GTA: San Andreas Leaked

[MJCfromCT]

From Gamespy:

What in the name of the gaming gods is going on?

Half-Life 2, DOOM 3, Halo 2, and today's addition, Rockstar's GTA: San Andreas, have all been leaked, hacked, and warezed before their official launch dates.

With less than a week to go, the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas impact might not be as big as last week's Halo 2 predicament, but even so, several of the big titles this year have been pirated prior to appearing in stores. The GTA: San Andreas version is 2.6 GB and labeled DVD USA.

Rockstar sent us a comment on the piracy:

"Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive Software are aware that an illegally obtained version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and images from the game and manual have been posted to various internet sites. The proper authorities are investigating the theft and are continuing to investigate all possible leads to ensure there is no further dissemination of our creative content. Downloading, possession and distribution of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, including making the game available on the internet, is theft.

We take the theft of our intellectual property very seriously and we are and will continue to diligently and aggressively pursue this matter. If anyone finds information on websites with links to unauthorized downloads, information, scans or videos, please contact us at piracy@rockstargames.com.

The launch date of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas remains the same. The game will be on store shelves in North America on Oct. 26 and in Europe on Oct. 29."

GTA: San Andreas is the third PS2 chapter of the multimillion unit selling franchise. Boasting a world that five times larger than Vice City, San Andreas introduces a host of new features that include eating food to survive, the freedom to completely customize your character with tattoos, clothing, and haircuts, a brand-new vehicle physics engine, the long-wanted ability to swim, and overhauled graphical presentation.

http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas/558575p1.html?fromint=1

[CrazyCrusher]

scum..employee or hacker, if a hacker they need to do something about putting an end to all this, if an employee strip search on the way out of work.

[Dennis Bacon]

i dont think it would be an employee as every copy they sell gives them more money... and an employee pirating it out like that would just lose them money

[fishybawb]

Perhaps it was an employee of the disgruntled variety :p It's amazing peoples' security is so lax after all the other leaking/stealing incidents.

[MJCfromCT]

Like i've said, if its made of 1's and 0's, it can be copied/cracked/leaked.

[fishybawb]

Originally posted by MJCfromCT
Like i've said, if its made of 1's and 0's, it can be copied/cracked/leaked.

'Tis true, but with such a massive investment behind modern games, you would have thought they'd be a bit more careful. Oh well. Changing the topic ever so slightly, any news on when the PC version's out?

[MJCfromCT]

I was able to find this regarding it:


Description
Take-Two Interactive's third quarter, 2004 financial results, produced some good news for PC gamers as they confirmed that GTA : San Andreas will come to PC, even if it takes it about a year to do so.

Most gamers knew that a PC version of the new Grand Theft Auto title would eventually appear but the developers and publishers had not commented on such a possibility. This refusal to confirm PC versions of games is common practice since deals with the console manufacturers restrict any such comments in order to maximize console-specific sales of the title, it is very likely that such a deal with Sony may also be the reason for the one year delay. An XBox version is also considered to be a certainty but Take2 Games would not risk bringing that up at all for the time being.

The reason we have found out about the PC version is simply that hard times have forced Take2 to include the estimated release date of this very highly anticipated GTA title in order to convince shareholders that the future looks promising. The actual phrase from the Take2 results release is as follows Additional products planned for fiscal 2005 from Rockstar Games include Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PC in the third quarter,...

http://www.megagames.com/news/html/pc/gtasanandreaspcconfirmed.shtml

[fishybawb]

Thanks MJC :) That's a big wait though :(

[MJCfromCT]

Yeah it seems so, I wont be holding my breath :(

[PacNW CE]

I would be curious to know if these leaks are from hacks to the network, or inside jobs.

All these public piratings do is make it that much easier for publishers to charge more money for games.

Then again, good ole supply and demand would push the desirability of piracy up the more games cost.

Ugh.... Too many directions with this argument.:confused:

[Magua]

Funny when It happened to Valve everyone jumped on them for doing it intentionally or for being incredibly lax in their security. Guess not.

[MJCfromCT]

the warez communities probably have suppliers deeply rooted in many stages of a games development, people working at the company, people in shipping, all the way down to suppliers in the stores. All it takes is for one disc to go missing for it to be posted worldwide.

[Magua]

Its really not that hard to have it happen, I just find it funny how everyone loves to hate Valve.

[MJCfromCT]

Yeah, and all the people that complain about delays and how buggy things are will end up playing Half Life 2 for weeks straight.

[germanNiklas]

just pre ordered san andreas at amazon :)

any good previews?!

[MJCfromCT]

http://games.kikizo.com/news/200408/028.asp

There is a pretty extensive review.

[ShadeZeRO]

cubicals make people crazy and angry...

Why do you think there are so many disgruntaled workers...unless you have pictures of very very *hot* women on the sides of your cubical then your going to go nuts with all the memo's hanging there insted...

movtivation is at an all time low...

See: OfficeSpace - The movie

[Someone Stupid]

Remember though, Valve didn't have a remotely finished game. It was alpha at best from virtually everybody I've heard talk about it. That and it took more than an entire year later for it to go gold from it's original shipping date because it was stolen. Then only a few months ago Gabe admitted (not loudly) that HL2 wasn't finished then, he was CONFUSED on launch dates. By a year, please? He wanted the ATi deal signed to get more money, that is it.

[Magua]

Valves problem is that they handled announcements poorly. I have no problem with games getting pushed back. It sucks sometimes when your waiting, but I would take a late game over an unfinished game any day of the week. I hope CS:S isn't an indication of what HL2 will play like. CS:S is extremely buggy for a final retail version. Missing files, screwy hitboxes, console commands, convulsions when you run right behind someone, stuck hostages, etc. It's still alot of fun, but taking another month to fix the bugs would have been better.

[MJCfromCT]

Here is what Gamespot Rumor Control has to say about the leak:


RUMOR #1: The pirated versions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas originated from a complex heist.

Source: A GameSpot reader.

The official story: " We don't comment on rumors."--Rockstar spokesperson.

What we heard: Yesterday, GameSpot was contacted by an anonymous reader who claimed to have first-hand knowledge about the theft of the original Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas discs. According to the reader, 14 finished copies of the game--which included the manual, cover, and game disc--were stolen by a group of workers from a manufacturing plant in New Jersey. The reader was also very careful to cover his or her tracks: rather than send a traceable e-mail, he or she used GameSpot's general contact page, which retains no information about the sender.

[george4281]

OH NO,
That sux, considering that i am a big fan of GTA games, I M GONNA GET GTASA THIS MONDAY WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO