The Sims 3 leaks onto torrent sites

Excellent point! After this shocking leak I bet The Sims 3 now sells 0 copies.

piracy is a problem.....but so is going to a shop, buying a pc game thinking your pc would run it ok, to get home to find out u need to spend an additional £xxx to upgrade your pc
i for one will download to try,, and without a doubt shell out the £40 it costs for the game if my pc up to it!!!

if developers didnt want it on torrent sites to download the full version (cracked)...... then giv the people some sort of playable demo to try

I think you misunderstand what's going on. The game would be on the torrents sites REGARDLESS of if it had DRM or not. Someone is going to crack/copy it, no matter what.
EA dropped SecuRom because it did not increase their profit. They still have DRM, just less restrictive.

"If such flagrant disregard to the rights of EA content continues, then the group may once again be forced to employ contentious methods to restrict piracy"

Did EA say they may be forced to employ DRM technologies if disregard to their rights continues?

Regardless of having trials, anti-piracy tech, high price, pc performance, etc, etc...it does not justify having it in a illegal way...blaming such things as pc performance and stuff is just as ridiculous as blaming the game companies for the piracy...lets grow up and fight the good fights instead of trying ti justify some crimes..I am sick of it.
I download stuff too, but because and when I dont have money, period. No justification for it, no putting the blame in third parties... lets blame ourselves for not having money...or shame..how does that sound !?

Come on people, if you don't know the specs of your own PC these days you should stick to consoles. The Sims has enough of a fanbase to ensure massive success in the shops, even if it is available to download. I think downloading it is cheap but shed no tears for EA, as they will probably be sleeping as easy as ever on GIANT BEDS OF MONEY

DRM only benefits one party: the DRM makers. It only serves to annoy legitimate purchasers of a product, and doesn't prevent piracy one iota. It'd be a shame to see EA return to shoddy DRM (my DVD writer hasn't worked properly since I installed Spore), simply because some people couldn't wait another two weeks.

Hopefully, EA will look on this as evidence that the demand for Sims 3 is there, and look at this as an opportunity to promote the game, rather than over-react and impose draconian measures on legitimate users that won't affect 'illegitimate' users.

No protection will ever work. It costs the producers money which is then passed on to the customer. So drop the protection. I used to think dropping the cost of games would stop piracy but now I'm an indie dev even at £2 a game people still copy them. Piracy is just a way of life for some people now live with it. I'm sure EA make more money than I do but I dont add loads of security crap that kills the urge to play before I even get to the "load game" page.

I'm actually surprised EA is even shocked this happened. The game was supposed to ship in Jan and they pushed it back a full five months. They said it was so they could "build the brand name". Do they think we live under a rock? How much can you build the name of the single most popular PC game in the past 10 years?? Custom Content sites blamed the lack of support for "outside customization", but all the while rabid Sims Fans were still without a game.
It is unfortunate that it leaked, but the game would be cracked as soon as it was released one way or another (the leaked version already has a Key Gen, for crying out loud!). It happened to the Sims and all of it's expansions. It happened to The Sims 2 and all of it's expansions. And yet still both titles topped the sales charts and every expansion rejuvenated those sales.
I have pre-ordered and paid in full for my copy. They already HAVE my money. If I were to download a leaked version at this point, sorry but I don't think I would be feeling a lot of remorse. Illegal or not, it is ALWAYS going to happen. We just have to hope that there are enough honest, paying customers out there to warrant them making the game in the first place. Face it, once they actually start LOOSING money, there won't be any Sims and everyone looses, Pirates, paying customers and all.

"...The publisher had very recently exhibited a rare degree of flexibility and diplomacy by removing unpopular DRM technologies from its range of PC products.

If such flagrant disregard to the rights of EA content continues, then the group may once again be forced to employ contentious methods to restrict piracy."

Unless EA want to become like Steam, and in the process loose their fan base then they will have to put up with having their games pirated.
The only people that DRM effect are the honest buyers, the piraters will always find a way to get around it.

The main problem pirating helps is with the no return policy on objects such as games from stores such as Target.

If EA made demos for the public to try there would be less pirating of their game for one can try it out before buying it.

I'm still pre=ordering my special edition
they worked too hard on that game for me to go and download it for free :||

How would people like it if she/he worked hard for years and someone random comes along and steals your entire earnings over those years

I hope averyone who downloads the game gets a nasty virus

thank you :)

This is ONLY to people who downloaded and hacked it, I'm not talking about everyone:

Seriously! Do you want EA to go bankrupt?? This is the reason for the securom!!! First you complain about it then you use the fact that they acted because of you!!!! Just buy the damn thing instead of downloading it! It's not that expensive and it's worth it, considering how good sims 2 is!!

Look, I really don't give a crap about EA at this point. They continuously betrayed my trust again and again, and now, I'm going to download the full torrent once the game comes out. I'll consider my payment to EA the money I need to pay for the ****LOAD worth of hardware to PLAY it. I don't care if they never make another game ever again. Believe me, someone will take their place. And maybe, next time, it'll be someone who cares about the customers.

@ConcernedEAfan
You haven't been on the internet long. Ea is flowing in cash. They are like a muitibillion dollar developing and publishing company. The pirating makes them even more popular. Mind me saying how you even learned how to work a computer?

I wonder if they're gonna sell 10 expensions 50$ each this time?
...But I don't really care, because i'll d/l 'em. Yes, free.
And so should you.
Pass the word, torrents exist.
Im so sad for the poor Big Shots of EA (or any others), they wont be able to afford ivoir for their landscape!!!
Smell the coffee and WAKE UP!

I couldnt give a ****, im downloading it, ill burn it to DVD and sell at the local carboot sale for £5 a time, Can guarantee that I will sell over 100 of them this weekend :D
KACHING!

While the urge to go and illegally download this game is very appealing, as it's free and was released beforehand, I've been a loyal EA Games fan since I was a kid. I've been following The Sims from the very beginning, and while I've always been able to just pirate the expansions and games, guess what I did.
I BOUGHT the game and SUPPORTED EA Games.

i love EA Games!
i love SIMS!

blessed piracy :)

DRM technology should not be so open to say EA used their technology in Sim 2 given Sims 2 and every add-on was cracked in 1 day. This just told/showed EA that paying DRM for their security was a total waste of development time and money because it flat out did not work. Leaving DRM out of Sims 3 saved EA time and money as they don't have to pay DRM for each copy of the game sold...they get 100 percent of the sales.
Why would DRM even want to say their technology was used? Doing so tells every other game or software manufacturer NOT to waste their time and money too as it will not protect them either.

So, the fastest-selling EA launch on PC ever, then. 1.4m copies in a week. DAMN THOSE PIRATES!

I've tried downloading it but it just takes too long, I'm going out to buy it right now.

I've downloaded it but I don't have the access code, so what do I need to do now?

SIMS IS *******S and so are ea sports they make great starting movies but the games are really poorly thought out an the cheesie ea music is very annoying it entertains the mainstream sheep but id rather not downgrade my intelligence playing such boring crap

For installation help, check out this website.
Really easy and step by step installation guide and fixes for the most errors that you might run into when installing Sims 3!
www.orangeswarm.com/content19.html

hi can anyone send me the sims three to my email i can send you the roller coaster tycoon 3 ride the rides game to you thankyou

It saddens me that anybody would feel bad for a company like EA who has been producing low quality games and an ever lower-quality workplace for their employees. This company is an industry giant and they can afford to lose a few sales to some torrents. Do you even realize that almost any game you can think of can be downloaded via bittorrent? This isn't news. Torrent hasn't prevented sales from happening in the past and it won't now. Don't worry, your beloved EA will be just fine.

I think that torrent download is alright not that i do it myself cause i cant be buggered with downloading and i work in a games shop!
I know someone who couldnt get hold of the game for at least 2 months after release cause it was all sold out, so that looks like sales are still high!
So she had to download it untill she bought a copy cause she couldnt wait.
This just shows how popular EA games are nowadays so tbh EA shouldnt complain i would be really happy if something i made was extremely popular.
This world is soooo too much about money and im disgusted by it.
Dont people have souls nowadays?