14 DAY TRIAL // AMD has just made a pretty huge mistake while trying to promote its Radeon graphics cards by offering a free copy of Dirt 3 on the PC, as an SQL database that was hosted on its public servers without any sort of access restrictions was quickly found and leaked on the web by a few clever users, essentially resulting in around 1.7 million Dirt 3 Steam codes being out in the wild.
Graphics card manufacturers have always relied on offering free games with their hardware in order to spur sales and get users to adopt their own technology. These days, when digital distribution is even more readily available, a lot of cards now have codes that can be redeemed on services like Steam, for example.
Sadly, one such promotion backfired in a colossal way for AMD, the maker of the Radeon cards, which saw a database with around 1.7 million promotional keys for Codemasters' Dirt 3 racing game be made available for any Internet user on its public servers.
Basically, according to Geek.com, AMD kept its promotional codes in an SQL database, but forgot to set a .htaccess file, which regulates who can actually view or download those files. As such, anyone could get the files and use the codes for their own benefit, activating legitimate Dirt 3 copies on Steam.
Immediately a huge amount of people took advantage of this mistake on behalf of AMD, and some even started selling them on websites like Ebay or various Internet forums.
Before you think of using these leaked keys, however, be aware that AMD will almost certainly warn Valve about the issue and the keys will be deactivated, while those who already managed to download Dirt 3 might find their access suspended, or worse, their accounts banned.
No word yet on what the actual course of action for AMD, Valve or Codemasters, the developer and publisher of Dirt 3, will be, but we'll keep you informed.
In the meantime, don't be fooled into activating Dirt 3 on Steam with these leaked keys.