Gangs of London leak confirmed

By Games Industry.biz Published 3 August, 2006

Sony condemns it; warns that leaked PSP code is incomplete.

Sony Computer Entertainment UK has condemned the leaking of forthcoming PSP title Gangs of London to the internet, after copies of an internal beta of the game appeared on BitTorrent sites overnight.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Sony spokesman David Wilson also warned consumers that the leaked version is incomplete and buggy.

"The version of Gangs Of London that you have brought our attention to here is a pre-production 'preview' version," he revealed. "It is not the complete game and it has anomalies in the code since it hasn't been through our QA process yet."

Wilson also reasserted his firm's strong opposition to game piracy - and while it's clearly not relevant in this situation, as BitTorrent piracy creates no revenues, he pointed to the oft-cited link between piracy and organised crime.

"We are wholly opposed to game piracy," he commented. "Even if people have no sympathy for games developers losing money (though in the end that damages our industry and hurts gamers) - there are proven links that exist between counterfeiting and organised crime and that has some serious consequences (and victims) that people should give due consideration."

Gangs of London, which itself has more than a little bit to do with organised crime and gangland violence, will be out on the PSP later this year, and will allow players to engage in tactical urban combat around the streets of London and the capital's most famous landmarks - all without the aforementioned serious consequences.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Bates #1 6 years ago

    lol

  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #2 6 years ago

    I'll buy a link between criminals and DVD / CD-ROM sellers on the high street, but - deplorable though it is - I'm not sure that there is much of a link between organized crime and downloading a leaked PSP title off the internet.

  • Zero Beat #3 6 years ago

    I believe the finished game will feel incomplete and buggy also. But hey! The menu presentation won't look half bad.

  • Pirotic #4 6 years ago

    So, is it any good (yes I know commenting on an unfinished copy of the game is cruel, but I'm curious).

  • Totoriko #5 6 years ago

    They should pay those who downloaded it instead of QA.
    They'd get bug reports more effectively

  • ecureuil #6 6 years ago

    Blah blah blah organised crime blah blah funding terrorism blah blah. Shut the fuck up. I'd actually care if they didn't spout this bullshit to make us feel guilty. You care because that's another dollar that isn't going in your pocket, I'd care too if I was in your shoes. Someone in your company who's uploaded this game to BitTorrent has got fuck all to do with organised crime.

  • stx #7 6 years ago

    Funny how this news comes on the back of GTA:VCS information from yesterday.

  • IAmBatman #8 6 years ago

    > there are proven links that exist between counterfeiting and organised crime

    I would like this guy to explain in detail how me downloading Gangs of London from a file sharing program is funding crime.

    Punters paying for what's most likely a steaming turd of a game is daylight robbery on Sony's part.

  • BurningR #9 6 years ago

    "Blah blah blah organised crime blah blah funding terrorism blah blah."

    LOL good one : D

    piracy? well in a way. But it is also a sign of Capitalism not being able to cope with new means of producing values. Digital values, that requires a minimum of work or materials in order to be reproduced. This doesn't generate enough surplus value for the capitalist, although it is cost efficient and beneficial.

  • RedboX #10 6 years ago

    I'm going to assume he whould claim that anything gets on bittorrent will instantly end up burn to DVD and flogged off down a series of back alleys, the proffit from which will be instantly spent on kicking in old ladys and injecting drugs into the eyes of babys.

  • tiddles #11 6 years ago

    flogged off down a series of back alleys, the proffit from which will be instantly spent on kicking in old ladys and injecting drugs into the eyes of babys.

    /makes notes for next gang-based crime game

  • cawley1 #12 6 years ago

    The same happened with Lemmings, nobody commented on that.

    I 'may' have access to it, and a 1.5fw PSP with the relevent software to run it, but have not seen it in action yet.

    'If' I get a chance to try it, I will let you know...

  • yiannis #13 6 years ago

    it smells like ole pc game marketing thing :)

  • noresalenocopy #14 6 years ago

    It's at Beta stage and it's 'incomplete and buggy'?....games hit beta when they're 2 months from release in the shops and about 1 month away from a production run. You'd hope your 'content' wasn't incomplete at that stage.

  • smelly #15 6 years ago

    LMFAO @ all the guys on this forum who are quite happy to admit to downloading pirated version of this game. But yet I bet you'd be the first guys to get upset if i said something like "psp's are shit, ds's rule". The irony is quite - ironic.

    They'd get bug reports more effectively

    LOL. QAing a game is quite possibly the worst job known to man. Just saying "it crashed on level 2" (which most general public would do) isnt enough, you need to play that same bit 100's of times to find out EXACTLY what you did to make it crash.



    As for it not being buggy. You wouldnt believe the number of bugs which get fixed in the last month or so of game development. I just hope that one of the bugs they havent fixed has something ot do with the save system, and that it buggers up the pirates psp...

    Thatd make me laugh out loud.

  • spadge #16 6 years ago

    Lemmings was leaked much earlier than beta, it was 3-4 months before it was final and there was a bunch of stuff not fixed or present - although it wasnt massively buggy at that stage. We believe it was one of the early press preview builds that got out, but its something they obviously need to keep an eye on and it's a tough when temptation is obviously getting the better of someone.

    Our last leak was in mid 1990 (in terms of months before street date) actually 4 months before Team17 were officially formed - and that was someone knicking floppies from a house in Sweden (back in the day before the net).

    The HL2 "leak" certainly damaged its sales... (cough)
    Edited by 1 at 04/08/06 @ 09:06

  • vegard #17 6 years ago

    oooh, team 17. i just had a massive amiga-flashback...those were the days (well, except the disc-swapping).

  • El_MUERkO #18 6 years ago

    might not be a bad thing, its certainly one of the most downloaded torrents on the web, if the game is good now and the final version is better but only runs on the latest bios's then the positive word of mouth generated by the small % of PSP users on 1.5 might increase sales

    but if the game sucks nuts they're boned

  • foxy2006 #19 6 years ago

    matters not, the game stinks..

    oops

  • PearOfAnguish #20 6 years ago

    Interesting read on piracy and terrorism claims: [link url=htt p://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/ip1.htm
    ]http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.co...[/link]

    LMFAO @ all the guys on this forum who are quite happy to admit to downloading pirated version of this game. But yet I bet you'd be the first guys to get upset if i said something like "psp's are shit, ds's rule". The irony is quite - ironic.

    Eh, how is that ironic? What has downloading pirated software got to do with slating PSPs?

  • smelly #21 6 years ago

    @PearOfAnguish: My point being that fanboys will rush behind a machine saying "my machine is selling better than yours", and if someone slags off said machine they take it as a personal insult.

    But yet, despite backing up the makers of their machine till the cows come home - they're more than happy to rip off said makers of their machine and steal stuff from them.

    Considering the machines themselves are sold at a loss and money is made from games, then if you pirate games you could in effect be contributing to said machines demise.

    Not that fanboys (who are also pirates) understand this though. Funny how most pirates are also big fanboys too.

    Piracy imo, doesnt fund organised crime, etc etc.. But its still majorly wrong as it screws over the console you're OH so willing to praise on forums, etc. If everyone pirated games on that console, no-one buys games, so no-one makes games.. Then yer left with a system with no games on.

    Pirates are scum imo, Thinking themselves better than us poor schmuchs who actually BUY the games (so that they can keep getting games to pirate)

  • smelly #22 6 years ago

    [link url=http://worldofstuart....
    ]http://worldofstuart....
    [/link]

    'nuff said, not reading that, dont respect mr campbells opinion in any way shape or form.

  • PearOfAnguish #23 6 years ago

    [link url=http://worldofstuart....
    ]http://worldofstuart....
    [/link]

    'nuff said, not reading that, dont respect mr campbells opinion in any way shape or form.

    Although if you clicked the link you'd discover that it was not written by Stuart Campbell, nor is it an opinion but an examination of ludicrous claims that piracy is funding terrorism.

  • smoison #24 6 years ago

    Thanks PearOfAnguish for the link,
    [link url=http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.co...
    ]http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.co...[/link]

    I thought it was a pretty funny read.


    I sure ass hell don't see the evil in piracy like Smelly does,.

    Crap games deserve to be priated in my opinion, and the lack of demos (on PSP) only helps piracy out.

  • PearOfAnguish #25 6 years ago

    I would be very surprised if piracy has any major effect on games unless they're crap ones. If you download a game and like it there's a good chance you'll want the proper box to go along with it, if it turns out to be shite then you won't and maybe they'll have lost a sale because you discovered it was crap before you paid.
    It could be, and has been, argued that piracy actually has a positive effect on sales (see: CD album sales on the increase for years despite EVIL FILE SHARING). Piracy doesn't stop EA flogging tons of the latest 200x FIFA game and you would have thought that lazy sequels would be more likely to be affected than anything else.

  • El_MUERkO #26 6 years ago

    @smelly

    i have a 1.5 PSP, 3 umd movies and 5 games

    i've downloaded every major game to come out, played a level, if i've liked it i've bought it (and then continued to use the ISO for 333mhz, shorter load time and longer battery life) if not its been deleted

    a lot of psp owners think similar, frankly we're too used to the freedom pc gaming gives us and dont like the 'buy it and find out its shite' method forced on us by console manufacturers

    publishers wont back new IPs cause they're afraid they wont sell but the reason they wont sell is gamers wont take a risk cause they've been lumped with £40 worth of shite too many times in the past, there is a genuine dislike of the games companies by the gamers, they can blame it on terrorists all they like but it wont stop piracy

  • smoison #27 6 years ago

    Couldn't have said it better myself

  • cawley1 #28 6 years ago

    Well, I played it and it seems a good enough game - not my cup of tea as too much pointless violence and a bit of unnecessary swearing, seems more similar to The Getaway (which I never played) to GTA.
    What did strike me is I think they are trying to downplay the completeness of this leak, maye dure to the relative ease of downgrading PSPs and installing Devhooks on them.
    It has all the voice acting, sound, 'cut scenes' and the game code itself did not seem at all buggy - it was clear from the Lemmings leak that was preview code (and it stated as much), but there is not even a 'this is an unfinished game' tagline anywhere on this.

  • dadrester #29 6 years ago

    i'm in the El_MUERkO camp, and here's some positive news. it's actually very good, indeed. much better than both the getaway and the getaway 2. it doesn't try the whole game/ movie realism crossover thing that they both attempted (and failed because of). they've really focused on making a psp game. the levels are all dead short but there's hundreds of them and the minigames are all really good too. pool is 100x better than san andreas' attempts and even the darts is kind of addictive. i'll definitely be buying this when it comes out.