Time to delve into the ever controversial world of piracy as figures have emerged revealing the number of people who have pirated The Sims 3 before it is even released. Details after the break.

Friend of The Reticule The_B tweeted about this piece on CasualGaming.biz earlier today which reveals that The Sims 3 is being pirated at a faster rate than Spore with a total of 180,000 downloads from May 18th to May 21st.

I chose to ignore the sensationalist statement that this has caused a loss of $9 million to EA, clearly not everyone who pirated the game would have bought it anyway whilst conversely there will be a significant number who will still purchase the game once it is released.

What is striking is that The Sims 3 has been pirated at a faster rate than Spore which was pirated massively. It is interesting to note that many people reasoned that they pirated Spore in protest against the stringent DRM that was present in the retail versions of the game. With The Sims 3 that defence can’t be used as it uses a simple CD Key entry which is a very minor form of DRM.

The reality is that The Sims 3 was leaked two weeks before release which is bound to lead to massive piracy considering the high profile nature of the game. The game is out here in the UK on the 5th June, though you won’t become a Sim in the same way I (legally I might add) have.