22 comments | showing # 1 to 22

Anski

Or the wait for the pirates who want a full game instead of a pre-release.

Snidesworth

I wonder if they purposefully leaked the incomplete game to saturate torrent sites with a version that's inferior to a purchased copy.

Kraid

heh ehlamolamelarawr.

I'm still on the fence about getting this game , I F'ing loved the first one but the second left me bitter.

I think I'm not-gonna play it with a not-unfinished version and buy it if I like it or... not....

Lankey

To me the whole bit about the leaked copy being buggy and the such seems to be just a whole load of crap EA are using to try and stop people downloading the game. I have actually watched one of my flatmates who did download the game play it and it seems perfectly fine to me.

Holyetheline

Sucks that pirates reign in this way... But what can we do?

Optimaximal

@Phoenix Gamma

From what I've heard, it's significantly improved over The Sims 2, with a proper social environment (Sims can freely travel between houses and all locations in the entire world can be visited in real time), true Sim goals and a Spore-inspired character-builder.

Basically, if The Sims is your game, it's worth buying. As for the rest of us, pirate it till your hearts content because EA are going to make fucking bazillions off it anyway!

ajaxender

This could well be the most pirated game of the year, but also probably the biggest seller. Even if not, its gonna sell truck-loads over a few years.

Also, if EA are even telling the truth, that refers to the old copy. There is a retail version of the game available out there. However, it seems EA has finally figured out how encourage sales; you get free money to spend on items in the in-game store (or however it works) if you have a legit game. So pirates who like the game, may just have to buy it.

Kathos

Most pirates are cheap, lazy, sometimes moronic and all-scum.

If EA released the pre-release on torrent sites (dual layer disc game... like 10 gigs after decompression?) then it was a smart move on their part, since the pirates weren't gonna buy it there's at least a good chunk of them that would have but are just too cheap.

This is where the cheap part comes in: After downloading 10 gigs worth of game and it's just a pre-release they won't want to download the full game when it comes out 'cause they've wasted 10 of bandwidth already and they'll need the rest of it for the rest of the month or mommy and daddy will yell at them for going over the ISP limit.

And since they're cheap they'd have a crappy internet connection so it would take another (week? few days?) to download the game again so they wouldn't do it since the pre-release left a terrible taste in their mouths.

Gorram EA you sly bastards.

neveranything

I'm considering downloading this leaked version, just to test the new waters, and if the retail version of Sims 3 comes with something better than Spore's DRM, I WILL buy it. If it comes with anything equivalent to Spore's DRM (install limits, needing to connect online to "validate" the installation, ect) or worse, then EA can kiss the mass of fat and hair that is my ass.

Shadowiii

Does this have DRM on it? If so I expect pirated to skyrocket just out of spite.

Josh Tolentino

@Shadowiii

The Sims 3 will have no DRM, besides a disc-check, I think.

Anyway, The Sims and Sims 2 are some of the worst-pirated games in history, and yet are two of the best-selling games in history. Anyone who would ever want Sims 3 enough to pay money for it will buy it, often because they don't know how or wouldn't bother to spend time torrenting, mounting and cracking it. That's ridiculously easy for us, but not necessarily the average Sims player.

I doubt EA will be sunk by this.

Woverine

it is not a "buggy pre-release" its the full version.. I have already played it for like 15 hours... not one crash.. not one error. they are just trying to get people not to download it same as when wolverine leaked and then they "added footage"

hpv

Has anyone ever taken these file-sharing numbers and compared them to sales? I'd bet that games with a similar profile are pirated at proportional level to their sales. With a possible exception for EA titles since people love pirating their shit because of all the stupid DRM nonsense.

Of course, I could be wrong. But it's not like these fools are ever going to put out the data required to make that determination.

Kathos: You're a fucking idiot. If you actually knew anything at all you'd realize that "piracy" is part of the free market, which I'd bet you'd claim to love. A thing that is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. For some people that price is $0. It's all about finding the value proposition that will make those people pay money for the product. Unfortunately (and maybe it is because they are cheap, being the only claim you made that's even similar to intelligence) the cost of creating that value proposition is probably more than what those people are ever going to pay for it. So what you do is fucking let them go since they're only costing you money by trying to stop them and costing you nothing by leaving them alone.

But then you'd know that if you weren't so fucking stupid. Also, move to a real country, who the fuck worries about 10GB against a download cap?

Danielzilla

I think that if game demos were actually made available before every game came out that would put an end to lots of pirating. I also think that downloading a game that is readily available for you to purchase is no different than walking into a store picking it up, putting it in your pocket, and walking out the door with it. I guess in the end thieves will always find a way to justify their actions to themselves be it blaming the economy, claiming it's how a free market is supposed to work or saying the product wasn't worth payong for but was somehow worth stealing.

ttech10

@Kathos: Firstly, not every ISP has download caps. I can download however much I want every month. The only limit I have is 150GB and that's with a website not connected with my ISP.

Also, pirates don't have crappy internet. If you're a pirate then one of your most important assets is internet so you wouldn't cheap out on it. Even so, we don't have the most expensive and it took me under 2 hours to download.

And to others, I'd say it's not a full-version. I have crashes somewhat regularly and have lost saves due to game corruption due to crashes (though there's a way to retrieve a backup of them). Before you say my PC just can't handle it... http://www.evga.com/community/ModsRigs/comment.asp?sysid=14780

I'm just glad I only have to wait 5 more days to get my copy so I can re-install with a legit, updated version.

Jon B

It has been fine here, although since noting that The Sims 2 was clever with it's copy protection in locking off the Build mode, had it deemed the .exe to be tampered, I really wouldn't be suprised if this is an incredibly clever way of countering piracy. Personally, I've had no problems whatsoever with the game, except for the missing content of course.

However technically, it IS like an extended demo, much like most pirates use as justification. Personally, I was waiting for it like, 3 months ago, so I'm going to grab the frigging thing as soon as possible. That much of a delay was HARSH.

Oh and slightly unrelated, but I heard there was a mesh importer in the PROPER version, can anyone confirm/deny this?

Cyber Altair

Half the world -- an entire city -- is missing from the pirated copy.

I'm sure the world is about one file or folder. Don't you think that would get released later when the official thing is released?

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