Now comes the news that EA has pushed it all the way back to “sometime in 2009″. The game industry mags are speculating that the delay is so that the game developers can do console versions, since the market for games that only play on the PC platform continues to shrivel. Given the complexity of the game as it has been demoed to date, that’s no small challenge, I’m sure.

There’s also the outside possibility that this game will simply never materialize, a la the infamous “Duke Nuke’m Forever” which has been “in development” for 10 years running with no release in sight. Seems to me I have been reading about “Spore” since 2003, and a push-back to 2009 makes for an awfully long development process, even for a game that everyone has already chalked up as “great” before even playing it.

*LE SIGH*

I guess I’ll just have to spend more time with my new Nintendo DS Lite (Fathers’ Day gift, dontchaknow). I hear Sid Meier’s going to make a DS version of Civilization IV!