A day after the PAL version of the game was illegally released on torrent sites comes word that an NTSC version of Grand Theft Auto IV has made it online. Clocking in at a whopping 7.9 GB, the game has been released by a group calling themselves 101 and, at the time of this story, over 25,000 copies were in the process of being leeched.
Like yesterday's claim we're unable to verify if this is the real deal, we've pre-ordered thank you very much, and with only a few days to go before April 29 we'd recommend you wait on a retail copy before doing anything illegal. Unless you're down for taking a chance on being shunned from Xbox Live and generally hated by everyone. It's Grand Theft Auto IV. Go buy it.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
4-24-2008 @ 11:16AM
Britton said...
They don't do this for numerous reasons. Firstly, it would cost them time and money to fight an impossible battle considering those who do accidentally download a duped copy will leave info about it being a fake in the comments section thus nullifying the purpose of them uploading a fake. Also, people will directly link or reroute others to a more viable source if that starts to happen. Pirates work together impressively.
4-24-2008 @ 11:29AM
Quote the Raven said...
It really actually is semi-effective. It takes a group of 5 about a day to really ham up the system. Put interns or low level employees on it and it really isn't expensive. And to store it, 1 terrabyte drive will host 147 (apprx) copies. And when you have them post on all the real ones that they are too the fakes... you see it really starts getting difficult to spot the real one. The persistent will always get it, but it thins out the "successful" downloads a lot. And yes, the resourcefulness of the pirate community is amazing!
Arr
4-24-2008 @ 11:43AM
Britton said...
Alright, alright, I'll agree with you there: the schematics you've presented are entirely plausible, but the issue is Rockstar actually taking the initiative. Although, another issue might be the legalities of them doing that considering the times have changed since Madonna's dupe release.
Man, maybe we should do this for Rockstar. You contact 'em and I'll start building the psuedo-GTA's. Also, ask 'em if they do PayPal...
(:
4-24-2008 @ 11:57AM
mike said...
This would never work. Im sure it didnt work for madonna too. And this requires modded xboxs, which means your average user is smarter then the average mp3 downloader.
Also, 1 tb does not mean they can put out 147 fake copies. A copy is a copy, they only need 1 and they can release it 10000000000 times if they wanted. No need to duplicate the file. The trick would be to get enough bandwidth. Even the fastst servers in the world would lag to hell hosting even from 10 different torrent sites, which would make speeds so slow, people would simply leave and goto another torrent thats complete already.
Furthermore, Bit torrent is not even the first place these releases occur. First they are sent out over release ftp sites (Which are impossible to fake) then they are trickled down into the p2p scene, and still not only bit torrent, but IRC, newsgroups + more.
To top it all off, Thats what the scene is for. Every release from the scene has the name of the group at the end. Grand.theft.auto.4.-.scene.name.torrent. If a file is fake, its nuked all over the net. Its just not possible to upload fakes to deter pirates in any possible way. They would only waste millions in bandwidth fees doing so.
4-24-2008 @ 12:09PM
Britton said...
Not including the slew of sites out their that are forums dedicated to circulating games via Megaupload and Rapidshare (suck)...
4-24-2008 @ 11:16AM
ZEBRA NINER said...
I've never Illegally downloaded a game, but since Xav posted this... I'm now selling pirated copies on city street corners. Thanks X3F! :P
I'm guessing you need a modded box, right? So if you have one of those, you are probably going to illegally download it anyway. I wonder what Rockstar thinks.
Only a few more days to go!
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4-24-2008 @ 11:21AM
Vcize said...
I'll be buying mine legally like every other game I play, but it gets old hearing the "pay for it so Rockstar can keep making games" and "Rockstar deserves our money" crap.
The amount of people playing a pirated console version of this game will probably be less than half a percent of the total number of people playing, and probably a lot less than that really. Probably less than one tenth of a percent. I can assure you, it will not be enough to have any kind of financial impact on Rockstar.
Those hard working developers will not get a dollar less or a dollar more on their paychecks due to it.
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4-24-2008 @ 11:28AM
nerrrrrrd said...
cuz this kind of stuff doesn't get distributed initially through torrents. That's for suckers who have upgraded from Limewire & Kazaa.
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4-24-2008 @ 11:29AM
nerrrrrrd said...
That was ment as a reply to Quote the Raven but I fail at posting.
4-24-2008 @ 11:29AM
ANt said...
Maybe, if the press didn't make this public, there wouldn't be a problem as bad as it appears to be...
Reply
4-24-2008 @ 11:45AM
Quote the Raven said...
That is very true. It was debated to death on the other post. And will probably be debated to death on this post.... and the post about the Special Edition Soundtrack being pirated, and the post about the art book being pirated, and the post about the pirated copy hosted by Abe, and the pirated copy hosted by Ben, and the pirated copy hosted by Charlie, etc etc.
Maybe there should be a separate page about all of the different pirated copies? And there can even be links to the torrents! And make it about more than just GTA IV! And make it searchable! And... oh wait, that's mininova.....
4-24-2008 @ 11:52AM
Britton said...
Mininova? Weak, mate. Btjunkie. ISOhunt, even. Or just OINK--oh right...sigh. I miss thee, OINK.
4-24-2008 @ 11:59AM
Quote the Raven said...
Well I didn't think it'd be a GOOD site right off the bat! lol.
4-24-2008 @ 11:42AM
Khris Killer said...
I really do not understand people who DL and never buy anything. Sure you get stuff for free but for how long? If everyone took that attitude the industry will either jack the prices WAY up or stop producing. If a company stops making a profit they will shut down. I have no problem with DLing to preview and then buy later. I do that all the time, but to simply rip these guys off is stupid. If you love games, music and movies you need to support the creators. Be sensible. If you can afford the gear to DL stuff you can afford to pay 60$ for a really great game. Stop being greedy. Time to grow up. Pay the man!
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4-24-2008 @ 11:54AM
xenocidic said...
Maybe they're downloading it to play early and will still buy it =)
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4-24-2008 @ 11:57AM
Britton said...
I know I would. But there's also the issue of time stamping. They'll forever know that you played that game before its release date and potentially putting your account (and system) in danger because of a couple of days. Man, video games make the kids go batshit crazy, huh?
4-24-2008 @ 12:46PM
modelvillage said...
Try before you buy is the leachers moto is it not?
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4-24-2008 @ 1:48PM
matty said...
damn now i wish i didnt lend my buddy my flashed 360. i'd be playing this on my offline box right NOW and not reading x3f. even though my pre-order is guaranteed for tuesday i would still download this and play it all weekend.
Reply
4-24-2008 @ 2:18PM
scurvyjimbeam said...
Quick poll...
Who here is totally against downloading games illegaly, but wont think twice about downloading tv episodes (like Lost) via torrent?
*slowly raises hand*
Reply
4-24-2008 @ 2:39PM
Andrew said...
I can kind of see your point there. Although it is still illegal to download TV episodes, if you already subscribe to cable/satellite service theoretically you already have access to the content therefore you wouldn't have to pay to get it...