Only a few weeks ago was Spore creator Will Wright expressing his concern over the hype for Spore.

"...some people will be disappointed that it’s not 'hardcore enough' or it’s not 'easy enough' or that we didn’t do this or that. We’ve gotten to that point any additional hype isn’t serving us well. It’s a concern", he said.

Now he's explained to MTV why the game isn't hardcore enough, "We were very focused, if anything, on making a game for more casual players.

..."we looked at the Metacritic scores for Sims 2, which was around 90, and something like Half-Life, which was 97 (actually, it was 96), 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."

So, there you go then... apparently one does design a groundbreaking game based on review scores, just not the higher review scores. Still, more sales will make EA boss John Riccitiello happy. Despite the fact that the game - which has received some less than adulatory reviews - currently has no micro-transactions, Riccitiello has stated that "The microtransaction potential for this game is huge".

Keep your eyes out for our review of the game based on a copy that the evil editor rushed out and bought with his own coin (well, Maestro card) this very Friday.