Spore playable at Leipzig

When Electronic Arts held its press conference at this year's E3 Media and Business Summit in Santa Monica, one title was notably absent--Will Wright's Spore.

Seven years in the making so far, the epic game from the creator of the madly successful Sims series will be a life-simulation game where players grow a creature from a single-celled organism, create the creature's society, explore its world, and ultimately venture to other planets. It is currently set for a 2008 release, although EA CEO John Riccitiello recently said that, "its release will be right up [to] the bubble in Q4 [of fiscal '08], if not some time in early fiscal '09, so we don't feel comfortable in forecasting it."

While it won't be readily available for some time yet, Spore will have the chance to entertain Games Convention attendees. A slate of EA's titles at the Games Convention 2007 in Leipzig shows Spore will be playable by journalists for the first time at the event.

The Leipzig Games Convention is set for August 23-26. GameSpot will be providing full coverage from the show, so stay tuned for more on Spore and the rest of the games on display.