Just as they did with the Sims, Spore designer and former Civ IV lead Soren Johnson suggested that "there are definitely long, long-term plans for Spore" beyond its initial September release.
Spore Creature Editor has already been released a few weeks ago while the game itself is scheduled for September 7 release in North America. Spore is one of the most anticipated games in recent years, but - according to Soren - Maxis and EA don't have profit as their main business goal with this title.
"The high-level decision-makers on the project are really casting a really wide net. I think they assembled a wide variety of people to try and hit on this. It's a big challenge. I definitely know what the break-even number is, but there are definitely long, long-term plans for Spore", explained Soren.
"So I think that EA is giving this, not in terms initially of what this project is going to do, but as something that's going to become a long-term franchise for EA and be one of the big things that EA is known for."
"For the first product, I think it's important to just put our best foot forward. I don't think they're obsessed with the profit margins off the first one. We'd love to have a million people buy it, but we'll see", he concluded.