EA tells the Los Angeles Times the customer fallout took the company by surprise.

To make amends, EA said on Friday it will roll out an update for Spore that eliminates several points of contention.

The company will now allow players to install the game an unlimited number of times, so long as its not installed on more than five computers at the same time. EA also plans to release a patch this week to support multiple screen names, allowing families to play separate games on a shared computer.