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Californian file-sharing research company BigChampagne reckons The Sims 3 was pirated more than 180,000 times between 18th and 21st May. That's according to a report on Bloomberg, which compares the stat to rampant piracy of Spore.
In September last year, it was claimed that Spore had been downloaded over half a million times by BitTorrent pirates, although that data was from TorrentFreak rather than BigChampagne, so measurements may vary.
EA told Bloomberg that the leaked version of The Sims 3 is a "buggy, pre-final build of the game". "It's not the full game," a spokesperson told the news agency. "Half the world - an entire city - is missing from the pirated copy."
The real thing is due out in Europe on 5th June and you can read our review on Monday.
I can't think of any game I've ever played that's made me feel worse about myself than The Sims 3. Its inevitable but expert extension of goals, activities, employment and personality traits over the first two games means sims are no longer vague simulacrums of people you know - they now behave like people you know too. I made me, as every good little egomaniac does in a Sims game - and he ended up behaving like me, living the life I lead. The game's jumped from the abstract wish-fulfilment dollhouse of the past into a strange, sprawling thing of character-simulation/assassination, the out-and-out fantastical (sim-me eventually escalated from jaded hack to best-selling author, before expiring and then haunting his old house), and community-created content.