Crysis 2, Killzone 3 Already Hitting BitTorrent

By Kevin Parrish
published

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.

Kevin Parrish
84 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dimar
    You stop supporting exclusive PC titles, and nobody will buy the latest Intel CPUs and nVidia/AMD GPUs. Not sure where you get your info, but you can pretty much torrent any XBOX 360 titles and other console games.
    Reply
  • XD_dued
    Guerrilla Games' upcoming Killzone 3 for the PlayStation 3 has also entered the BitTorrent current just one week before its release.

    Hmmm...guess consoles don't have piracy. Its all good.
    Reply
  • joytech22
    I won't be pirating Crysis 2 no matter how excited I am, I think I can wait a month.

    Crytek are a great bunch, they put a lot of hard work into detailing the Crysis games so they deserve my money.
    Reply
  • fuzzyplankton
    I'm playing it now and I'm still going to buy it next month. They just like to wine for advertising PR. I just consider it a playable demo that they left us out on.
    Reply
  • segio526
    It seems like the harder they DRM, the more things get pirated. I forgot the company, but some game studio put out their game without any sort of DRM, you didn't even need the disc in to play. After a month, the piracy on it via Bittorrent was HUGE, but they still hit the sales goals they had set if they included DRM.
    Reply
  • maxiim
    I heard somewhere that the Crysis 2 torrent release is not the final release of the game, as some pieces are missing and whatnot. Not really interested in the game anyway so I doubt I'll be buying it.
    Reply
  • d_kuhn
    Pay for the game... and maybe we'll get another one. I can understand the "me want now!" attitude that some of the downloaders may have, but not the "me want free" one. To NOT pay for what is sure to be a great title from a quality house (and not just another crappy Console port) is no way to support PC Gaming.
    Reply
  • lifelesspoet
    I hear a lot of pirateers complain and say its Just as easy to mod and steal a console game. I find it really strange that most if not all pirate most their pc games and their console is unmoded. It's a legitimate problem with archaic solutions that dont work. It seems that risking getting your 200$ console getting bricked is their only deterrent. But thats Just my personal expirience. I refuse to pirate things that would die if no one paid for them.
    Reply
  • Supertrek32
    dimarYou stop supporting exclusive PC titles, and nobody will buy the latest Intel CPUs and nVidia/AMD GPUs. Not sure where you get your info, but you can pretty much torrent any XBOX 360 titles and other console games.GPUs... maybe... CPUs? Video encoders say hi.

    And as far as console piracy goes - it's a lot more involved. PC piracy you need to DL and double click. 360, if I understand correctly, requires you to open the xbox and flash some firmware using a sata cable and DOS. So yeah, you can do it if you're a techie like us, but little Billy's a lot less likely to try it.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    So, the same article says Killzone 3 got up on the torrent sites as well. Still the developers have the guts to say that consoles don't have piracy problem? PC games are what drive the gaming hardware industry towards evolution.
    Reply