GTA IV pirates recommend you 'go and buy this one'

by James Ransom-Wiley on Apr 23rd 2008 3:00PM

Gasp! Pirated Grand Theft Auto IV game data has begun popping up on BitTorrent sites today. One alleged rip (6.32 GB) was compiled by a group known as "iCON" and apparently stripped from a PAL-region, Xbox 360 disc. A description of the file warns that the data is not region free and teases, "sorry bushlovers!" (Hey, that's "Mr. President George Dubya Bush lovers" to you, ya stinkin' pi-rats!).

An additional warning recommends would-be players stay off of Xbox Live lest "dirty little spies" catch them and ban their accounts. Ironically, at the end of the file description, the thievery and paranoia gives way to a glowing endorsement: "and guys, seriously, go and buy this one! R* deserves it..." How's that for a back-of-the-box quote!

[Note: We've chosen not to link to any torrent sites hosting the GTA IV tracker -- just take our word for it whydontya!]

Tags: bittorrent, grand-theft-auto-iv, gta-iv, gtaiv, piracy, PS3, rockstar, take-two, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (145)

Says the Yank.

Europe price REALLY ARE a rip-off.

Says the Yank *game developer* :) Pirating hurts me personally, so I feel I have a right to speak up.

I stand by my original assessment. Equating high prices with actual stealing is a weak justification, only sufficient where there is an even weaker conscience.

In a free-market economy, pricing is a function of supply and demand. Choosing not to buy overpriced items is the consumer's right. No one has a right to steal things that don't belong to them.

While commonly compared to,it's not stealing per se.

I'm paying for the "DIGITAL CONTENT" on the disc - an intellectual property.Thus it is copyright infringement.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement_of_software

When the result in both cases is effectively taking money out of someone's pocket, it is a fine distinction. When it is *your* pocket, the distinction has a habit of turning downright invisible. :)

Would you like some Kleenex to wipe your tears? Maybe I should start bitching that NTSC's resolution isn't as high as PAL's. I could also use that as a shitty reason to start stealing games! You're pathetic. Any other games other than Rock Band you can name at 200% above our retail? I don't think so. I was just over there (England, France, Scotland, Wales) for a month, and after conversion, the games aren't that much different in price at all. Matter of fact, I would have bought some games there had they been in NTSC format. Keep in mind, your taxes are included in the price. So 39.99 is 39.99. Which over here is 80 bucks. Here, you have to add 14% to the total value of (generally) 69.99 CAD, which is almost literally 80 bucks. You can't even complain that your wages differ, either. Minimum there is at LEAST 4-5 pounds an hour. That's 8-10/hour to my 8/hour. So you're complaining over a few measely cents? Most of the people I met over there were half decent. But you're just a bitch. Straight up.

holy shit, that pirate pic is priceless, LMAO

another reason Blu-ray is needed in the industry. Pirates have not been able to figure out how to crack Blu-ray's security, and probably never will. Xbox 360 and Wii games are heavily pirated in third world countries where pre-modded Wii and 360 systems are available amd copies of any pirated game.

Wha? Aren't the PS3 guys the ones always talking about people blindly believing whatever Microsoft spews them.

Sony says no one will ever break Blu-ray encryption, but if that's the case why are there torrents of just about every single blu-ray movie (including new releases so don't give me that "it was before BD+ garbage") up on torrent sites?

I'm asking seriously here, because I'm wondering if there's a way that somehow encryption does not have to do with copying your files to the hard drive and sharing them over the interent, which can be done just as easily with Blu-rays as with anything else at this point.

Yeah! We need more DRM like a hole in the head!
I just love the fact I used to have to jump through so many hoops to copy MY dvds onto MY computer or MY mp3-player to watch.

And that to do it I had to rely on dvdJon hacking the DRM on the DVD disc. And then use one of the hundreds of available (yet probably illegal) bits of dvd ripping software.

I'm really looking forward to having to go throught that all again with blueray!

Seems the 360 disc is full to the brim, with ZERO free space..

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?s=6f4f3b5458d0456aea87f8fd5af350cc&t=284508

I wonder what they had to strip out to make it fit??? Or by pure concidence, it turned out the exact same size as a 360 DVD...

Funny that the torrent for it is under 7 gigs. Jackass.

@deaftly

Jackass can't even read.. Maximum GAME data size on a 360 DVD is 6.8GB, the rest is reserved for security data (which is obviously removed for cracked ISO's)

STFU...please?

@JakubK666 Truth hurt?

Can you prove that?

6.8GB..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/deathkiller/1-2.png

Thats the best you got? Seriously?

@deaftly Any proof it's NOT true?

It's common knowledge that the 360 can't use the full 8.4GB on a DVD9, the remaining space is reserved for security.

It's been also proved that Blu-Rays can't really reach 50GB...35GB at most.And 15GB of that are security files and the stuff Sony will secretly shove onto your HDD.

@JakubK666

Very clever. However, we all know that you get the full 50GB of space on PS3's Blu-ray, and sorry to tell you, it's delivered faster than the 360's 2000-era DVD drive.

No...it isn't.

If it was, you wouldn't have to copy SAME DATA onto the HDD for it to run faster than my "pre-2000 DVD".

http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/microsoft-xbox/594331p1.html

According to GameSpy, usable space on the 360 Disk is believed to be around 7 gigs. There, can you guys shut up now.

Bah!

I buy my games on the 360 but i own a simplyDS for my DS... sides if you talk torrent, and you are a pirate you can swim by the bay or deal with Demons... either one gets you the booty....

;)

you know that the daemon site was taken down a while ago, right?

actually its still up... so i dont know what you are talking about.... :) and i didnt say Daemon, I said demon... if you cant figure it out you shouldnt talk about it...

Well if the pirates are on board, so am I.

"Ironically, at the end of the file description, the thievery and paranoia gives way to a glowing endorsement: 'and guys, seriously, go and buy this one! R* deserves it...'"

i was so laughing hard at that

Me, i'm getting the PS3 version, as according to those that have played it, it's the better version, by quite a noticable margin.

http://planetgrandtheftauto.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=150387

That's fine, you believe that. I have all 3 consoles but I'll be getting it on the 360 for the DLC, in game messaging and better online (since I'm already paying for it). Also gonna just wait til I pick up GTA to pick up my copy of Mario Kart.

well it was bound to happen lol. i thought it would take much longer than this actually. this does mean that alot of retailers have the games already judging from stuff like this and lots of gameplay vids popping up all over the place now. time to pay a visit to my local video game store and see if i can work over an unsuspecting associate and get the game early.

honestly though, who would pirate this game? are you that cheap that you cant drop $60 on one of the biggest games of the year? i could see if it was a game you wanted to try out first cause it might suck but everything else is a terrible practice. i mya pirate music or a movie from time to time (if i can find a screener) but video games are taboo to me.

I like to try it before I buy it. Some bastards fear their own pile of steaming shit so they won't post a demo. There are few expensive things I don't try before I buy. Hell even food I like to try before I buy, love that Sam's lets you sample stuff. If I don't like my dinner when I go out then I'll be damned if I'm gonna pay for it. And if I can't try it before I buy it I make sure it has a decent return policy so I can get rid of that trash. Unfortunatly you can't return opened games (well you can, but it can be considered return fraud so I won't post how to).

People pirate console games?

"Bushlovers".... That's a good one!

How about "Limey, Tea-sucking, socialist, Donut punching, Euro-trash"

Pirating video games is so 1990's.

@KeenCommander

Explain the 2000 Election then.

I clicked the goddamn reply button! >:(

GTA: Rated ARRGH!!!!

Sorry...

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/ninja_parade_slips_through_town

You guys are so funny. I decided to make a Youtube post about all the fanboys at Joystiq. I am going to try and make videos as fast as possible about what people are talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPI2Ys22N2M

Free as in speech wooo.

Random sidenote, the extracted ISO file is 7.6GB.

https://home.comcast.net/~jynxycat//DVD.png

So much for the "piracy is killing PC games - lets all move to the consoles!" stuff we've been hearing from devs recently.

Also, it seems like 90% of all piracy comes from within the industry... rather than annoying and frustrating all us legitimate users (and spending a fortune) with DRM and copy protection - why don't they just get their own house in order?

This game has been in store's stock rooms for probably a few days now, if not a week in bigger retail chains.

Has nothing to do with internal theft.

Then they need better stock control.

A lot of games, movies AND albums get leaked well before they get to the stores... whether its by internal testers or whatever I don't really know, but a lot of it is definitely from within the industry.

Walmart =/= within the industry.

If a game came from the studio that was making it, or the company that was publishing, sure.

These are just coming from some store/stockroom where either someone 'borrowed' one, or was just flat out sold a copy early. It's not unheard of, there's always going to be that one employee that doesn't speak english, and didn't get the memo :P

Previous 50 Comments

GTA IV pirates recommend you 'go and buy this one'

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