After years of silence the legendary life simulation Spore has crawled to life again like a 3-eyed alien amphibian emerging out of a primordial alien ocean

Back in the day, Spore was a big deal. It was a life-sim RTS developed by Maxis, the famed Sims studio. Players could guide the evolution of an entire species from primordial soup all the way to interstellar travel. It was ambitious, unique, and huge. But it wasn't great. The gameplay was a bit flat. In a 2018 retrospective, we said that "in many respects, Spore was No Man's Sky prior to No Man's Sky", minus the redemption arc.

Could the redemption arc still occur after all these years? Spore is back! It's unlikely, but not impossible. The first update on the Spore site in over five years states that the game has a brand new team within EA, as well as an official Discord server, "where you can stay up to date with the latest news and contests from the development team and get to know the other Spore players."

This does not mean that big things are going to happen. The "setting expectations" message in the new Spore Discord states that there are no plans to update the game or make a sequel.

The message reads: "Our primary focus on community engagement is being a central hub to allow all the different communities to share a space and to be able communicate efficiently with all."

Spore's return is sure to be exciting, no matter what form it takes. There's confusion too, for sure, as there hasn’t been a huge demand for a sequel. But there is hope for everything, from proper online support via Steam (online features still work but account registration appears to be broken) to new features and content despite the warnings.

RogueLyeshal, a moderator at the new Discord, said that there are only two people currently managing the channel. "This blew up faster than we expected."

This could give hope to Spore fans who are hoping EA will jump back in with both feet. The current ambitions may be modest, but some fans hope that a sufficient level of interest will at least lead to the consideration of a more enthusiastic support in the future. EA has done things that are less likely to happen: we're getting a brand new Skate game in the next year.

For now, however, the team's focus is on more basic issues, such as getting account creation to work again, and, according an unofficial FAQ posted on the Spore Subreddit, gaining access to the Spore account for X which hasn’t posted anything since December 15, 2010. It's been a long time.