Oh dear. Poor old piracy ravaged EA games has been hit yet again as copies of the Sims 3 have been leaked onto the web a full two weeks ahead of launch. A torrent file has popped up on all the usual sites with downloads and installations running just fine according to all reports.

The game requires no online registration to work, unlike Spore the best part of a year ago, and at it looks as if the games company is receiving some kind of perverse punishment for doing the decent thing in removing the hugely unpopular DRM that caused such an uproar the last time.

With only a serial code on the box to get around, key gens are all that’s needed to get the game installed and so long as users do not allow the game to access the internet, there should be no problem. The only issue comes if you want to play the game in an online mode. Then it might be worth forking out once the release is officially available.

(via Ars Technica)