Regard this as your forewarning.

Well, it was 99% certain to happen early, but the Sims 3 (weighing in @ 4.94 GB) has leaked.

Edit I: SecuROM is BACK. Run.

Edit II: Whispers that it may be an early leak of the Download Edition (already confirmed to contain SecuROM). Jury is out on whether the disc version will have the Blight. Alternately, may be preview code, due to missing content. Smart to wait until retail version is up. Smarter to buy the freakin’ thing.

I’m angry at this. Two reasons.

Firstly, don’t you fucking realise they’ll go back to SecuROM now? They have the perfect excuse, don’t they? The EA seniors will lament using weak DRM and slap SecuROM on the next expansion that comes out. They must still have a contract with Sony.

All because of an early leak. And I am more angry and frustrated because really there’s nothing individuals can do about it. It’s macroeconomics. Hundreds of thousands (millions?) will pirate because it’s free and there’s almost zero marginal cost. I am against oppressive DRM as most gamers are, for obvious reasons, but this sort of phenomenon is a slap in the face to honest people.

The cycle will go on. Hardcore pirates will unabashedly pirate games, hide behind weak excuses of ‘I HATE DRM’, and publishers, as corporations, will respond in the same way they’ve always done.

Secondly, I admit to pirating games (so don’t call me a hypocrite for saying this). I’ve done it because of why everyone does it. It’s free. It’s easier than going out and finding a copy of the game. Sometimes, it’s easier than finding a copy you own in your own house. So, I’m admitting I would be tempted to download it right now. Just to poke around the files, see what its like, etc. I’m dead set on buying it, but that doesn’t excuse the crime. I wholly admit to doing it rather than hiding behind groundless, pithy justifications.

But in my country, bandwidth is a rip off! I have gone over my bandwidth cap for the month (well, I pin the blame on others in my household, I pay the whole bill though) and I’m on a 64kbps connection until the 30th. I have to spend a substantial amount of money on 50GB of bandwidth and ensure it lasts the month, which is a check on torrenting stuff willy-nilly.

So, game companies? If you want to stop pirates, buy the internet companies and force people to accept ridiculous bandwidth costs. I guarantee it will work in Australia at least.

…

Phew. That feels better.