Hi,

how can this happen soooo often??? All new games being leaked some days before they come "officially" out...

got the (german) news from here:

http://www.pcwelt.de/news/unterhaltung/104080/

GTA: San Adreas PS2-Version leaked 1 week before release....

i ask myself again and again: HOW can games be leaked?!? It cannot be that there is always a guy in a developer-team, who will take a gold-copy of it home and share it with people?!?

Raz

the games have to be manufactured somewhere. its not hard to pick one up off the line, i would imagine.

as for leaks - they have been going on since the beginning of gaming. doom was leaked. quake was leaked. and WELL before their releases.

warcraft3 was leaked so early that they had an initial patch when connecting to battlenet in order to keep downloaders off.

the problem is that now, when there is a leak, that the average joe can find it. and quickly. so far, from one site, 3891 people have started the download. And if that same link is used on all the other site like the one i just checked.....wow.

the company does that on purpose to remind you to buy it
they want you to get a hrad on for it

I agree with ckin2001 - I think the leaked games come from the production facility. I am sure some game testers do sneak a copy home and then let mates copy it but these actual versions of the game surely have to come from the place that makes them.

I often wonder the same about pre-release DVD's though, again as pointed out by ckin2001 the average joe on the street with a decent broadband connection can find and download DVD quality copies of films that are just at the Cinema. There must be a way of tracing these copies back - not a lot of people have access to the originals before they are sent to the stores do they ?

Anyway I am off to San Andreas this morning to look for a copy of the game in my local ammunation !! San Andreas for ever !!

Development:

1 - Game idea!
2 - Let's put some work in it!
3 - Let's store that data somewhere : Possible leak 1
4 - Let's outsource our work! : Possible leak 2
5 - The game is gold! I present to you this ISO : Possible leak 3
6 - Let's ship the gold dics to the presser : Possible leak 4
7 - At the presser : Possible leak 5
8 - Ship back to Quality Control : Possible leak 6
9 - Marketing shows off to select crowd : Possible leak 7
10 - Game is put in stores : Possibel leak 8

The possible leaks explained:

1 : Someone hacks the server
2 : TCP/IP capturing
3 : ISO's are kept somewhere, someone hacks the server (Again)
4 : Shipment involves people, who can steal packages or copy them
5 : Pressing manufacturing involves people , etc. See 4
6 : See 4
7 : Selected crowd writes down information and hacks it
8 : Store droid grabs the package, rips it and puts it on the nt

Now, how on earth to these m@d l33t warez distributors do it?

They got people at several places, usually at leak #8, but sometimes at #4 and THAT's why it's always a couple of weeks in advance.

they dont use gold discs anymore

remember way back, when they would play FPS's at lan partys, and the game would be on the BBS's? *pines* for that day...

no no all wrong its all a sheme (before all of you over analyze this Leak thing)
the more hype the game gets the better for the company.

Company: Lets leak the game
Company: game is top secret
consumer: wow that must be some game im getting a hard on for it.
Company: we like consumers with hard ons for this new product
company: lets keep them on the hook for a while before we reel em in

iv had that game for like a week now lol

i thought we werent suppose to talk about warez or similar, PhIbErOpTiK???
or maybe.....

ROTFL : Check this out

Im not talkin about it i didnt start the thread lol

Maybe they should leak a version with a fake ending
Ie: Demo versions

Doesn't work for FPS like unreal tourney though, which is multiplayer based.

Maybe the "leaked" versions can force multiplayer skins, which display "NOOB" in bright red.