What a monumentally stupid thing to do. I mean, the game is still 3 weeks from release… wow. Haha!
EDIT: More people playing it: http://www.mygamercard.net/leaderboard.php?gt=&g=593&z=&c=&x=32&y=15
Some of those might be legit… developers or journalists, I don’t know - “Last played 13 days ago”?
Kunikos
4522
My guess is they are journos or such, because I don’t want to believe jerks would be pirating it already. :(
Given all this PC = piracy stuff going around it’s a little bit funny that the XBOX version was the first to reach torrent sites. Also, bummer. also.
Squee
4524
360 gaming is d0med. Soon all we’ll be left with are boardgames.
Edit: But wait, crap! A boardgame can be played by multiple people! Every one of those is a lost sale!
Well, Saint’s Row 2 is on that player profile and it’s not being “released” til next week.(RizL4)
Draikin
4526
Nice job pirates. I guess they never thought someone with access to the gold copy would be a Fallout fan and risk his job to get the truth out.
860 Kb/s
Yes, it’s on several profiles there. I smell something fishy.
In fact, MyGamerCard.net lists 4123 people that have played Saints Row 2 so far. And since MGC requires voluntary registration, I bet it’s only a fraction of the total number of people who have “gotten it early”. Some of those folks probably got it legitimately by working at stores or something, but not nearly all of them.
You really are a waste of oxygen.
Sarkus
4528
So you’ve admitted you are pirating it right now?
Hi Angie, how are you doing tonight?
Would be stupid of him to do so, as this would be grounds for immediate ban.
Sarkus
4532
Then I guess he should be banned.
What’s funny about this is that it’s the Xbox 360 version of the game that got leaked… not the PC.
Sarkus
4535
Maybe someone can enlighten me, but I was under the impression that using a pirated copy of a 360 game was kind of complicated. Is it as simple as buring the game to a DVD and sticking it in the console, or are there more complicated things required?
I’m just wondering how widespread the impact of the 360 version being out there already could be.
From what I understand, the 360 verifies if the disc you have is a retail copy. When you make a backup copy of your game, the DVD reader will tell the 360 that it is a backup copy, and then the 360 will refuse to play your game.
There is a way to flash the firmware on the DVD drive (as it’s more or less a fairly standard SATA DVD drive) to get it to lie to the 360 and say that any game that is inserted is a retail copy. So pretty much once the drive is flashed, you can just take a 360 game, put it into your PC DVD drive, take a DVD+R DL and then make a copy of it.
If someone can go through the process, then it would be possible to also use this maliciously, and not just for personal backup copies. It’s certainly a lot more complicated than just installing a virtual DVD/CD drive software and mounting an ISO.
Unlike with PC, there is no copy protection, or activation, or any other kind of DRM. All you need is a dishonest person to leak a gold copy and there isn’t even any need for a crack… In fact, I just can’t remember when a full-fledged retail version of a PC game got leaked 2 weeks before release.
Didn’t this same problem happen with Halo 3?
Sarkus
4537
Apparently Chris Taylor has also commented a bit, and has admitted to also having the game on reserve.
I’ve been wondering what the NMA crowd’s response to having two of their heroes admitting to planning to buy the game, so I reluctantly went by just now to read the news comments. It’s really kind of funny, to be honest. To be fair, there are some reasonable posters who note that both Cain and Taylor said they are reserving judgement until they play the game and that there is nothing wrong with that attitude. But, there also some who are desperately trying to justify this and others who are downright mad.
Thanks NMA, for bringing a smile to my face!
:-)
From what I understand, the 360 verifies if the disc you have is a retail copy. When you make a backup copy of your game, the DVD reader will tell the 360 that it is a backup copy, and then the 360 will refuse to play your game.
There is a way to flash the firmware on the DVD drive (as it’s more or less a fairly standard SATA DVD drive) to get it to lie to the 360 and say that any game that is inserted is a retail copy. So pretty much once the drive is flashed, you can just take a 360 game, put it into your PC DVD drive, take a DVD+R DL and then make a copy of it.
If someone can go through the process, then it would be possible to also use this maliciously, and not just for personal backup copies. It’s certainly a lot more complicated than just installing a virtual DVD/CD drive software and mounting an ISO.
Unlike with PC, there is no copy protection, or activation, or any other kind of DRM. All you need is a dishonest person to leak a gold copy and there isn’t even any need for a crack… In fact, I just can’t remember when a full-fledged retail version of a PC game got leaked 2 weeks before release.
Didn’t this same problem happen with Halo 3?
Sarkus
4539
I know it happened with Halo 2, though that was the french language version.
It sounds like a minor issue, to be honest. Flashing your 360 DVD drive sounds like a sufficient barrier to keep most people from taking advantage of the leak.
I remember Halo 3 and Bioshock having similar early leaks, but I think in those cases the game had already shipped from manufacturing. No suck luck with Fallout 3.
