for the next three months we’ve got you covered with brand new screenshots detailing a brand new Lifetime Wish facet of gameplay to satiate that thirst of yours.

A Sims Lifetime Wish can take many forms given the personality traits assigned to them, and as these set of screens illustrate, that wish can range from the musically talented to the overly extravagant.

As always, your Sim is not just another nameless face in the crowd; its fate is determined by guiding and readying it for the ultimate Lifetime Wish, including Astronaut, Music composer, International Super Spy, Super Robot Cross Breeder, and Superstar Athlete.‚ ‚  Furthermore, completing a Lifetime Wish and amassing enough Lifetime Happiness will endow the Sim with a new set of opportunities.

Electronic Arts clarifies the idea with the following statement.

Lifetime Wishes are long-term goals for players to focus their Sims towards if they prefer a little more direction. Your Sims are able to choose a Lifetime Wish based on their traits. Completing a Lifetime Wish may require your Sims to master certain skills, reach the top of a career, become a local celebrity, or perhaps even a heartbreaker. By completing a Lifetime Wish, your Sims will earn enough Lifetime Happiness points to choose from a variety of whacky Sims objects and powerful traits like Steel Bladder, Legendary Host or the Teleportation Pad.

I have somehow avoided the Sims plague (meant in a good way) but I may not escape the flood with this iteration.‚  New combinations of personality traits, new environments to interact with and explore, total customization of everything, and various new gameplay elements all add up to a experience that even has me excited.

I can already picture my Sim, a clumsy, romantically stupid, black haired male perpetually dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt.‚  Oh and if he can love bacon pizza, I want that too!

5 new screens detailing the Lifetime Wishes in the gallery.

Much more information regarding all things Sims at the official site.

The next evolution in the Spore franchise is coming.‚  Maxis has announced the next installments of the immensely popular game, which will be appearing on PC, Wii and Nintendo DS, depending on which title(s) you decide to buy: Spore Galactic Adventures, Spore Creature Keeper, Spore Hero or Spore Hero Arena.

Spore Galactic Adventures will be a serve as an expansion pack to the PC original title.‚  Along with adding even more customization and creation possibilities, Galactic Adventures will also bring some interesting and welcomed elements to the series as well.‚  One of the most intriguing features will be the “adventure creator” where players can develop missions, play them and share them with friends.

Spore Creature Keeper will be an installment perfect for those younger Spore players.‚  Unlike Galactic Adventures, Creature Keeper will be a stand-alone PC title and will have a large focus on the social and rearing needs of your character.‚  Also, kids should have a blast with the extensive variety of items like toys, clothing and other doodads.

Spore Hero will allow fans to play Spore on Wii for the very first time.‚  The Wii controlling scheme inspired Maxis to build an entire new title of the franchise “from the ground up”.‚  Expect good things.

Spore Hero Arena, a Nintendo DS title, will look to continue the momentum that Spore Creatures started last September.‚  Hero Arena will give fans a chance to create 3D characters (rather than the simple 2D models in Creatures) and battle foes from different galaxies.

All in all, the new evolutions of Spore seem have enough similarities for fans to purchase just one of the titles while having just enough variability to validate buying all four.‚  The potential of the gameplay on the Wii is exciting while the “adventure creator” in Galactic Adventures should make the franchise as addicting as ever.‚  All the titles are expected to be released in 2009.

From EA:

CREATE, PLAY AND SHARE WITH SPORE FRANCHISE AS EA UNVEILS DIVERSE SOFTWARE LINE-UP FOR 2009

Four Unique Launches Prove that Possibilities in Spore are as Infinite as the Cosmos

The Spore franchise is evolving! With more than 65 million pieces of user-created content shared online, fans from around the globe have gravitated to the game’s powerful creativity-centered experience and massively single-player content sharing site. This year, the award-winning Spore franchise continues to evolve as Maxis, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) studio announces four new titles, each designed to deliver a unique experience to a specific audience; Spore¢â€ž¢ Galactic Adventures, Spore¢â€ž¢ Creature Keeper*, Spore¢â€ž¢ Hero* and Spore¢â€ž¢ Hero Arena*. This roster offers unique gameplay for space hunters, creature creators and action adventurers, proving that Spore has something for everyone “" gamers, kids and Nintendo fans alike.

“Last year was a very exciting year for Maxis with the release of Spore. We were overwhelmed by the massive response to the game from the millions of people that created, shared and played in the Spore universe,” said General Manager of Maxis, Lucy Bradshaw. “This year we’re going to experiment with new experiences that extend the powerful creativity tools of Spore to all-new audiences. With the universe as our backdrop, the only limit in the Spore universe is your own imagination.”

The next big bang for Spore on PC comes this spring with the deeply immersive and customizable expansion pack, Spore Galactic Adventures. Spore Galactic Adventures adds a tremendous amount of variety and depth to the original “space game” in Spore, allowing players to beam down to planets, play mission-based adventures and even create their own customized adventures for the first time. Each adventure has a unique reward to upgrade a space creature with special accessories “" from an Energy Blade and Stunning Charm to a Jump Jet and more. Players can fight their way to victory as a Warrior, dance with new friends as a Bard, and much more. With an almost unlimited number of user created adventures, there’s more to play than ever before. The “adventure creator” in Spore Galactic Adventures gives gamers the tools to make their own missions and share them with friends via www.spore.com.

Younger Spore fans will have a blast with the Spore Creature Keeper, a stand-alone PC game that has players nurturing, training and playing with their own personally-created creature. With lots of toys, clothes and gizmos to play with, players can pamper their pets to perfection! With Spore Creature Keeper, fans can play with their creation alone or have a play-date online for endless creature fun. Spore Creature Keeper brings all the fun of creature creation to a new level by adding nurturing, teaching and social components to the experience.

Spore will make its highly-anticipated debut on the Nintendo Wii with Spore Hero, an all-new adventure game focusing on creativity and evolution that was built from the ground up for the unique controls for Wii¢â€ž¢. Spore Hero takes players on an exciting adventure through a beautiful, colorful world. Spore Hero Arena for Nintendo DS¢â€ž¢ builds on the success of 2008′s hit Spore¢â€ž¢ Creatures and allows players to create fully-3D Spore creatures and take them into battle with an array of other creatures across the galaxy. Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena offer two all-new Spore experiences available exclusively for Nintendo platforms this fall.

With a a tornado of viral publicity over its pre-released Creature Creator and a hurricane of backlash about walking phalli and borderline copy-right infringement by way of an Elmo with antlers and floating X-wings, “Spore” needs very little press.

What the National Geographic Channel set out to do instead, is inform. With “Spore’s” highly anticipated release September 7, the National Geographic Channel will be releasing a companion documentary called, “How to Build a Better Being.” Which delves deeper into the development of the game’s core mechanics and what they have to do with genetic research and bioengineering.

Will Wright has revolutionized the gaming world once again. A man with big ideas, and in partnership with Electronic Arts, they have made a galaxy-wide impact with his newest multi-genre, massive, single-player game. Users are put forth to evolve their own creature from its origins as a single-celled organism to a space faring civilization, with plenty of room for evolution in between.

“One of my goals for this whole thing has been to give somebody an awe-inspiring global view of reality, almost like a drug-induced epiphany with a computer. The kind of, ‘Oh, man, what if we were a molecule inside of a galaxy?’ type thing,” Will Wright said, explaining the scope of Spore.

A precursor to the full game came out this summer called “Spore: Creature Creator,” which allowed users to custom create a simulated organism and raise it to their every unique specification. Which in turned spawned some of the weirdest, most original creatures ever to grace the Internet, and that’s saying something.

User-created videos began to spring up on video social-networks like YouTube. Some creations looked like dogs and cats, yet others had no discernible mouth or even head. In some cases, the creator of the creature was so skilled as to create accurate representations of a specific piece of male anatomy.

The Creature Creator prompted a backlash from a small group of “militant atheists,” and even garnered a full report pm CNN: “Scrolling through the database — past the three-legged sea horse, past the seven-eyed wildebeest and the half-motorcycle-half-pig — revealed something many users didn’t expect. Buried among the more wholesome attempts were two-legged dancing testicles, a ‘giant breast monster’ and a four-legged ‘phallic fornication machine,’ for starters.”

Yet beyond all the simple menus, cute creations, and potential for graphic beast on beast pornography, lies an even deeper story. The framework for a game about creation, life and ultimately playing host to an entire civilization might seem daunting, but Wright and his team had it all covered. Speaking to ZDNet Asia, he expanded on the foundation of Spore. “A lot of it was science, looking at science as a whole, and around the question of Astrobiology and SETI, and how we turned that into an interesting game experience where you look at the entire universe from a very different perspective.”

The National Geographic Channel then took that grand premise and made a documentary focusing more on the technological/biological side of the game. With the motto of “Think Again,” NGC interviewed Will Wright and leading biology scientists in exploring how genetically, we’re all connected.

Scheduled to appear on September 9, at 10 p.m., “How to Build a Better Bring” was written and directed by Ron Bowan, who produced and directed “National Geographic Explorer” episodes, “Python” and “Violent Volcano,” and is Executive Produced by Howard Swartz. The video will be released stand-alone, or it can be purchased with the “Spore: Galactic Edition.”

“It’s kind of a biologist’s dream to be able to design your own animal,” says marine biologist and National Geographic Emerging Explorer Tierney Thys, “to pick and choose the traits of animal groups that you most enjoy … Oh my gosh, I love this.”

Let the cellular revolution begin. Electronic Arts and their Maxis studio announced today that Spore, perhaps the most eagerly anticipated PC game of this decade, has gone gold and will be available for PC and MAc September 5 in Europe and September 7 in North America.

Spore Creatures for DS and Spore Origins for mobile phones will also launch globally September 7.

Spore is the latest project from Will Wright, creator of Sim City and The Sims.

A few commerical tie-ins from EA: Players who preorder Spore or Spore Galactic Edition from participating retailers will receive a coupon good for $10 off their next purchase of custom merchandise at www.zazzle.com/sporestore. For the ultimate Spore fan, the limited Galactic Edition will contain the ‘Making of Spore’ DVD, ‘How to Build a Better Being’ DVD (a 50 minute National Geographic Channel documentary DVD hosted by Spore mastermind, Will Wright), ‘The Art of Spore’ hardback book, an exclusive Spore poster, and a premium 100-page Galactic Handbook.

“We are so excited to finally get Spore into the hands of fans and players,” said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis. “The Maxis studio has had an absolute blast creating Spore, but the fun is just beginning. The most engaging stories are truly the ones people create themselves, and we can’t wait to see how players not only craft and explore the Spore universe, but hear what stories they have to tell as a result.”

Perhaps the ultimate sandbox game, Spore lets players start from tiny organisms and expand and evolve into a massive, space-faring superpower.

For all the latest Spore news, screens, videos community content, and to try out the trial version of the hugely popular Spore Creature Creator, visit www.spore.com.

Electronic Arts had a busy week as we have reported, and reported and reported, but three more game announcements are worth taking note of.

First off, EA Sports announced Thursday that NCAA Football 09 will be the first college football title on the Nintendo Wii when it hits shelves later this year. It will join the PSP, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and most likely PC/Windows platforms.

With the announcement comes a contest — fans can vote on their favorite college mascot that will grace the game’s cover.

"Nintendo is excited to have NCAA Football 09 available for Wii.  In my family, NCAA Football has always been a family event," said Steve Singer, Nintendo of America’s vice president of Licensing.  "Now with the Family Play mode from EA we can share the football experience all year long."

Voting for the cover mascot cloes March 6, and the winner will be announced March 14.

EA’s highly successful Sims maker Maxis will launch their new game, Spore, on the PC, Macintosh, Nintendo DS, and mobile phones on the weekend of September 7.

Taking their city building simulations to the next level, Maxis promises that Spore “gives players their own personal universe in a box.”

“Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers,” EA/Maxis said Tuesday. “Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even UFOs.  Players can then seamlessly share their creations with the world or explore infinite new galaxies created by other gamers.”

“The wait is almost over,” said Maxis Chief Designer Will Wright. “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.”

Finally, Mass Effect will hit the PC platform in May. The Bioware-produced action epic has found critical acclaim on Xbox 360.

“Published by EA and re-designed for the PC, Mass Effect invites players to take the role of Commander Shepard as they set out on an adventure to save the galaxy from imminent destruction,” EA/Bioware said Tuesday. ”Wrought with treachery, heroism, difficult decisions and a universe filled with unique and colorful species, Mass Effect delivers a truly compelling storyline.”

The PC version of Mass Effect will feature detailed, high-resolution graphics, customizable controls and a new decryption mini-game.