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Sims 3 pirated more than 180,000 times

So says piracy research firm.

Californian file-sharing research company BigChampagne reckons The Sims 3 was pirated more than 180,000 times between 18th and 21st May.

That's according to a report on Bloomberg, which compares the stat to rampant piracy of Spore.

In September last year, it was claimed that Spore had been downloaded over half a million times by BitTorrent pirates, although that data was from TorrentFreak rather than BigChampagne, so measurements may vary.

EA told Bloomberg that the leaked version of The Sims 3 is a "buggy, pre-final build of the game". "It's not the full game," a spokesperson told the news agency. "Half the world - an entire city - is missing from the pirated copy."

The real thing is due out in Europe on 5th June and you can read our review on Monday.

If you're curious about how BigChampagne works, Wired has an overview.

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