What Happened to Spore?

Spore was a great game that slowly faded into obscurity as time elapsed. Now, we look back on what happened to this beloved game and see as it evolved through the ages.
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#spore #videogames #nostalgia #retrospective #retro

[SophiaSanders]

Spore was a classic. Especially the cell and creature stage. Galactic is pretty good as well.

[FengTheSlayer]

Spore had so much potential that’s for sure

[bearcat]

EA literally killed spore for profit and failed at that, spore wasn't supposed to come out for many more years, but EA forced maxis to cut a LOT of content to shove the game out before it was done, there were supposed to be more stages in the game, and dataminers have found the water / fish stage locked away in the game, and have been doing a lot of modding to bring the game up to what it was supposed to be

[WauzirexLP]

"What Happened to Spore?" simple answer: EA happened.

[xemnas]

I pray to Spode for Spore 2 to be made one day.

[Dxpress_]

1:41
Just want to correct this: Spore was _developed_ by Maxis and _published_ by EA.

[selinaytiryakioglu]

If they made Spore like they promised (A realistic Creature Creator (For example, if you made your creature's wings too small, they couldn't fly), An Aquatic Stage, Deciding to stay in the sea or on the land, Realistic hunting etc.) it would be revolutionary. But again, this is EA we are talking about. So much potential in wrong hands...
At least the current Spore is good, the modding community still keeps it alive (And they are awesome! Keep it up pals :D) and we have some lore in the game.

[audiblewheezinginbound]

And now EA is one of the most hated "AAA" companies.

[CyberSurferXD]

I used to love Spore back in high school. Had a whole mythology around my creatures and a long running series of story quests in Galactic Adventures before they pretty much lost my account and shat the bed on my future interest. Sadly never got to play Darkspore. It's a shame since way back when an EA representative messaged me that they had used some of my creature designs for some of the enemy grunts (a completely unnecessary but amazing gesture that blew my teenage mind~) ...yet I never had a copy of the game to learn which ones they used... still need to do that one of these days

[horizontaltwo]

a remastered spore with todays graphics and game quality would be so good. This game had such a big impact on who I became. It sparked my interest in evolution and space exploration.

[The_gaming_gazimon]

"currently a subsidiary of EA" is inaccurate, they closed maxis in 2015.

[SpikeViper]

I'm still making a series on Spore - don't lose hope yet!

[DarkEdgeTV]

This was a great video, very nice explanation of all the bumps and turns down the road for this old game. And on a personal note, thanks for mentioning that it actually still is playable.

Just wanted to add, in regards to toys and merchandise - there was briefly a time where you could order a 3D printed model of your creations, although they were heavily restricted (reasonable, due to materials and such). I can't remember this lasting very long though, it definitely ended before I ever had a chance to see it, so it may have begun during Creature Creator days and ended around 2008-2009.

Another thing possibly worth noting is that while the sporepedia servers are still running and it's possible to log in (although with great difficulty for some), EA did very recently kill off the MAJOR community forum, the Sporum, just recently. It was officially shut down in August and will soon be purged altogether. This has been a huge blow to whatever remains of the community, as it was the final "main" place to go to, aside from the Sporepedia itself. There is a new forum... but it's a pain to find, and horribly watered down.

Anyway, great content! Keep it up, I liked hearing your perspective and reactions on it.

[luminariel]

I love Spore, and I often regret the direction they took it in. It could have been the next great Sim-style game, spanning multiple generations... if they had treated it like the Sim-style it was, rather than a poor imitation of an adventure/rpg.
Could you imagine if Spore had as many expansion packs and releases as The Sims? All the parts, new areas, new worlds to explore and discover? Could you imagine being able to have multiple creatures evolving on the same planet, all played by you?
Or what about creating a race of water-dwelling creatures, ones that had never left the ocean? Having to deal with enormous leviathans that surface to pick off unwary swimmers? Or perhaps creatures that can truly fly, rarely touch the ground, and live high up on mountaintops?
EA let a diamond in the rough slip through their fingers, what with the roughshod way they treated this beauty. It still has potential, so I hope they eventually realize that, if they do it right, it will have sales practically on par with The Sims.

[Bluewlfie]

You failed to cover how far removed and dumbed down the final product was from it's original inception. Will Wright wanted to have dynamic animations created on the fly based on the physics of the creatures, their mass and placement of the parts. Their senses for instance. Also, the game was meant to have gore and be more realistic. Will Wright left because EA left such a sour taste in his mouth, the original vision of spore is a completely different game and would of actually been scientific and interesting, not the dumbed down mindless shit it became.

[crazydoodleman]

In your research you missed a big ordeal that happened around early 2006 where the game was basically remade to appeal for a younger audience. The original concept was going to be more open for evolution, had a water stage, actual blood and other cartoon gore. Compared to what we ended up with it is a stark difference where the original that was ready for release in 2006 was ordered remade so it would fit with a rating that would draw in more possible buyers. As a result we were given a game with the same idea and premise, but only a quarter of the original content. Should look up the original E3 presentation of spore from 2005 when it was nearing completion before the EA incidents took place.

[tefnutstemple]

Spore still exists. And surprisingly can be played solo. Though youll want to download creations still, because seeing what Maxis made gets boring eventually. Unfortunately, creation downloading is kinda a pain.

[devonkubacki]

the whole aquatic phase being cut killed the game for me. Just irks me that you go from a cell, to a land based animal in one go.

[SulGhst]

I have almost 20 online friends since 2008 that we now meet once a year all because of Spore...

[MilesProwerHere]

It's a shame that all of Maxis' legacy is fading away so fast because of EA, and they just been destroyed in 2016. All their games are getting destroyed even the Sims because of just how scummy the Sims 4 are and in my opinion, rather underdeveloped. SimCity was already destroyed and completely overshadowed by Cities Skylines. It's really sad. Maxis had a lot of influence in my childhood with games like Spore, the Sims and SimCity. And we will never be able to see a sequel to Spore, before anybody will be bothered or somehow some people from Maxis who worked on it decide to finally reboot it (probably highly unlikely) I doubt the community by that time will be big enough or they will get enough coverage or just be heard in general. It's really depressing.