In early April we let you know that Will Wright, the guy behind The Sims, Spore and co-founder of Maxis, would be departing the studio he helped build to focus on his newest studio Stupid Fun Club. At the time we had no idea exactly what the studio would work on first and not much has changed since. Although today we now at least know that Stupid Fun Club is working on something.

Mr. Wright himself recently sat down with VentureBeat to let us know that Stupid Fun Club is working on three separate projects which could come to life in “six months to a year”. He elaborated by saying that these projects range from the internet to toys but didn’t say much further.

So, within the next 6-12 months we should be seeing more of Stupid Fun Club.

Unfortunately, Maxis recently let Hecker in an effort to downsize the company but that hasn’t stopped him from quickly moving onto a new project which he calls SpyParty. In this game, there will be 2 players, the Spy and the Sniper. The Spy’s job is to move around the party undetected while completely various objectives while the Sniper’s job is to find the Spy and take him out.

Unfortunately, there is no word on when this game will his store shelves, if ever, but we are definitely anticipating any further information regarding SpyParty.

via bigdownload

It seems that the publisher is so fed up with piracy that they have plans to combat the issue with their own firepower. Yves Guillemot, head of Ubisoft, speaks of the piracy problem:

“Altogether on console, the piracy is low. On the PC the piracy is quite a lot. We are working on a tool that would allow us to decrease that on the PC starting next year and probably one game this year.”

So what do they have cookin’ over at Ubisoft? Let’s hope they aren’t getting ideas from EA as we saw how well that was recieved with Spore.

Don’t forget that you need the EA Download Manager to make the patch possible, though. Here’s the full changelog:

Spore Improvements:

• Asymmetry is now available for creatures! Details on new Asymmetry features for Creatures and Vehicles can be found here.
• This patch fixes several crashes in Space Game.
• Many tuning improvements to Space Game, including reduced disaster rates at all levels of difficulty, adjustments to Hard Mode, increased limits on concurrent trade routes, as well as changes to tool unlocks for the Knights.
• Creator Lineage appears correctly for all creation types shared after this patch is installed.
• Cheat is included that permits Creators to export creatures in Collada format for use in Maya. Creators must acknowledge and accept a Tools EULA to perform this operation. An additional cheat has been provided to enable highest quality textures to appear on vehicles, where it is supported by user hardware.
• Fixed a problem where creations would go missing if a user quits the game in any way while downloads are in progress.
• Fixed a bug where achievements were disappearing.
• Fixed a bug where some Sporepedia cards had corrupted backgrounds.
• Fixed a problem in Space where some Grox planets were unreachable.
• YouTube movies now publish as public

Galatic Adventure Improvements:

• This patch must be installed again after installing Galactic Adventures, even if you have installed this patch previously.
• You can now place the avatar, NPCs, and handheld objects on top of air, land, and sea vehicles in the Adventure Creator. Get more info here.
• Improvements are made to the Adventure Creator, including right-click camera behavior, and User Interface enhancements.
• In EP1 open gates were not working correctly when they were disguised
• Some customer-reported crashes in Galactic Adventures have been fixed.

Read (Spore)

No, EA isn’t teaming up with Activision to merge Spore with Guitar Hero but they are releasing a special edition of the game for the Wii and Nintendo DS entitled Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena.

According to Kotaku both games will focus on the Creature mode of the original Spore where players will create their own creature and take them on all sorts of adventures, battling other creatures and traveling the galaxy:

“When Maxis first considered bringing Spore to console players, the Nintendo platforms jumped out as a perfect fit. Whether it is the stylus-driven action of the Nintendo DS or playful controllers of the Wii, the massive Nintendo audience is the ideal home for Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena,” said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “Nintendo fans will love the humor, ability to create their own Hero, fun game play and immersive storylines we’re creating for these two games.”

Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena are due out for the Wii and Nintendo DS sometime this fall.

EA has recently announced that there have been over 100 million created using the Spore Creature Creator to date which includes creatures, buildings, and vehicles.

Also included in the press release was the announcement that the 100 millionth creator will receive a NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT video card, Spore and the Galactic Adventures expansion pack.

Upon reading this announcement I took the time to flip through EA’s Sporepedia and picked out some creations that caught my eye, included above.

Spore Galactic Adventures will hit store shelves on June 23rd for both PC and Mac.

Remember Spore? The game that everyone thought was going to change the way we looked at the gaming industry in general? Yeah, well EA has finally taken the time to reveal some details regarding the game’s Galactic Adventures expansion that was first announced back in January.

In Galactic Adventure players will take the rank of Space Captain as they adventure the galaxy (ironic huh?) unlocking and collecting 30 new “game-changing items and accessories”.

And what’s a game without some sort of achievements, right? Players will be given a Creature Card, that showcases their ranking and accomplishments.

Yep, that’s all we have to go by for now, no release date or pricing.

Read (Examiner)

The API has already seen quite a few projects being created, including a fun aquarium using creatures from the game, embeddable Flash programs that display statistics and more.

To make the release of the API that much more awesome, Maxis is running a contest where it will award three application designers with various prizes.

The publisher is expected to reveal more information on the add-on, as well as other Spore titles, in an upcoming 2009 Spore lineupevent later this month.

Sadly for Maxis not only do the number of pirated downloads approach the total number of copies sold (over two million), The Sims 2 is second on the list, Unfortunately many surmise that the vast amount of Spore piracy is due to the DRM they instituted on the extremely anticipated game.

While many question the future of PC gaming given the extremely high rates of piracy for these and other games, the continued success of World of Warcraft and other MMOs shows that the future of PC gaming is likely in that genre, given that the constant online access includes whatever DRM measures are necessary.

One Richard Eldridge of Pennsylvania is suing the publisher over undisclosed installation of the DRM software after installing a demo version of Spore Creator Creator. Here’s a bit from his suit:

The inclusion of undisclosed, secretly installed DRM protection measures with a program that was freely distributed constitutes a major violation of computer owners’ absolute right to control what does and what does not get loaded onto their computers, and how their computers shall be used…

The other suit, filed by Dianna Cortez of Missouri, cites EA for “immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous” conduct for installing the DRM which caused problems on the user’s computer.

Hopefully, this will lead to nonsense-DRM being phased out, making place for smarter software and maybe a DRM-less future.

The presidential candidates (and their ever-lovable sidekicks) will appear in Spore as spaceships. Players can get the politician-shaped spaceships in their game by subscribing to the Election 08 Sporecast.

"Who knows, you just might see Obama firing ‘YesYouCannons’ around the galaxy, or witness firsthand John McCain being ‘mavericky,’" reads a note from EA.

The sequel, which was not so well-received by the critics as the original, has sold 1.9 million copies since it hit stores. The franchise joins the growing list of titles that will get sequels, including Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge.

Peasants also expressed his belief in the Spore franchise, promising that both expansion packs and business models are coming for the evolution simulator.

“The bottom line: In spite of its marketing, Spore clearly has little in common with science, especially evolution. That’s a pity, because with very minor tweaks, the game could live up to its promise. Gregory and Eldredge’s critique provides several good ideas, such as incurring a developmental cost for making radical body-plan changes. Another easy improvement would be to weave relevant science into the fabric of the existing game. In the game Civilization, for example, you learn a great deal about the history of ancient cultures through a series of pop-up mini-articles. When you stick a limb on your creature, wouldn’t it be nice to have an optional pop-up window that explains the real (and fascinating) science behind limb evolution?”

The group also concluded by saying that Spore could accomplish a great deal as a scientific teaching tool if it were tweaked through patches or expansion. Before Maxis does that, however, I’d like them to release a patch, or expansion, which gives Spore deeper game play.

It was something I probably should have tuned into more. It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore. They had a plan and the parameters, but now we’re allowing more authentications and working with players to de-authenticate which makes it more in line like an iTunes. I think one of the most valid concerns about it was you could only install it so many times. For most players it’s not an issue, it’s a pretty small percentage, but some people do like wiping their hard disk and installing it 20 times or they want to play it 10 years later.

A sensible man, I might add. Anyways, when asked where to go from here, Wright commented that the whole dynamic of game commerce will eventually shift online. He cited Battlefield Heroes as an example, noting how they will need to monetize in Asian markets, among other things.

It’s been about a month since the first Spore patch was released. EA has just made the second patch available for download. That is, they made the PC version available. Once again, Mac owners will have to wait a while for their patch to be available. Among the various tweaks and bug fixes, there is a very interesting feature being added to the game. Planets will now be able to be cube styled. What that means is unclear, whether planets will actually be able to be cube shaped, or if it just means that players can add cube shaped mountains etc. You can read a full list of the changes introduced by the new update after the jump.

Features

• Hold down the Control key in Sporepedia to select multiple creations for deleting or banning.
• Hold down the Shift key in Sporepedia to select a range of creations for deleting or banning.
• New planet style: Cubes.

Graphics/Aesthetics

• Fix for game entry screen turning black when banning a creature in a Saved game.
• Fixed issue with flora card in Sporepedia.
• Space phase: Fixed graphic issue with water levels not updating properly with terraform tools so that visible water and atmosphere levels will now correspond in the Atmosphere monitor.
• Fixed problems introduced via atmospheric and drought terraforming tools.
• Improved gaits for multi-legged creatures.
• Improved gaits for creatures with 2 limbs, but without any feet.

Audio

• Space phase: Fixed missing VOX in some animations in Comm Screen.
• Fixed audio issue with switching mode to 5.1 breaking music and VOX.
• Fixed audio syncing issue when minimizing and/or maximizing Spore before opening video.
• Fixed crash with city music player when Save and Load dialogs are present.
• Fix for audio lag and missing models due background loading slow-down on certain single-processor machine configurations. This fix improved overall stability on this machine configuration.

Tuning

• Space phase: Tuned relationship status to update in communication window after completing a mission.
• Tribe phase: Tuned Normal difficulty mode to make social game easier.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed the ESC key to consistently skip the Spore introduction movie.
• Creators: YouTube video uploads are set to private. Go to YouTube.com and log in. Then go to Account >> My Videos to set them to Public if you want to share your videos with the world.
• Creators: Fixed limb joints not being selectable behind other limbs.
• Tribe phase: Fixed crash while harvesting fruit and fish.
• Space phase: Fixed timing bug using Planet Buster during Grox invasion.
• Space phase: Fixed destroyed turrets mission.
• Space phase: Fixed crash when zooming out to full galactic view from the center of the galaxy.
• Fixed for game entry screen staying zoomed in after deleting a game and entering/exiting Sporepedia.
• Space phase: Fixed City Hall updating bug. City Hall will now update to correct version if player has chosen a new City Hall during the transition from Civilization phase to Space phase.
• Space phase: Fixed Vehicles updating bug. Vehicles chosen in the Colony planner will now update without requiring the player to leave and re-enter a planet’s atmosphere.
• Fixed crash when transitioning from Tribe phase to Civilization phase
• Discontinued the Bad Baby Achievement.

"I personally don’t like DRM,” he said. “It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.”

Expressing his opinion that he recent Spore DRM outcry was blown out of proportion by a minority of activits, he noted that EA is still “working out the kinks.” He added that 99.8 percent of the users wouldn’t notice the DRM, saying that the .2 percent unfairly “launched a cabal online to protest against it.”

Now, if Mr. Riccitiello really hates DRM that much, why don’t they just get rid of it? Oh, piracy, I see. Damn pirates!

This confirms previous rumors of the pack’s existence. However, EA is remaining cryptic as to how your penis monsters will look with the new content, though they do confirm the $19.99 price point as well as the previously reported November 18 release date.

Fan site Hooked on Spore points to Google caches of either retailers, noting that both listed the item for release on November 18, with GameStop even putting a price tag on it: $19.99.

EA is yet to comment on the “rumor”. It seems they will be milking the Spore franchise like they did The Sims.