Seems that the actual EA Store had the wrong date on the release of the Creature Creator. It’s June 17, not 15. And voilà, here’s the box art.

(snatched from the Spore newsletter )

The official site has been updated with two new videos - the second part of studio stories and some footage from Yuri’s Night.

They’ve also updated the FAQ with a few answers to Creature Creator questions. Nothing new if you are up-to-date with the latest going-ons.

The standalone Spore Creator Creator is now available for preorder at the EA Store, and will ship June 15. As previously observed the price is set to $9.99. Also note that it will be available as a direct download.

Maxis veteran Thomas Vu sat down with Play to answer a few questions about Spore. We seem to get a definite answer regarding what platform versions are planned; PC, Apple Macintosh, Nintendo DS, and Mobile Cell phones. Furthermore here’s what he has to say about the ending:

This may surprise Maxis fans, but Spore does have an ending, though it is probably not what you’d expect. Players can continue playing past the end if they choose to and continue to explore the hundreds of thousands of planets that populate the Spore galaxy. We are not ready to announce what the end of the game will be, but trust that it will take a dedicated player some time to complete the game.

Don’t forget to stop by our YouTube Channel now and then. There are some more videos there apart from what we delivered earlier this week.

According to EA rep. Patrick Buechner the Creature Creator is coming in June! There will be two versions - a free one which will have 25% of the available creature parts, and a retail version with all available parts. The free editor will be available at spore.com and included in the new SimCity Box coming also in June. The Creature Creator will function exactly as in the full game and you will be able to take snapshots and make movies in it. Furthermore all creatures that you create will function in Spore when it ships!

Since the SimCity Box is planned for release on the 26th we can expect the editor to be released around that date. The price is not known for certain at this time, but Amazon.com did have it listed at $9.99 before taking it down.

Thanks to Robin for the news tip.

Here’s two videos from Yuri’s Night showing the spaceship editor and some action in the space phase.

Yuri’s Night is an “annual worldwide party to celebrate Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space - as well as to promote space exploration”.

Here’s a short video of the creature editor featuring a funky creature. Enjoy!

CVG is spawning articles like there’s no tomorrow. This time we get a thourough look at all the phases and their look and feel. The previewer Ed Zitron sounds pretty excited on the outlook of Spore.

As Spore stands, it’s unbelievably beautiful and mesmerising. Will Wright and Maxis may very well have created something with the mass-appeal of the original Sims, with elements to draw in tougher-edged gamers in the Civilization and Space Age modes - though their complexity does remain to be seen.

Five more months on Monday!

According to Jeff Karp, EA’s head of North American publishing, there are plans to deliver Spore content for the next 10(!) years.

With “Spore,” EA already has plans internally to develop new content for at least 10 years. These plans include the traditional new levels and building blocks, but also “new ways to play and experience ‘Spore’.”

Exactly in what way is not mentioned; if this includes sequels or just expansion packs, add-ons and downloadable content.

Yesterday the official site posted the following press notice:

Spore is a game that inspires self expression through creativity yet links untold numbers of people together from around the world through sharing their creations online. We have found ways to enhance that experience by allowing players to email a screenshot of their creation to a friend directly from the game or upload a video directly to the web. Spore allows people to connect instantly in ways that have never been done before. Yet, for our incredibly creative team, this still wasn’t enough.

Our procedurally generated systems learn each player’s style and match the content to that specific person. For several months now, a side team has been working on ways to use this same technology to match players to each other, rather than just to the content. Our systems can analyze play style, aesthetic preferences, time spent creating versus playing, and more and then maps that against the data from other players to find a match. The surprising discovery in our focus group testing was that this is most often a love match.

Maxis is currently in discussions with several well-known dating sites to integrate our player matching system into the format of a dating system creating SporeDate. Since this program is being designed for the most dedicated fans, we are bringing the news to you here first. Starting today, we will choose players for our pilot program of SporeDate at random from our list of newsletter subscribers. So if you haven’t signed up, please do so today. We are truly excited to bring this new innovation to light and look forward to seeing you all on SporeDate!

Spore: more than just a game, it’s a way of life.

Love is in the air. Everywhere I look around…