“I think of (games) almost like a modern chemistry set. “I like to get people to think about the world around them, and have these little toy worlds in which they can run experiments,” he said during a recent interview. “The Sims,” which spawned many expansions and a massive fan base, helped to usher non-gamers into gaming. That’s the other reason “Spore” is so huge: It’s the Next Big Thing from the guy who made the best-selling PC game in history - a “virtual dollhouse” in which players piloted little digital humans through ordinary digital lives. The success of “SimCity” proved that teenage boys weren’t the only audience for video games, and it paved the way for Wright’s biggest game to date, “The Sims.” Keep in mind that this was 1989, an era where video games were about diminutive plumbers named Mario, not mass transit systems for virtual constituents. “SimCity,” his first big-selling game, tasked players with - of all things - civic planning. Electronic Arts - which owns Maxis, the studio responsible for “Spore” - could have made two-and-a-half “Godfather” games in that time period.īut Wright’s games are - if you'll pardon the pun - game changers.
Wright says the idea came to him about seven years ago, and it took another five years, and a team of 120, to make it real. Making a game of this size is no small undertaking.
