Electronic Arts' WTF? "The Sims 3" DRM Defeated 2 Weeks Before Launch

[SonsOfLiberty]

Source 1:

Video game publisher Electronic Arts' (NASD: ERTS) upcoming sequel "The Sims 3," not due for release for another two weeks, has been leaked onto file-sharing networks, according to published reports.

The game will not require online authentication to play; instead, the company opted for a serial code for security on the discs on which the game will be sold.

The company received criticism from gamers for their previous decision to include more strict digital rights management (DRM) on "Spore," which required online authentication.

"The Sims" is the best-selling game franchise of all time, with more than 100 million copies of the game's various iterations and expansion packs sold worldwide to date.

"The Sims 3" is slated for release on June 2.

Source 2:

Group RELOADED have kicked EA in the nuts again. EA keeps releasing games bundled with controversial SecuROM DRM and .. well, RELOADED just keeps cracking them. The highly anticipated strategic life simulation game ‘The Sims 3’ has been cracked and leaked on the internet two weeks before the game’s official North American release date. While it’s quite normal for games to be available online on or 1-2 days before release date, two weeks is quite an early leak. Folks over at EA must be fuming over this especially given that Sims 3 release was postponed from 2nd of February to 2nd of July purely for marketing purposes.

This is not the first time RELOADED cracked a Sims title (several Sims 2 expansion packs were released by the same group) and definitely not the first time they cracked a SecuROM protected title published by EA (Red Alert 3, Godfather 2, and the list goes on). RELOADED’s release which is ~4.9GB in file size consists of a full DVD ISO of the game, a cracked exe as well as instructions on how to apply the crack. Anyway it’s not known if there are any SecuROM triggers built into the game and whether or not RELOADED managed to remove all of them. The game however does seem to call home (go online) to validate the serial at random intervals.

By the way, scammers and spammers on various BitTorrent/one click hosting networks are already cashing on the game’s popularity to spread their crapware. For example The.Sims.3.Crackfix-RELOADED which promises to fix a slowdown during the game’s sex scenes is actually a fake containing a pron video

Source: Electronic Arts Article | FILEnetworkblog
Homepage: The Sims 3

[captive]

makes me laugh, however good their coders are at trying to secure software, scene coders are always one step ahead.

[smok_2003]

thnx

[mor911]

The game is the same old stuff... But still crack-like addicting