CNET reports today that EA on Tuesday January 15th will announce that Spore will be released simultaneously for PC and Mac sometime in 2008.

The announcement is timed to coincide with the Macworld Expo, which begins Tuesday in San Francisco. At the convention, EA will show Spore running on Macs.

This means Mac users will not have to wait for another company to port the game, as they had to do back when SC4 was released. Although EA already said Spore would be released in a Mac version back in June 2007, it was not yet known how much time there would be between the PC and Mac release.

Although CNET states the announcement of the simultaneous release will be made today, the actual release date for Spore remains shrouded in mystery:

…the company has yet to announce when Spore will be released.

UPDATE: CNET reports EA has said a formal announcement should be out around 12pm PST (9pm CET, 3pm ET)

UPDATE2: Apparently 12pm PST was the earliest time at which the announcement could be available. It has obviously been delayed

UPDATE3: kotaku.com reports EA put out a press release confirming the earlier CNET report:

“We couldn’t be happier to bring Spore to the Mac at the same time as the PC version. Spore is a highly creative game and I look forward to seeing what the players come up with to fill the universe they design,” said Will Wright, Chief Designer of Spore.

read the complete EA press release at kotaku.com. In case you’re wondering: no, there’s not a release date in there.