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The Sims 3 Racks Up Over 180,000 Downloads Prior To Release

Posted by Soulskill on from the big-spenders dept.

Bloomberg reports that pirated versions of EA's The Sims 3 were downloaded over 180,000 times between May 18 and May 21. The game will not be officially released until June 2nd, and it does not make use of SecuROM for DRM. Quoting: "That outpaces the 400,000 downloads over three weeks for Electronic Arts' Spore, the most-pirated game of 2008. ... Copies of the game available on file-sharing Web sites aren't the full version, Electronic Arts said. 'The pirated version is a buggy, pre-final build of the game,' Holly Rockwood, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement. 'It's not the full game. Half the world — an entire city — is missing from the pirated copy.'"

2 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. For fuck's sake, people! by teh.f4ll3n · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Sims? As someone with NO download limit I would still feel it a huge waste to download this (master)piece of crap. I mean come on! Wake up people! You're being turned into minless zombie sheep! Wouldn't play it even if they paid me for it...

    --
    Given the choise between Hitler and RIAA/MPAA I'd go for the first one - at least he knew when to shoot himself.
  2. Re:What? by FileNotFound · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Why wait? What's my incentive here? Oh right - I'd be doing something moraly right. No sorry. Not good enough.

    People will always pick the easiest option. Excersising self control for 2 weeks isn't the easiest thing for most people.

    If they could pay $50 and do a legitimate download I'm sure that at least 10% of the downloaders would have picked a legitimate copy.

    I'm sure 90% would still have pirated it. But that's people who had no interest in buying the game in the first place but may want to mess around with it for a bit - they're not lost sales.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!