Luminary Shigeru Miyamoto hasn't lost his shimmer in the eyes of game developers, with a recent industry poll finding the Nintendo icon to be without equal. The survey, commissioned by organizers of next month's Develop Conference, asked 9,000 devs to name their game development hero, with nearly a third of respondents pointing to Miyamoto as the man with the plan.

The popularity contest also named id Software's John Carmack as the next most idealized developer, followed by Maxis and now Stupid Fun Club brainpan Will Wright. The top ten list of industry highlights was rounded out by Braid dev Jonathan Blow, who's likely too busy rewinding time (to see if he can somehow land higher on the ballot) to care.

Since the release of Spore -- in fact, before the release of Spore, thanks to the Creature Creator -- players have brought new life into the fake world over 100 million times. According to Spore Illustrated, the Spore community crossed the 100-million threshold on April 29. "There was a massive flood of entries right at the 100 million mark," SI said. "An estimated 90,000 creatures were uploaded just after 2pm in an attempt to make a mark in Spore game history. EA will reveal the history-making 100 millionth monster soon. [Update: And it has!]

Of course, that number doesn't include banned products of the massive worldwide Spore penis monster team (otherwise known as every teenager with a copy of Spore), but presumably does include the millions of monsters who look just different enough from wangs to avoid notice.

[Via Kotaku]

Seriously, guys and gals: Brace your asses for this one. ZootFly (which made its name with a now-halted Ghostbusters project) is making a game based on tough-talking, chain-wearing icon Mr.T.

But that's not even the good part. Here are some actual words from the actual press release we got, with liberal underlining and bolding: "The first game will see Mr. T take on Nazis and their gigantic machines in the varied universe of South American rain forests, lost ancient cities, industrial complexes and contemporary military installations. Along with Mr. T and other characters from the graphic novel, the game will feature none other than Will Wright. In this universe, Will Wright is not a top-notch game designer but a top-notch American geneticist who was kidnapped and coerced to work on a diabolic plan. Mr. T and Will Wright will join forces to annihilate the Nazis and their hardware."

We think we speak for the entire internet when we say nothing, and urinate on ourselves.

Ex-EA employee and enormously popular developer Will Wright is apparently only halfway out of EA's doors. Talking with GameDaily, Wright confirmed his intention to stay on as a consultant for EA Maxis (the development team behind Spore). Saying, "I'm spending a certain amount of time every month actually working with the Spore team on future versions of Spore and expansions," Wright (seemingly for the first time) announced his plans beyond his work with upcoming venture, the Stupid Fun Club.

Additionally, Wright commented on the possibility of console iterations of Spore, frankly stating, "For us it's really an opportunity/cost issue ... we either do that [consoles] or we continue creating new applications on the PC or we kind of go into the handheld arena." Guess he forgot about that upcoming Wii title, Spore Hero! While we're looking forward to what Wright's next move is with SFC, it's good to hear the man behind Spore is still helping to develop the game moving forward. The money problem doesn't hurt either, eh?

Will Wright's announcement that he was kind of leaving EA this week took the gaming community by surprise. Unsurprisingly though, Wright says the move was planned over the course of the last year with EA. "It's something that we've been in talks with EA for almost a year ... it's kind of a long-term plan and I was just in no hurry to do it," he told GameSpot. Lucy Bradshaw, VP and general manager at EA Maxis, echoed Wright's statements, telling GameDaily it's been a "life-long dream [for Wright to have a] small nucleus think tank."

Funded by EA and venture capitalists, Stupid Fun Club is setting out not to develop just new games but to develop new IP across multiple mediums. Wright calls his vision of the club the "evolution of the entertainment industry," using Marvel and LucasArts as reference points and saying, "If I'm into Star Wars or Lost, I might go to the website or buy the toys .... It's the IP that really matters, that strand of consistency and quality through it." We've certainly heard this tune before, though never from such an acclaimed developer. It remains to be seen just how "stupid fun" Mr. Wright's club actually is, but we'll remain hopeful for now.

Source 1 - GameDaily
Source 2 - GameSpot

Legendary game designer Will Wright is leaving his position as the head of EA-owned Maxis, to do what most people at his level of success do: whatever he wants. Wright will be focusing on his Stupid Fun Club think tank, working to develop new IPs across multiple media -- IPs which EA will then have the option to pay him for.

"The entertainment industry is moving rapidly into an era of revolutionary change," Wright said. "Stupid Fun Club will explore new possibilities that are emerging from this sublime chaos and create new forms of entertainment on a variety of platforms."

EA has a share in Stupid Fun Club equal to Wright's, while a third, unnamed investor has a smaller stake in the company. EA has the first rights to anything Stupid Fun Club comes up with. The new organization has yet to announce any projects.

Source - GameDaily
Source - MTV Multiplayer

Imagine sitting at lunch with Will Wright, Neil Young, and Warren Spector. They're each eating, laughing, and talking about game design with animation and enthusiasm. On the other side of the table are David Perry, Rob Pardo, and Brian Fargo.

Collectively, you have the founder of Interplay, Blizzard's top designer, the father of Earthworm Jim, the man credited with Deus Ex, an iPhone pioneer, and the mind behind Spore – guided in discussion by screenwriter and former game journalist Garry Whitta.

Also at the table, a dozen of the top game industry journalists sit quietly, taking notes and typing into small laptops. And excellent food is entirely secondary: it's the conversation that matters at this luncheon.

There's just something about Will Wright that makes us melt. His choice in games. His geeky good looks. His ability to play god. Whatever it is, maybe the esteemed game designer will shed some light on our infatuation when he takes the stage as the keynote speaker at SIGGRAPH 2009.

His presence marks an "expanded" gaming focus for the CGI tech fest, which normally centers on what's new and bleeding edge with all things graphics. The topic of Wright's discussion has not yet been released, though we'll be listening with bated breath when the show opens its doors in New Orleans in early August.

If you're a Spore fan then you're probably already aware that the best thing about the game was the creation tools, which allowed you to make your own aliens, buildings and vehicles. Spore Galactic Adventures, the upcoming expansion pack, looks to add more of these to the game, not only allowing you to create your own customized planets but also to build an entire game, LittleBigPlanet style.

Check out the videos after the break to see these new editor features in action. Perhaps some playable user generated content will make up for the disappointing gameplay in the original title.

What? Spore on Wii? We thought it had disappeared completely, and after Spore failed to take the world by storm when it was released, we ... well, we kind of forgot all about it. Will Wright didn't forget, though, and Spore for Wii has resurfaced, only now it's going to be Spore Heroes and not a port of Spore itself, like the DS version. And speaking of the DS, another game is apparently slated for the handheld, as a companion: Spore Heroes Arena. Details are slim at the moment, but that doesn't matter; what does matter is how you feel about this development. Interested?

Shigeru Miyamoto and Spore have been recognized by The Jim Henson Company as part of their annual "Jim Henson Honors" awards. The legendary game designer was bestowed the Celebration Honor, which goes to an "individual, organization or product that makes the world a better place by inspiring people to celebrate life." Mario, Donkey, Wii ... yeah, you know the drill.

As for Spore, it took home the Technology Honor, probably because it allowed everyone to create their favorite Star Wars characters or giant penis monsters. The other not so game-related awards went to artist Shepard Falrey (Creativity Honor) and the Center for Puppetry Arts Distance Learning Center (Community Honor).

Congratulations to everyone. We can't think of a better way to celebrate than with the video after the break.

This won't come as a surprise, but we're betting it'll do your spirits well. Will Wright just told us, "I'm working on a big new project that I'm very excited about, but I don't want to talk about it yet because if it takes three years to come out I don't want people saying 'Wow, he's been talking about that for a loooong time.'"

Jeez Will, you sound like a guy who's had a little (read: a decade) of experience with that.

EA confirmed that they're working on two different expansions for Will Wright's universe-in-a-hard-drive Spore this morning, both the previously revealed Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts pack and a new expansion for the game's "Space" phase, which is already exponentially larger than its co-levels.

Expect Cute and Creepy to add around 100 new parts -- some cute and cartoonish, some monster-like. "Cute" and "creepy" is fine as a title, but at a price of $19.95 those parts had better be nauseatingly adorable and perversely horrifying. It's due on Nov. 18 and will also work for those who only own the Spore Creature Creator.

The untitled Space expansion won't arrive until spring of 2009, but it sounds substantially meatier than the parts pack. According to EA, "players' space faring creatures will be able to beam down from their spaceships to explore new planets and earn rewards for completing challenging missions" and "a new Adventure Creator will allow players to build and share online their own custom missions."

So, yeah, EA is flogging Will Wright's new creation. If this comes as a surprise, we'd kindly direct you to the Sims aisles of your local game store.

Well, that was fast. With just over a month since Will Wright's Spore was released to the masses, a listing has popped up on Electronic Arts' online store for Spore: Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, something we've known to be coming since our E3 2008 interview. You can currently pre-order the expansion, available as direct download for $19.95 on Tuesday, November 18, though that could change. Are you ready for an onslaught of creepier (and cuter) penis creatures?

[Thanks, TechNick]

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.