Spore sells a million copies, 25 million entries in Sporepedia

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 24th 2008 at 6:00PM }

What do you know, people actually did pay for Spore. EA recently announced that its DRM-riffic title Spore has sold one million copies worldwide across PC, Mac and DS platforms. The publisher also stated that 25 million creatures, vehicles and buildings have evolved in the Sporepedia.

Not that there was any doubt that Spore would ever reach the million sold mark, but whether its "mile wide, inch deep" gameplay brings it The Sims level of success remains to be revealed.

Tags: ea, maxis, sales, spore, will-wright

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

t3kni9e @ Sep 24th 2008 6:05PM

I must say, for a game that has the very hated DRM issues it seems to sell alot... Good job guys, that's how to each EA a lesson! You cry and whine, but still buy the game, gj boys!

Jakka(A tribute to whose who fought and failed during the Epic Flamewar of L.A. Noir) @ Sep 24th 2008 6:13PM

Yes, say that to me and two hundred thousand other people who torrented this game, protesting or not.

Edward Dean @ Sep 24th 2008 6:17PM

I hope you didn't earnestly believe that all that nerd-rage would have a substantial effect on game sales. This game is the epitome of casual.

WiiFTW @ Sep 24th 2008 6:20PM

t3kni9e:

FAIL

We (core gamers) are not the ones who bought it.

Nirolak @ Sep 24th 2008 6:22PM

In all honesty this is vastly lower than I expected Spore to sell.

I was thinking it'd like be at about two to three million sales at this point considering all the hype.

I mean, this game has been out over two weeks yet some generic action game like The Force Unleashed managed to sell 1.5 million copies in only a few days.

Mike @ Sep 24th 2008 6:30PM

I brought this game because it has DRM, I'm not going to pay for something from a company that doesn't care about PC sales because they make all their money from consoles.

t3kni9e @ Sep 24th 2008 6:52PM

I fail because you claim I think "core" gamers bought it? Lol, that's funny because who said anything about core or casuals. There are plenty of people who do not consider themselves "core" gamers, then there's also the fact that chances are if you do post on the internet and read up on things you are a "core" gamer and these "core" gamers were the ones getting all hyped for this game. When it game sales a million this quick, I strongly doubt it was all casual gamers who bought it, especially since casual gamers don't buy that many games and this game wasn't exactly advertised like GTA, so most of the people who bought it were people who followed gaming. Besides my point is jut to make the point that no matter how much people hate an establishment(EA), they will never care because no one can do anything about it and in the end people can't seem to "band together" to make an impact.

theturtle363 @ Sep 24th 2008 6:59PM

lol, the guy named WiiFTW saying he's a core gamer. OH I WENT THERE

BananaBoat @ Sep 24th 2008 7:05PM

I look at this from an entirely different perspective. Sure it sold a million copies, but what are the chances that all of those casual gamers are going to want to buy expansion packs for spore? I think we all know that expansion packs are where the money is at in the Sims business model. If they can't sell you "Spore : Disco Nights" and "Spore:Dog Trainer" then they can't make money off of you. It would be interesting to see how many people are actually playing in maybe three months or so from now. I don't think the gameplay is anywhere near "The Sims" level addictive, and I have a feeling that these casual gamers are going to dump it and run.

I'd have been happier had the game only sold half as many copies as it did, but as it stands, nothing could have spread the word about the evils of DRM faster than Spore has. The mass media picked up the story, and in doing so, they introduced DRM with a negative connotation to millions of Americans that would otherwise have had no idea. I'd say that is a victory, if only a small one.

tmacairjordan87 @ Sep 24th 2008 7:40PM

I could be mistaken, but I seem to remember wiiftw swearing off Nintendo, so give him a break :P

Also, try to tell EA that around 200,000 lost sales to piracy isn't a big deal. IMO, after playing it I can safely say it's not even worth pirating. It's easily one of the most boring games I've ever played, and it's definitely a casual game...as casual as you can get without it being a petz game or whatever.

I seriously doubt that the majority of those sales are from core gamers, but I could be wrong. It's just a hunch.

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Sep 24th 2008 7:47PM

I dunno. It's kinda silly to suggest that the core gamers, the gamers who have been hyping this game up for years, aren't the people who've gone out and bought a million copies, and that casual gamers (a million of 'em, no less) just saw the commercial and went 'Hey, that looks cool, better go buy that $50 game'.

TFoK (Naked Peach Defense Force) @ Sep 24th 2008 7:48PM

"lol, the guy named WiiFTW saying he's a core gamer. OH I WENT THERE"

No shame in someone with that name saying they're a core gamer. If they tried to say they weren't a disappointed core gamer, on the other hand...

Mr Khan @ Sep 24th 2008 10:27PM

I am a non-disappointed core gamer

Wario Land now, Megaman 9 and Bomberman Blast once i'm done with that. Disaster will come eventually, as will the Dimps-developed port of Sonic Unleashed. For christmas: Sonic Chronicles. In January comes MadWorld, and after that The Conduit, and after that Sonic and the Black Knight. Further down on the DS horizon is the Fire Emblem 1 & 3 remake, as is Phantasy Star Zero. At some point, there will be Monster Hunter 3

Yes, i put out a list, what of it?

Anam @ Sep 24th 2008 6:17PM

They were expecting 3 million sales in September. So they have one week to sell 2 million more copies.

I'd say the DRM protest was a success if it reduced their sales to one third of what they were expecting.

theturtle363 @ Sep 24th 2008 6:41PM

maybe that it's kinda mediocre affected sales

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrection force) @ Sep 24th 2008 6:28PM

I don't think outrage over DRM has really hurt the game. While we might all hate DRM, we are probably in the small minority who knows what it is.

Massmass @ Sep 24th 2008 6:51PM

DRM due or not this game is under performing considering its intended audience and everything. That's not to say it's selling poorly but it definitely was planned to sell better, faster.

tmacairjordan87 @ Sep 24th 2008 7:43PM

Last I heard, the piracy rate for this game was close to 200,000. If there's only a million in sales so far, I'd say that's doing quite a lot of damage.

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrection force) @ Sep 25th 2008 2:31AM

Yeah, but other games probably get about that too

Kevin @ Sep 25th 2008 8:40AM

I agree. The DRM while bad, and keeping me from playing on my big screen television from lack of internet,doesn't effect this game too much. I bought it because of the hype, and have been pretty let down by the game play (the tribal phase takes 20min... seriously). I bought this game as a way to say go Will Wright, keep coming up with revolutionary things. He has given us the tools to quickly build creatures and whatnot. I think that deserves the respect.

Puffles @ Sep 24th 2008 6:28PM

I payed for Spore because I was unaware of the DRM policy. I had to hack my own damn computer to get rid of the SecuROM.

zuburi @ Sep 24th 2008 8:12PM

Anybody know how to get it off of Vista 64? I've yet to find a good, working guide.

BigD145 @ Sep 24th 2008 10:22PM

Nope. EA hates 64 bit. Most of their software won't uninstall properly even half of the time.

MowDownJoe @ Sep 24th 2008 6:37PM

Including DS versions? Call me when the PC/Mac versions hit a million by themselves.

WiNG [Life in a Game] @ Sep 24th 2008 6:49PM

Change that to 999,999. I am about to burn mine.

Puffles @ Sep 24th 2008 7:13PM

Hate to say it, but they still sold that copy to you, regardless of what you do with it.

Blazur @ Sep 24th 2008 7:33PM

You guys know EA has gotten sued over their DRM bullshit.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/09/23/Spore.pdf

KapsLocked @ Sep 24th 2008 7:35PM

Makes sense to me. That's about how well I expected it.

Now to continue my flying shark's galactic empire when I get home...

WorMzy @ Sep 24th 2008 8:13PM

"The publisher also stated that 25 million creatures, vehicles and buildings have evolved in the Sporepedia"

Broken down, that's two million buildings, three million vehicles, and five million creatures.

The other fifteen million consists of different stages/duplicates of the aforementioned creations.

Seriously, Sporepedia is a mess.