Sims 3 leaked to torrent sites weeks before retail release

[lewisb40]

Didn't matter, it came back a couple hours later on different links.

[abaris]

Didn't matter, it came back a couple hours later on different links.

It always does. Once its on the web it stays on the web.

[Nalia]

Please allow me to literally roll on the floor laughing to tears. I find the whole issue so bloody hilarious!

[abaris]

Please allow me to literally roll on the floor laughing to tears. I find the whole issue so bloody hilarious!

Yeah, me too. When I first saw it at some place I had a moment of incredulity followed by fits of giggles. It's always the same. When they first introduced securom the no cd patches were hitting the web within hours.

It always amuses me most when it hits the security freaks.

[Paden]

Please allow me to spread out cushions and special comfy mats for you to roll about on in your amusement, don't want you guys to get hurt. I may well join you! They don't get that the tighter a grip they try to keep, the more things slip through their fingers. It's rather like sand held in an iron fist, it just slides right out.

[LVishere]

Well I can see from some of the screenshots on the official site and gamespot that the graphics and overall flow of the game look different then those seen on MATY even the interface looks different in the screenshots of the game seen on other website. so I would say that I am going with my gut on this one and believing this is indeed a beta because last night I seen some pictures that were added on gamespot on the 20th (clearly after the leak) and those pictures had definite stuff that others said were buggy that were not in the pictures, such as windows with curtians that did NOT bleed through amoungst other things. I know I read someone say the file dates were dated sometime in April. How do we know the exact year though? I think the pirates have gotten an early development copy at the worst, so come the 2nd I don't think people who buy the game will have anything to worry about..but who knows right?

Can you please designate these new screenshots because the game I played looks just like that, interface and all.

[Nalia]

Please allow me to spread out cushions and special comfy mats for you to roll about on in your amusement, don't want you guys to get hurt. I may well join you!

Please do, it will be our pleasure. There will be green tea (hot or iced) and sake, if you'd like. 

[roerzman]

It appears people are still neglecting the obvious.
If this is some junky incomplete beta EA. would have flooded the media with a statement to that effect three days ago.
Stop looking for clues to reassure yourselves. If you need the game then go ahead and get it.

[MaryH]

It's obvious that EA is just covering their butt with whatever fly paper there is-they should have been, would have been on top of the leak within a few hours of it happening, if they had truly wanted to stop it. They would have had announcements on the official BBS and the EA site to warn people to not download the leaked version, for fear that it would hurt the computer it was going onto within hours of it happening.

If they had truly had the goods on it, they would have threatened the main pirate sites with legal action the very second it appeared on the sites.

They did nothing for how many days? Then they have some damn single statement about how it is a "pre-release beta". As if they produce those all the time. Yes, it is the final version, and they're the ones who sent it out. To make all of those playing it right now the beta testers of a final release so they can judge what to fix. They're reading all the forums and taking notes, I would wager.

Of course they know fully well what's wrong-and they're depending on the various sites to point out the most major, pressing problems. BTW, they did gut their QA staff back in November, remember?

So for lack of a QA staff, players are now doing their jobs. Unpaid labor, isn't that great?

[LVishere]

I hope that isn't the final version. If so, what a flaw with the clock going sooooooooooo slow.

[roerzman]

Arg. I give up. How long is this going to take? For the last time. They're speechless, lost for words, they've been caught out. Dammit if ya can't defend the s--t then its best to say nothing and hope it will all blow over by release day
There's nothing there that they can believably explain away. To attempt it will just attract more unwanted media attention to the obvious, so the best policy is silence and hope that the mindless desperates will poo poo it as being nothing more than an attempt to discredit the good name of EA.

[J. M. Pescado]

The statement issued by EAxis is utter PR tripe, obviously. This is no surprise: EAxis can no longer simply deny that the version exists, and they CERTAINLY cannot actually admit it is the REAL thing, so they HAVE to say that.

A review of the actual information available to us paints an interesting picture, though.

The build date reported on the executable is 2009-04-22. The date the game was announced "Gold" is 2009-05-08, meaning the actual event occurred an indeterminate amount of time prior. This means that the build date of that executable was a scant 2 weeks before the game was permanently imprinted to DVD. Now, ask yourself: If the game was only built 2 weeks before the date they booted it out the door, how much could they REALLY have changed? More importantly, in software development, every new build must be subjected to testing, especially the final build. Two weeks is not a lot of testing time, and if this is NOT the final build, that means the REAL final build has even *LESS* testing. Regardless, there is no way they could have done very much at this stage in 2 weeks or less. In software development, software is declared "Feature Complete", meaning no new features will be added, far in advance of ship dates.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Any gripes we have about the game are based in its design, not in the minutiae. If the game's DESIGN is flawed, two weeks of additional work cannot save it.

[kaoz666]

Pescado knocks it out of the park with a Grand Slam once again. That pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. EA's got some major egg on it's face, and there ain't a PR rep good enough in the world to clean them up.

[Dizzymental]

They'll patch it though, won't they?

[kaoz666]

Of course they will. That' how these companies make money. They release a buggy piece of crap, then offer patches and expansions to clean up the mess. And the foolish consumer falls for it hook, line and sinker. In the business world we call it a "Money Trap". You put out a product and hype it to the point where it has a cult following before release, but the end product only has bits and pieces of what was initially offered. You then get the consumers to latch on to the missing bits via patches, expansions and DLC. (Downloadable Content) Happens on console games all the time, why the hell would EA do it with a title as high profile as TS3? And it's the gullible people that buy into it that EA makes their millions off of.