Anyone else notice that Spore’s Will Wright has been doing his best to downplay the hype surrounding his wondrous creation recently? Is he trying to tell us not to get too excited about the game because it’s a bit, y’know, bobbins? We sincerely hope not since the door has just been kicked ajar for pre-launch pre-loading.

Pre-order the PC game from the EA store today and you’ll be able to download around 99% of the necessary code, meaning that you’ll be able to hit the scorched earth running when the remaining 1% is released on September 5th. Well, perhaps not running, but certainly jogging energetically. You see that final single percentile is a biggie that’s estimated to take 30 minutes to an hour to download – and that’s assuming that EA’s servers don’t drown under the sudden deluge. That being the case you might be quicker nipping down the shops to buy a hard copy of the game, even if the thought of such a transaction does rankle with your digital sensibilities.

In other Spore-related news Will Wright has just posted his own monstrous creation as part of the ongoing ‘Sporelebrity’ fun n’ games. Wright’s the serious looking dude to the left of Richard Branson and his Triclops, if we’re honest, looks like it was knocked out in five minutes to keep EA’s marketing department quiet. Others hurriedly cobbled in the name of contractual obligation include Kittypurrysaurus by Katy Perry (she kissed a girl and liked it, apparently), Buttercup by Teenage Witch Melissa Joan Hart and Ten Hit Wonder by internet demigod Tay “Chocolate Rain” Zonday. Check them all out at www.sporevote.com.