Sigh. It turns out EA's exciting announcement was indeed the Spore Creature Creator/newspaper deal we revealed a few days ago. Don't get me wrong, getting the app free ($2 for Mexicans) is a nice deal, but it's small consolation for selling it at the NZ EA Store, while at the same time keeping us in the dark.

From the EA release:

The Spore Creature Creator will be available with the Herald Sun and The Saturday Daily Telegraph on Saturday, August 2, and with The Courier Mail on Saturday, August 30. The game will be free with The Saturday Daily Telegraph in New South Wales, and available for $2 with purchase of the Herald Sun in Victoria and The Courier-Mail in Queensland.

Exciting for the East coast, maybe, but not for NT, SA, WA or Tassie.

Full document after the jump.

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EA's release of the Spore Creature Creator was an odd one; the publisher made the program available to most of the world... except Australia. When asked why this was the case, we were told to brace ourselves for an exciting announcement. It was eventually discovered that Australians could indeed buy the program, as long as they were willing to go to the NZ EA Store.

Now, I hope this isn't the exciting announcement EA was talking about, but it appears readers of the Saturday Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun will be able to get their hands on the full version of the Spore Creature Creator on August 2. It will be free with the former, while the latter will "give it way" for $2 and a coupon.

That's all we know for now. You can check out the offers yourself using the links below (thanks Parabol).

Get your free video game [The Daily Telegraph]
Spore [Herald Sun]

You want proof that people have far too much free time? Kotakuite Steven dropped us a line this morning to point out that the Sporepdia at Spore.com has just surpassed the one million creature mark merely a week after the release of the Creature Creator. Big numbers, even though we've technically slowed down since last week's 350,000 milestone.

At this rate, if my calculations prove correct, we should be completely and utterly sick of seeing Spore creatures by the time the full game drops in September.

Sporepedia [Official Spore Website]

Sonic, Master Chief, Goombas and, of course, Super Mario have all been added to the Sporepedia, reports MTV Multiplayer. Also in the catalog, Yoshi, Metal Gear Ray (props for at least thinking outside the box there), the Chimera from Resistance, and an ass-ton of Metroids. Super Mario looks like a muppet, and Sonic looks like Spike from Gremlins in purple-face.

I suppose I should applaud the Spore Creature Creator, because it's such an outlet for energy that would otherwise go into cosplay. You can waste a ton of time surfing Sporepedia for obvious video-game homages. So let's get a pool going on the next video-game character to be added to the Sporepedia. I'll lay out the odds:

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Everyone's been playing around with the recently-released creature maker for EA's Spore. Even the developers at Infinite Interactive, most famous for the casual/hardcore title Puzzle Quest, have been funnelling their talents into crafting weird and amazing beasts. I2's Aaron Styles sent me a link to the studio's forums, where you can check out its wacky/cute/bizarre creations.

Before you ask, no, nothing looks like a penis. The Wormageddon gets close though.

You can grab the Spore Creature Creator yourself from the New Zealand EA Store. I know, I know, don't ask.

I2's Spore Creatures [Infinite Interactive, thanks Aaron]

Okay, so let me get this straight. If I go to the Australian EA Store, the Spore Creature Creator is unavailable. However, if I jump across to the New Zealand version, I can download it for $NZ 14.99. I can even select "Australia" as my location in the checkout section.

Okay, great, we can get the full program now, but why do we need to hit up the NZ store for it? If Australia's there as an option, why not just put it on the Australian store?

I guess I should be happy that we at least have a legitimate way of downloading it. Still, it leaves a silly taste in my mouth. Yes, silly.

Spore Creature Creator [EA Store NZ, thanks Trent]

Why is this Spore creature, crafted by PC Zone UK forum user Apophis_dd, so very happy? Perhaps because it's come to the humorous realisation that despite how vehemently gamers rail against the supposed sickness of people who dress up like furries or cavort with unicorns in the virtual world of Second Life, given the right tools they have the potential to create things just as nasty, if not more so.

Perhaps he's just happy because he's named "The Humpasaur", which is what my close friends in high school nicknamed me in the fictional life I like to picture in my head where I had close friends in high school. Hit the jump for the full picture in all its NSFW glory.

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The Spore Creature Creature was officially released earlier today—leaked early late last week—and already we're drowning in penis monsters. Proud members of the Spore creature creating community have risen to the cock-filled occasion, crafting dozens of new lifeforms, all based around having huge schlongs. A quick search of YouTube submissions for "spore penis" returns about 150 videos, revealing discoveries like the Penisman, the Penizaur, the Peenisaurus, the Penis Goblin and the brilliantly named Penis Creature #1029438. We're not sure this is what Will Wright had in mind.

By the way, this is not an invitation to send your boner-centric creation to tips. Just consider it a heads up.

Time to create your own Fruit Fucker! Maxis proudly announces the worldwide availability of the Spore Creature Creature Creator trial. Players can head over to http://www.spore.com/trial right now and download the PC and MAC versions of the demo version, while the full version should be showing up at retail today or tomorrow - call ahead. You can also buy the full version of the Creature Creator via EA's store, though when I purchased it earlier today it was listed as a preorder, available for download tomorrow.

I've managed to avoid the Creature Creator for the most part myself, but this launch trailer sucked me in as soon as I heard the bizarre little critters making cute squeaking noises. I am a complete sucker for cute squeaking noises, as my dating history is sure to prove.

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Reader Ben B. preordered Spore Creature Creator through the EA Store and just got word it's been rescheduled for release on Wednesday, June 18. Tuesday was the original drop date. He provided a copy of the email and it looked legit to me, so, spread the word.

If you're hankering for some Spore fruit fucker action right now, you can always grab the demo, which leaked early. It contains 1/4 the content, but that's 1/4 more than you're getting right now.