500,000 Spore creatures created

Will Wright's evolution simulation game Spore might not be getting its first releases until 5 September, but Electronic Arts on Wednesday launched part of the game -- the Spore Creature Creator.

As suggested by the title, the toolkit lets gamers make weird and wonderful creations, which they can later use in the full game, and which can be shared online. In the first 24 hours that the Spore Creature Creator was available, over 250,000 alien life forms were designed and posted online on the 'Sporepedia'.

Electronic Arts noted that breaks down to more than two creatures a second, and at one stage 1,000 monsters were uploaded in a minute. Spore executive producer Lucy Bradshaw said that the response was "overwhelming".

The current number of Spore creatures uploaded is now well over 500,000.