Sims 3 leaked, EA likely very upset

If you haven't already heard, EA's next update to their Sims series, Sims 3, has reportedly appeared on torrent sites two weeks before its official release date. Just as Ars Technica won't verify whether or not the torrent is actually the real deal for obvious reasons, neither can I, only to say that cruising through the other news sites and forums that are out there, there are quite a few comments that it is actually the real thing. This isn't the first time that this has happened to a huge release like this as Spore had also been leaked before its official release date, although not as far in advance as this one was.

This is undoubtedly not making EA happy, especially after they had conceded that their DRM methodology has only served to aggravate users moreso than in making them feel like valued customers and had extended an olive branch of sorts to make up for it. Sims 3 was going back to the old, reliable CD code check instead as a result.

EA hasn't officially replied to these reports as of yet, but it will be interesting to see just how they will approach this. Ars had recently pointed out how the indie developer of Zeno Clash had approached the pirates by commenting on their own torrent stream in explaining their position as indie developers, urging would-be pirates to buy it and asking them to be patient as a demo is on its way, and nothing more without preaching the ills of why they shouldn't be doing this. It seems to have worked in their case, even if only a few had decided to put in the dollars for the game.