Wright reponds to Spore reviews, says sales matter more than scores

By Patrick Garratt

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Speaking to MTV, Will Wright’s pretty much agreed with criticism levelled at Spore in a now-wide swathe of reviews, saying the game targets a casual audience, will sell more than Half-Life, and that’s as should be.

“We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players,” he said. “Spore has more depth than, let’s say, The Sims did. But we looked at the Metacritic scores for Sims 2, which was around 90, and something like Half-Life, which was 97, and we decided — quite a while back — that we would rather have the Metacritic and sales of Sims 2 than the Metacritic and sales of Half-Life.”

Wright’s also unfazed by the fact many reviewers have claimed the game is a Jack of all trades and a master of none.

“The feedback we’re getting from people is that everyone has some level they like and some level they don’t like,” he said. “A lot of the reviews I’ve read have said that the Space Stage was far and away the best and they were disappointed by the earlier stages because they were too simple. Other people have said the Creature Stage is their favorite and that the Space Stage seems too complicated.

“We knew, since we were using different genres with every level, that everyone would have ones they really clicked with and ones they didn’t. We’ve pretty much seen that. There hasn’t been any consistent feedback. Some people have said the Civ phase is the best.”

More through the link. We love you, Will.

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