14 DAY TRIAL // A quick survey of the popular torrent sites shows that Mass Effect 3, the role-playing and action mix from developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts, has been leaked online and is now available for download for those who are willing to break the law.
The Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 3 has been the first one to leak online, followed by the versions that are being launched on the PlayStation 3 and the PC.
This means that those who have modded their home consoles can simply download the images posted online and then simply play them on the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3.
On the PC just a simple disk image is available at the moment, which means that pirates need to wait for someone to deliver a crack before actually playing the Mass Effect 3 content they have pirated.
Some have suggested that the leaked version of Mass Effect 3 for the Xbox 360 could be linked to the space launches (actually high atmosphere launches) that BioWare has done as promotion during last week.
But for most major titles, Xbox 360 and, when available, PlayStation 3 versions tend to be available a few days before the United States launched dates.
The copied content comes either from the game disks that were shipped early to reviewers so that they can give their opinion on release day or from shipments that were headed early to stores.
The fact that PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Mass Effect 3 are all out in the wild at the moment shows that all sectors in the gaming industry are equally affected by piracy.
Mass Effect 3 will get a midnight launch in the United States, with GameStop saying that it was opening up more than 3,000 stores in order to satisfy demand and would also launch competitions to attract gamers while also delivering streaming events that BioWare was doing at the company headquarters.