EA and Maxis are about to expand the Spore franchise.

Publisher EA said Thursday that it plans to release Spore Galactic Adventures, Spore Creature Keeper, Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena in 2009.

Galactic Adventures is an expansion pack to the September PC release of Spore, adding more content to the space section of the game, such as mission-based adventures and the option to create new adventures.

Creature Keeper (tentative title) is a standalone PC game aimed at younger audiences that sounds like a pet-raising simulation for Spore creations.

Spore Hero (tentative title) is for Nintendo Wii and will be an adventure game, while Spore Hero Arena (tentative title) for DS will allow players to create a 3D creature and pit it against other creatures. The Nintendo entries are slated for fall.

Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw stated, "This year we're going to experiment with new experiences that extend the powerful creativity tools of Spore to all-new audiences."