'Spore' to ship September 7

Electronic Arts' forthcoming game, Spore, will be released worldwide on September 7.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

At long last, there's a ship date for Spore.

Electronic Arts announced Tuesday that the much-anticipated new game from The Sims creator Will Wright will ship on September 7.

The company announced that the game--which tasks players with advancing a character progressively from primordial ooze to small tribes to cities to civilizations and into space--will launch worldwide on PCs, Macs, Nintendo DS, and mobile phones.

Previously, the company had said it would launch the game simultaneously on PCs and Macs, but had said nothing about timing or that the DS and mobile versions would come out at the same time.

For many, EA's announcement will come as a big deal because the game has been in the works for years. The company first announced it at the 2005 Game Developers Conference. It was originally supposed to come out last year, but was delayed.