Spore could be a PS3 exclusive

Today we’re making the case that Spore will launch on next-gen consoles, and that it could be a PS3 exclusive — that Xbox 360 gamers will lose out, and Microsoft’s own policies will be to blame.

We have three mighty convincing reasons to believe this. First is the inexorable tendency for every Will Wright game ever made to show up on every games machine under the sun. Sim City has been ported to no fewer than 30 (thirty) different platforms, and The Sims is getting there. Mr. Wright has repeatedly boasted of the procedural nature of Spore’s code, and how it could be scaled up or down to match any hardware requirements — releasing across as many platforms as possible has always been his intention.

The second reason is more obvious: EA’s long-standing practice of publishing games on as many systems as possible. By EA’s standards, the Spore roll-out at launch is quite conservative: PC, Mac, DS, and mobile phones. Yet there isn’t a doubt in our minds that versions for the 360 and PS3 are on the way — perhaps even Wii and PS2 versions, too (albeit with cutesier names: MySpore, Spore Castaway, etc).

Take those two factors into account, and you can imagine it’s a dead cert that Spore will land on both the PS3 and 360, perhaps in mid ’09. EA may already be tweaking and fiddling with working builds.

Yet Reason #3 hoses down any hope of total cross-platform utopia: Microsoft’s rigid controls over Xbox Live. Microsoft takes a dim view of user-generated content, and a dimmer view of free content. The preferred business model for Xbox Live is official content from official sources, sold at official prices from which Microsoft gets an official cut.

If you don’t like this official policy, then you’re officially entitled to sod right off.

Sony’s attitude is quite different. The Japanese gaming giant is hoping to create a YouTube-style revolution with its latest batch of PS3 software, and LittleBigPlanet is leading the charge (see our piece LittleBigPlanet to Embarrass Xbox Live). Gamers are encouraged to make and share as much as they dare — stupid SingStar performance videos, esoteric Buzz quizzes, Echochrome puzzles, etc.

EA, too, has been fostering this behaviour for years. Sure, the occasional hacker will unleash nude Sims on the web, but as long as the vast majority of gamers are lining up to buy the latest furniture expansion packs, the system works.

The launch of the Spore Creature Creator inevitably led to many cock monsters among the million+ species made by everyday users. Yet every new cock is not a defeat for EA, but a victory — for those cocks are made with Spore. EA is cool with the cocks.

But Microsoft is not. If Microsoft Points aren’t involved, then it’s a waste of time — cocks or not.

Thus we can see two possible scenarios for how Spore could work on the Xbox 360 format. It could go the way of Unreal Tournament 3. Epic wanted full mod support for the 360 version, but months of protracted negotiations were to no avail. PS3 and PC gamers can download user-created levels; 360 gamers cannot. They threw in a split-screen mode and some exclusive goodies as a booby prize, and ‘best of’ DLC packs will surface down the track, but the fact is that UT3 on 360 will never live up to its full potential.

The same would be true for Spore. The whole point of the game is that exploring other planets lets you interact with user-generated creatures — they’re randomly downloaded automatically for each new world you explore. Without access to the life forms made by millions of other players, Spore just wouldn’t be the same.

A second possibility is Nucleus. EA’s new system for selling downloadable content and tracking achievements across all gaming platforms could serve as a back-door to the flood of Spore beasts — cock monsters and all. Spore is confirmed as having Nucleus support; it all comes down to how much leeway Microsoft intends to give to EA’s new money-making apparatus.

Oh, and there’s a third possibility: EA could simply give up. Because if there’s a hobbled 360 version and a fully-functional PS3 version of the same game side-by-side on store shelves, consumers will be inexorably drawn to the product that gives them the most. If the bean counters at EA figure that a 360 version of Spore is doomed to sell poorly, it may never get the green light in the first place.

So there you have it. Microsoft’s rigid attitude towards user-generated content is like the mighty oak tree, impressive at first, but likely to be smashed to kindling by the storm. Sony’s attitude is supple, like the reed, able to bend in the wind, and weather torrents of glistening cocks that fall from the sky.

Note that we’re not saying that Live is a bad service, just that the PlayStation Network gives developers a distinct advantage. And yes, Microsoft could change its ways. But at the rate they’re going, either Spore will be exclusive to the PS3, or it will spank the 360 version raw.