Rumor: Pirates get their scurvy hands on The Sims 3

by Xav de Matos on May 18th 2009 5:00PM

Unconfirmed reports circulating around the net claim the upcoming life-sim, The Sims 3, has leaked online weeks before its retail release. The Electronic Arts developed title is scheduled to land on store shelves on June 2. According to SoftSailor, torrents for The Sims 3 clock in around 5GB, but have yet to be confirmed as the full, final version of the game.

The Sims 3 is the long-awaited sequel to the best-selling Dollhouse simulator, announced last year. Recently (after coming under fire for extensive DRM use in Spore -- which totally didn't work anyway) Electronic Arts announced The Sims 3 would not include any online authentication, relying solely on a serial number as copy protection. Joystiq has contacted Electronic Arts for comment and puts a bounty on the heads of all pirates everywhere. We're giving away cookies.

[Via GamePolitics]

Source

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, maxis, piracy, rumor, sims-3, the-sims-3

Reader Comments (96)

And this is a surprise in what way again?

This is pretty much on schedule for pirate releases... Its a bit early, but the sims is a heavily pirated game considering all the expansion packs. So I guess it just got extra attention from the pirateers

If true - what a shame.

It's true. The released copy is a full gold version of the game and is released by a well-known scene group. The game's invasive SecuROM protection which serves as a severe hassle for legitimate users has been cracked.

Let's take this time to thank Sony (owners of SecuROM) and EA for bringing us such strict and invasive copy protection that has done absolutely nothing to stop the game from being released three weeks early.

@DWells55:

Someone didn't real the other articles on the matter.

The game doesn't have SecuROM, it has plain disc-based authentication.

Well, I'm going by the release group's notes which indicate that the game is in fact protected by SecuROM. Additionally, the cracked .exe is significantly larger than the original, indicating the release group has packaged it within a VM, a method very often used by the same group to combat SecuROM. And, seeing how said crack works, it looks like the game does, in fact, have SecuROM.

Then it has to be the Digital Download version.

The normal retail edition (which most folk will buy) won't have it.

It's pretty early for a pirated copy to have hit the nets. That's about all that's interesting about this.

That and the posts on the EA forums. "OMG DON'T DOWNLOAD TIHS GAME YOUR PC WILL DIE ADN CUM BACK 2 LIFE AND RAPE CHRILDEN! TAHTS WUT ZOMBIE PCS R!"

Sounds like it could be a prerelease copy. This was sent to me by a friend, who found this in the comments on Pirate Bay or something:

"In the game data folder on the cd: content_version file:

Version:1.Content.Devtest.1397
Changelist:622971

dvd dir:skuversion file:
Asset:1.Content.Devtest.1397"

Most of these leaks are from companies hired to manufacture the discs. Somebody takes a copy home and puts it on the internet. Then EA never hires that company again and the person gets fired.

Seriously, why has this problem not just solved itself?

Probably because there's always some low-paid temp on the premises for whom 15 minutes of pathetic dork non-fame for his handle is worth more than the possibility of losing his job.

ouch. two major EA titles leaked early in the SAME MONTH. that's got to hurt. first rock band unplugged, and now this. it's a damn shame.

by the way, where's the rock band unplugged leak coverage, joystiq?

Seems like we have a spy with in EA......

SPY SAPPIN MAH RELEASES

They already did the "Exclusive" Rock Band Unplugged tracklist reveal...hhmmm I wonder where they got that at...

Joystiq DID comment on the fact that the game has supposedly leaked in their most recent Rockband Unplugged article.

no, a commenter mentioned it. they themselves still haven't directly addressed it. in the last article, they said they didn't know how he got his hands on it.

Oh, okay. That's kind of odd...

It's true.

I don't like your name...

not.

one.

bit.

joker reference FTW

This doesn't mean these people aren't going to buy the game though, may I remind everyone. You know regardless if The Sims 3 leaked a year ago, the game is going to sell itself.

Forsooth. I bought Sims 2 back when it came out, even after pirating it.

I enjoy fully functional demos before I decide to buy something.

Torrents hit major trackers sometime last night. Supposedly it had been circulated on private trackers for a little while before that.

Interestingly enough, the IFO file packaged with the torrent warns users not to let the game's executable or the launcher connect to the internet. I wonder if EA's doing a little pirate hunting of their own.

And this is why they put DRM in games. People say "Take out the DRM and we won't pirate your game" but they do it anyway because it's now easier to do so.

acutally, i would say "take out the DRM or we won't buy your game"... at least that's what i did with spore way back when.

Pirating a game with or without DRM usually isn't any more or less easy than otherwise.

Game with DRM:

1) Download
2) Apply crack
3) Play

Game without DRM (but with a CD check)

1) Download
2) Apply Crack
3) Play

Game without DRM (and no CD check)

1) Download
2) Play

But most everything has a CD check, except, like, Unreal Tournament 2004 :x and some Steam games.

Idiotic. DRM doesn't prevent pirating and doesn't slow it either. It can slow making the game playable but it doesn't slow the release.

This game was pirated a little earlier than usual only because it was high profile and not because there wasn't any DRM.

DRM is only good for wasting honest customers time and possibly messing up their systems.

Pirates will be pirates always and forever.

@Aero: If game DRM forestalled pirating for more than 7 seconds (the time it takes to run the second crack) in exchange for its significant inconveniences and outrages perpetrated upon paying customers, I would say you had a point.

The game comes with SecuROM DRM, the most invasive, overly strict, and annoying DRM for the people who actually buy the game. And it did absolutely NOTHING to prevent the game getting cracked and leaked weeks early.

I flat-out won't buy SecuROM games. If you have to use DRM, fine, so be it. But at least make it sane. I have no problem with Steam. I can have the same game installed on several of my computers with no problems, redownload the entire game without issue, and I don't get any invasive services or the like installed on my OS.

Well55, from what I've read it only has SecuROM on the DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION version which seems to likely be the version the releasers used to crack. The version you can buy in stores is supposed to Not have SecuROM on the actual discs.

If this proves true, then it pretty much proves your statement false. Regardless, all your spouting just seems like the typical excuse of someone who pirates for the sake of getting a game for free. Then, you go badmouthing EA (although not something I disagree with) in a self-serving fashion in order to justify that you didn't want to pay.

I personally have pirated EA's games namely Spore because of their DRM (evil!), but I was originally planning to buy it. I've also bought their a few of their other games (Sims and Sims 2 + exps). I haven't downloaded The Sims 3, and I currently don't plan to.

my 2c

It'll still sell like hotcakes. The past two sims also suffered from rampant piracy but nonetheless broke sales records like nobody's business.

The key? Most sims fans aren't very tech-savvy.

Good lord, that's exactly the point I was just trying to type up, but I couldn't make it sound right and kept rambling on about other nonsense. Thanks for saying it right!

Makes you wonder if the 'core gamer' segment is cutting their own throat here. Games designed for us, a typically savvy bunch, are probably the ones most cracked as we have the technical know-how.

Why create a "hard core" game when its audience is the most likely to steal it?

That's what Cliff said about a Gears 2 PC release, and I somewhat agree with him, though I really would like to have seen a PC port of it.

In the end the people most able to pirate are the people who spend all day playing, installing, modding and configuring PC games. E.g. not Grandma Simfan.

Actually The Sims 2 is famous in piracy circles for quite the different reason: It took months AFTER the retail release to actually get a working crack for the game, it was some seriously strong DRM back in it's time.

PS: And yes I own the game but do you seriously expect me to carry all those cds just so my sis can play the game on the laptop while on vacations?

@Lario: People are coming to that conclusion with increasing frequency. The most famous take on the subject is probably Stardock's:

http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/post.aspx?postid=303512

Basically, if you want to pirate stuff, that's fine. You're just making yourself irrelevant. Then you can flame up Slashdot about how MMOs and budget portals are the AAA offerings on the PC.

Seen it, plays same as Sims 2 tbh.. nothing special.

I mean - it feels like just an expansion. ;)

And how deep and compelling a sequel did you expect? It's the Sims.

It is just like what happens to a bunch of other games. It is true though i did download it and it seems to be legit. It is made of win and awesome

It most likely is the final version... didn't it go gold like, early this month?

Maybe this'll teach developers not to hold back on releasing a finished product for a month/months.

Wait, no it won't. It never will. Friggin' "planning".

They don't owe you anything to release it on your schedule. Just play the game when it comes out..

That's stupid logic.

Let them do whatever they want, why don't you?

That'd sure be fine if the game were free. Well, it is! If you don't wait!

What sort of message is that sending anyways?

Us legit customers get punished.

No it is not "stupid logic", however yours doesn't quite work out.

If the games release date was earlier, they would be sent off for print and distribution earlier which means it would be pirated earlier too- still before release date.

There's a damned huge difference between a game going gold a few weeks before release (like most games do), and going gold over a month, or even, in some cases, MULTIPLE months well before release.

Yes its development was finished a while ago, but that doesn't mean there have been copies floating around since then. It was leaked just two weeks before release, when the game is being sent to distributors which is when piracy normally takes place.

aww, no pirate babies Joystiq? not even one shopped into the picture?

I'm disappointed

"Joystiq has contacted Electronic Arts for comment and puts a bounty on the heads of all pirates everywhere. We're giving away cookies."

Um... if you do that, you are going to loose all of your audience and readers, cuz.. little secret here... whisper: [everybody downloads stuff, even the ones that say they don't]...

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Rumor: Pirates get their scurvy hands on The Sims 3

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