The wait is almost over. EA and Maxis have announced that Spore, the highly anticipated new game from the creator of The Sims, has gone gold and will be available for the Mac and PC at retailers September 5 in Europe.

Spore Creatures for Nintendo DS and Spore Origins for mobile phones will also be available globally September 7.

"We are so excited to finally get Spore into the hands of fans and players," said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis. "The Maxis studio has had an absolute blast creating Spore, but the fun is just beginning. The most engaging stories are truly the ones people create themselves, and we can't wait to see how players not only craft and explore the Spore universe, but hear what stories they have to tell as a result."

Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box, allowing fans to create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers.

Spore gives players a wealth of tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships. Players can then seamlessly share their creations with the world via the Sporepedia and explore infinite new galaxies created by other gamers.