Electronic Arts’ Will Wright (creator of the massively popular The Sims series) has revealed that his latest development project, Spore, originally planned for release within 2007 will now not see the light of day until early 2008.  The announcement was made at a recent conference call by the third-party developer and publisher, at which it was revealed that they had suffered a $25 million USD loss during the last financial quarter of 2006.  The firm reasoned that the shift between the last generation of consoles and the current batch was wise such a significant dent in profits was apparent.

Spore is under development by Maxis, and is much anticipated as a title that will simulate the process of evolution through open-ended, fly on the wall player control. Starting as a single cell to organism, gamers slowly but surely grow and develop until that tiny, almost insignificant life form becomes a species in its own habitat. From there, they are encouraged to design houses, villages, modes of transport and eventually whole civilizations..

“All the action takes place in a huge, lush world populated with creatures evolved by oMe and ther players and shared over SPORE’s central servers,” reads an earlier press release. “When it’s ready, your one-time pond scum launches into space in its UFO on a grand voyage of discovery, planet forming, or destruct-ion! As you explore and play in this limitless universe of unique worlds, your personal Sporepedia tracks all the creatures you’ve met and places you’ve visited.”