It's been in development almost as long as the universe itself (nothing like a gross exaggeration to kick off a mundane 'news' story), but it looks like the creative process is almost over. EA has announced a worldwide release date of September 7 for Will Wright's ridiculously ambitious evolution sim, Spore.

The title, set for release on PC, Mac, Nintendo DS and, of course, mobile phones, gives players the chance to create life in their own personal sandbox universe, before building civilisations and eventually jetting off into space. Most aspects of the game - which takes place through a number of distinct creational phases - are editable; players will be able to upload their creatures, vehicles, buildings, etc, to a central server where they can then be downloaded by other users. Will Wright has referred to this combination of features as massively single-player online gaming. Or MSPOG, which is much more catchy.

"The wait is almost over," commented Will Wright, possibly from his game design laboratory, which I imagine resembles the secret government research facility that Brent Spinner is not allowed to leave in Independence Day. "We're in our final stages of testing and polish with Spore, and the team at Maxis can't wait to see the cosmos of content created by the community later this year." Excellent use of alliteration there.

For all its obvious epoch-bending ambition (have I mentioned that it's ambitious?), Spore really reminds me - at least structurally - of old arcade and 8bit home computer games. This whole 'phase' concept, with each section getting its own graphical style, is reminiscent of titles like Bruce Lee and Beach Head, where each level presented a different form of gameplay. I think possibly, that's where the similarities end.

Newsweek has a really massive interview with Mr Wright here.