While its usually not news that pirated versions of video games and movies make their way onto the internet, however in this particular case, EA’s upcoming title The Sims 3 is making the rounds via torrent sites, two weeks before its official release. What makes this case interesting is that the leak has occurred before retail copies have been shipped to stores. Our guess is, somebody might have slipped themselves a disc during manufacturing, leading to the uploading of the image to the web. And because the game does not require an online server for authentication, the game’s disc-based copy protection is easily circumvented via key / serial generators.

For EA this situation really sucks because, they are criticized heavily by gamers if they incorporate “too much” DRM protection onto their games. And when it seems they lax up a bit on security, it bites them on the ass.
Despite the rampant downloading of the game and the fledging economy, we’re positive The Sims 3 will be a blockbuster success for retailers and EA. We do not condone or recommend the act of downloading the title, and we are eagerly awaiting the “official” release on June 2, 2009.