Counting down the minutes until Spore launches next week? EA wants to help you relieve that anticipation somewhat, as the company has pulled a page from Valve’s Steam playbook and made Spore available for pre-loading via the EA Store.
Starting today, gamers who pre-order the PC version of Spore from the EA Store can pre-load the game immediately and be among the first to start playing on the day of release.
Pre-loading Spore is available only for PC. Mac gamers need to go elsewhere to pre-order the Mac version of Spore. The Spore Galactic Edition, meanwhile, is only available as a boxed product at retailers.
Once pre-ordered, you will see Spore in the EA Download Manager. You will then be able to download 99% of the game to your computer, with the remaining 1% to be downloaded on the game’s release date (Sept. 5 in Europe and Asia, Sept. 7 in North America). It will only take 30-60 minutes for the install to complete before you can begin conquering galaxies in Spore.
If you pre-order the game and start the pre-loading process, you will be charged for the game on Aug. 28 (today), even though the game doesn’t ship until next week.