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.

It's final. Will Wright, creator of The Sims franchise, is leaving Electronic Arts. This was confirmed on Wednesday by Mr. Wright himself, leaving a heavy shadow hanging low over EA's front lawn.

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.

It's been a long while since we heard anything about Oddworld Inhabitants' movie and game project, Citizen Siege. It's been two years, in fact. OWI has confirmed that the project is still in development - but unsurprisingly didn't provide any other details.

At least we know it hasn't turned into vaporware. That's something.

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.

Heads up, Oddworld fans. We've now got additional confirmation for an upcoming Oddworld game, courtesy of Oddworld Inhabitants president Lorne Lanning. Learn more about this development after the jump!

Wondering when something that can top the graphics on games like Crysis  will come along? The co-founder of Maxis has some answers. He says he and the team over at OddWorld Inhabitants (OWI) are working on a new game with CG movie-like visuals. Full story comes after the jump.

Excited to hear next-gen Simlish talk? That may not be a farfetched dream, since Electronic Arts will soon reveal more information pertaining to the wildly anticipated The Sims 3. A teaser site is now up and the countdown begins. Find out what the fuzz is all about by checking out the full article!

So. Will Wright finally confirmed the existence of Spore on the Nintendo Wii. But what about versions for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? The other day, Will Wright was interviewed by Guardian Unlimited, and it was then revealed that they, to quote the BAFTA Fellowship inductee, "doing Spore on the Wii."

Today, we'll put that statement into the context in which it was actually said. Just in case you guys missed the whole interview, a certain segment has the father of all things Simlish talk about next generation consoles:

Somebody asked me what I thought next generation meant and what about the PlayStation 3 was next generation. The only next gen system I've seen is the Wii - the PS3 and the Xbox 360 feel like better versions of the last, but pretty much the same game with incremental improvement. But the Wii feels like a major jump %u2013 not that the graphics are more powerful, but that it hits a completely different demographic. In some sense I see the Wii as the most significant thing that's happened, at least on the console side, in quite a while.

Pretty bold statements, true. But everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Moving on though, it turns out that Will Wright's got a different kind of home entertainment console set up (or lack thereof) at home. "We've got an Xbox 360 collecting dust in the background, a Wii hooked up that we use quite a bit. I don't have a PS3. I still, for the most part, prefer playing games on the computer - to me the mouse is the best input device ever." He then continues with:

Every generation it's like "the PC's dead! The PC's dead!". But it carries on growing when consoles are flat for five years. At the moment I can get better graphics on my PC than I can on the PS3.

We're doing Spore on the Wii, and we did MySims. It takes significant re-thinking to work out how you're going to do it. PS3 and Xbox 360 are similar enough that you can basically use the same system for both. So it comes down to what the interesting major platforms are and which markets we want to hit.

Again, these are just his personal thoughts on the matter. He seems pretty candid about it too. Despite this, everyone's still hoping that Spore would eventually make it across all platforms. After all, Spore has already been considered a franchise by Maxis Executive Patrick Buechener. Right now, there are the PC, DS, and mobile versions of Spore being readied for a Spring release. Only time will tell if other next-gen consoles get spored over.

 

One of the more anticipated games of this generation is Will Wright's Spore (PC, DS) - a title that promises not only the insane level of customization that Will Wright masterpieces have been known for, but also the ability of making your own unique life-form, starting right down to the cellular level.

And while current updates about the game have been less than optimistic - with a delay that sees us nabbing copies next year at the earliest - this one about Maxis planning console versions of the game should brighten things up considerably.

Yes, you read that right. Maxis is planning to port the game over to consoles. This means we won't just be playing and showing off our creations on our PCs and Dual Screens, but also on our favorite next-gen behemoths of gaming goodness.

This delicious bit of news comes directly from Maxis Executive Patrick Buechener, during a closed-doors demo of Spore in Leipzig GC. When asked about a console version of Spore, his statement, verbatim, goes:

Not right now, but we see this as a franchise. It just won't be at launch.

It's to note that he didn't single out nor exclude any of today's next-gen consoles - which could mean great news for all owners, as we just might see a console-wide release of the game that lets you create your very own species. That said, it'll definitely be interesting as to what sort of creatures we'll be seeing from the different versions of Spore, and how their platform affects the creatures produced.