After being kept so successfully under wraps for so long during its development, even to the point where actual gameplay footage has still not surfaced, Rockstar Games’ upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV has finally fallen foul of those simply not willing to wait for April 29.
Grand Theft Auto IV leaked to the Net ahead of April 29 launch. Credit: Rockstar.
Moreover, with only a mere 5 days remaining until GTA IV is officially released, a pirated version of the year’s most eagerly awaited videogame epic has hit the Internet, courtesy of a group calling itself “iCON.”
The 6.32GB pirated version, which is presently restricted to PAL region access, popped up yesterday on a range of torrent Web sites. In terms of expanding reach, renowned gaming site Kotaku claims that a North America-friendly NTSC version of the game is still expected to hit the Net a few days prior to GTA IV’s legal arrival.
While there is presently no cast iron torrent community confirmation as to the reliability of the GTA IV download, it’s certainly not unusual to see major videogame releases such as this leaked online ahead of launch. For example, the same thing happened to Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, the previous home console entrant to Rockstar’s hugely popular and oft-contentious sandbox crime series.
As is clear from the included screen capture, the kindly iCON folk are only too happy to offer up an illegal copy of GTA IV, but are still considerate enough -- in light of Rockstar’s monumental efforts -- to ask that those initiating a download also remember to go out and buy the game as well. Apparently Rockstar deserves it.
Strangely, given the level of temptation that this dubious offering is doubtless causing, online gamer feedback appears to be staunchly anti-download, with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners actually dropping their fanboy cat-fighting for just long enough to galvanise against the notion of cheating themselves out of the pure GTA experience and Rockstar out of its hard-earned cash reward.
paulshiApr 24th, 2008 - 18:43:46
da myrea evide da vice city iv.
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