Friday brought reports that a (near-final) developer build of Crysis 2 found its way into the BitTorrent pipeline. The 9.22 GB build featured the full game, the multiplayer portion, the DRM Solidshield master key for the online authentication and the CryEngine 3 editor.
Shortly after the leak was made known, Electronic Arts posted a response on the Crysis 2 website. "Crytek has been alerted that an early incomplete, unfinished build of Crysis 2 has appeared on Torrent sites," the company said. "Crytek and EA are deeply disappointed by the news. We encourage fans to support the game and the development team by waiting and purchasing the final, polished game on March 22."
"Crysis 2 is still in development and promises to be the ultimate action blockbuster as the series’ signature Nanosuit lets you be the weapon as you defend NYC from an alien invasion," EA added. "Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community."
According to Crytek, piracy is the very reason why it decided to develop for consoles in addition to the PC. "We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis," said Crytek's Cevat Yerli back in 2008. "We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that’s the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC Gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we wont have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore."
Crytek isn't the only developer currently feeling the stab of piracy. Guerrilla Games' upcoming Killzone 3 for the PlayStation 3 has also entered the BitTorrent current just one week before its release. The 41.4 GB torrent is the European version of the Blu-ray game and includes 3D output. A second torrent will reportedly be available soon without the 3D aspect, reducing the download to half. Naturally pirates will need a hacked PlayStation 3 to play the unreleased game.
Killzone 3 for the PlayStation 3 launches in North America on February 22. Crysis 2 will arrive in the States exactly one month later (March 22) for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC.