Electronic Arts announces that it has released the first patch for its Spore, a title that is already a big hit with gamers while also being at the center of several controversies regarding DRM and restrictions.

This first patch is designed to address some bugs that the community identified and which tend to limit the enjoyment of the game. The easiest way to get the patch is to launch the Electronic Arts Download Manager and to let it download it for you. If you don't like EA's product, you can also get the patch from Softpedia here. At the moment, the patch is only available to PC users while Mac players are advised to check back regularly with EA.

The most interesting feature introduced with this first patch is the ability to enter “evoadvantage” as a cheat so that you can then choose to start the game using any creature from Sporepedia. This is a very good move coming from EA as it opens up the game to all those who are not content with the creatures they made and do not want to go back and play the first stages. There's also a cheat, “blocksmode” that will turn creatures into blocky representations of themselves.

The patch also adds 70 new planet scripts with a low terraform score, improves the graphics, fixes a lot of problems with animations and with the diplomatic actions in the Space stage.

Electronic Arts and Maxis promised that future patches would also address issues related to DRM and to multiple user names on the same account. The activation limit will be increased and an iTunes like de-activation mechanism will be included. Each copy of the game will also be able, in the future, to support up to five screen names that will be used to tag creatures and keep track of achievements and game progress.