'Spore,' the movie?

Electronic Arts may be hoping that it can someday license the movie rights to its much-anticipated evolution game, 'Spore.'

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

After several years of waiting, video game fans will soon be able to get their hands on the long-awaited new title from legendary designer Will Wright, Spore.

But if the game's publisher, Electronic Arts, has its way, a much wider audience of fans may someday be exposed to the game. Or at least a version of the game.

That's because, according to a Reuters report Wednesday, EA is hoping that it may one day be able to license the film and/or TV rights to Spore.

Speaking to Reuters in Singapore, where he is in the middle of an ambitious publicity tour prior to the game's September 7 release, Wright addressed the issue of EA's long-term goals for its newest major franchise.

"With Spore, we're looking way outside the game space, such as TV, movies, etc." Reuters quoted Wright as saying. "We're basically planting the seeds to spread Spore out to a much wider group of people than would ever play a computer game...We're going to be much more intelligent about harvesting other market opportunities for Spore than we were with The Sims, which, as big as it was in the game space, pretty much remains in the game space."

It's certainly not clear what the story behind a Spore movie would be. To be sure, the game provides a clear story arc, since it tasks players with evolving from primordial ooze all the way out into space. But one wonders what kind of emotional growth a Spore protagonist might go through in a film.

On the other hand, there are multiple examples of video games inspiring Hollywood to do what it does, such as Tomb Raider, BioShock and others.

And such a branching out of the Spore universe, so to speak, would be in keeping with EA's desire to extend the game into the kind of open-ended brand that The Sims has become.

But, from this corner, Spore needs to be a commercial and critical success before anyone thinks about how far it can go outside the traditional game space. It may well be able to achieve that goal, but until it does, this is all just idle talk.

[kevinmmm]

That partly explains the licence agreement for Spore's Creature Creator in which EA has ownership of any creature you create with their software. What is Microsoft owned every Word doc or Autodesk every drawing?

[Unsean]

Let's see if I understand this...if I were to purchase Spore, use it's Creature Creator to create a create?a ability integral to the game, I assume?then EA has ownership of the creature I created?

They're not giving this game away, right? That's like creating something in, let's say Carrara or Hexagon (both 3D modeling programs) and losing the rights to those creations because you used either Hexagon or Carrara.

Now I understand that there will probably not be a Carrara: The Movie anytime soon, but that doesn't change the fact that if I create something with a product I have paid for that expressed purpose then the end result is mine.

Or at least give people a credit for creating this or that character if it is used in the film; otherwise Electronic Arts is doing little more than stealing, something most corporations don't encourage.

[ralfthedog]

"It's certainly not clear what the story behind a Spore movie would be. To be sure, the game provides a clear story arc, since it tasks players with evolving from primordial ooze all the way out into space. But one wonders what kind of emotional growth a Spore protagonist might go through in a film. "

Easy, make it a series of short stories. Start with a short sequence of goo. Then go to an animal story (give it a twist at the end.) Next you do a tribal level story. Do a pre-spaceflight techno story and finish with some kind of grand space opera.

Unfortunately it would need to be an animated flick.

@Unsean,

I am quite sure EA will give credit to the people who created the creatures used in the film. They will invite them to the premiere and give them the red carpet treatment, probably with all the staged interviews they could pull off. Lots of talk about the diverse talent in the spore community.

Think of all the wonderful publicity.