Get ready because the Spore universe is set to invade your world sooner than thought! Maxis has announced that Spore Hero for the Wii and Spore Hero Arena for the DS are both launching to Earth this October.

Electronic Arts and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) will be hosting a panel entitled "Homophobia in Virtual Communities" to discuss methods on how to combat discrimination and hatred language in online gaming communities.

Maxis has revealed more info about the new Wii and DS entries in the Spore franchise. Check 'em out after the jump. These two new games -- Spore Hero for the Wii and Spore Hero Arena for DS -- are scheduled for release this year.

Outlining the future of the Spore franchise, Maxis has now revealed that new titles will be heading out. Four new installments are confirmed. If all DNA replication goes well, they may be out by this year. Other than that, there's also the possibility of eventually seeing Spore hit the PS3 and 360 - and the good thing is, if ever they do, they're definitely veering away from the "oh just port it from the PC version" scenario.

After all the delays and the setbacks, publisher Electronic Arts has finally raised the green flag on its upcoming life simulation game, Spore (PC, Nintendo Wii, DS, Mac, and Mobile), and is ready to ship the much awaited title by next month. The company earlier announced that Spore has finally gone gold is now currently in the manufacturing process. Check out further statements issued by EA after the jump.

If you live near or in San Francisco and have some free time on your hands tonight, you may want to head over to San Francisco's Apple Store to watch an hour-long demo of the full game of Spore (PC, Nintendo Wii, DS, Mac, and Mobile), as hosted by Will Wright. The full details after the jump!

This issue is another one of those weeks where you could selectively stave off from spending hard-earned cash, but then there are millions of gamers who need their gaming fix. Gladly enough, third-party publishers on the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii have addressed the casual gaming populace, and that pretty much sums up this week's retail release line up. On second thought, no - we still have an MMO, EA Maxis' pre-Spore sampler, a formerly retail, now PSN game, plus the release of Rock Band on the Nintendo Wii. Check the full story for details.

Gamers, here's good news: Will Wright's Spore (PC, Mac, Wii, Nintendo DS, Mobile) now has a definite release date, and we can now finally stop guessing when the game will come out. Sure, the date may be several months away but at least we now have a something real to look forward to. Find out Spore's actual release date in the full article!

When the god of god games himself speaks, the world has no choice but to listen. Will Wright, the creator behind some of the biggest "god games" like Populous and SimCity, talks about the development of his upcoming life sim, Spore (PC, Wii, DS, Mobile), as well as the changing trend on how society adapts to games in general.

As a game designer, Wright wanted his games to appeal to a wider range of people. While gamers were busy killing off each other in all manner of shooter games, he was busy making games which created stuff - thus the birth of the SimCity and The Sims franchise. With most of his games having a strong scientific element, he enjoys making and playing games which call for a lot of innovation in the gaming industry.

He said that games today need to "culturally disconnect the concepts of play and education", only then will can we say that people as a whole have developed in an evolutionary sense. Wright said that when society gains interest and get emotionally involved with games, that's the only time that it becomes culturally acceptable and the next phase of evolution can set in for the industry.

He had his on take on how the gaming industry can be used to focus this movement:

I think the game industry could use spokespeople that try to represent the potential of gaming. The industry hasn't even begun to realise its potential – we're getting there very slowly – but in the meantime we need to be educating the public as to what this can eventually become. If we have more discussion about what games could be versus what they are right now, we might get there sooner.

With the finishing touches on Spore all prepared for its debut six months from now, Wright admitted that there were so many things that he and the developers at Maxis want to include in the game. However, they're still trying to find the "sweet spot" between what they want for both the game and the gamers. While Maxis is known for a lot of its games taking its roots on the PC, Spore will also see versions for both the handheld and console platform. Wright noted specifically that everyone will be seeing Spore on the Wii just as with their previous release, MySims.

Spore (PC, Nintendo DS, Mobile) creator Will Wright has revealed that gamers can get their hands on Maxis' ambitious life sim title in roughly six months' time. This according to video game news website CVG.

In an interview with Radio 5 Live, Wright said: "We have the game fully playable at this point and it's in final testing." This coincides with Electronic Arts' tentative Spring 2008 release date for Spore. Last month, Amazon.com had the game listed for a March 3, 2008 release.

Wright is also looking towards getting not only the hardcore gaming audience to play the game but the more casual gamers as well.

"We've had to do a lot of testing to make sure that the game is accessible by a wide group of people", said Wright. "I want the people who have played The Sims to be able to play Spore - I don't want it to be some thing just hardcore gamers play."