While NPD confirms Spore is making a strong debut in the PC gaming scene (but not enough to beat the Sims, surprise!), the road was still a bumpy one thanks to non-gameplay issues which frustrated users. This included DRM which not only capped the number of times Spore could be installed, but prevented players from creating more than one user account per copy of Spore despite what the game's manual clearly states. The latter in particular drew the ire of consumers, and it appears EA got the message. Or at least Maxis did, as the developer confirms that each Spore account will soon be able to host up to five different user names ("Spore Screen Names"). Maxis has posted further details:

The content that is made and the MySpore Page will be associated with the logged in Screen Name for that account. Each Screen Name will be able to view and create content, Buddy Lists and Sporecasts that will be tied to that Screen Name. The Achievements earned will be credited to the Screen Name that is logged in at the time the Achievement is triggered. In the first iteration of this change, all Screen Names will be playing in the same Galaxy and any content downloaded by any Screen Name will be available in the Everything section.

Current Spore owners will be able to create new screen names for their accounts on the Spore website. Unfortunately, Maxis wasn't able to confirm when it would be able to roll out this update.  Being able to log into different screen names could prove to be an acceptable alternative to having only Spore account, though Maxis admits there are still a few bugs which need to be ironed out with this new system.  For example, one screen name can earn the achievements which should actually be going to another.