Fair play, Maxis, this is pretty funny. The developer has a special surprise in store for players who’ve downloaded The Sims 4 illegally.
If you’ve played any game in the series before, you’ll know that sending your Sims off to the toilet or shower causes a pixel censor effect to hover around their naked arse - in pirated copies of the game this pixel effect grows and grows until the whole game is permanently censored.
Amusingly, irate pirates have been flooding onto the Sims 4 forums, demanding to know why their ill-gotten game now looks like a pixel snowstorm. At which point everyone knows they’ve got an illegal copy. Oops.
The Sims 4 is expected to suffer particularly heavy piracy due to the fanbase’s displeasure at several omissions from the game, specifically the distinct lack of both toddlers and swimming pools, and a post-release embargo on reviews (a legitimate concern, in my book). Now personally I can’t stand either toddlers or swimming pools - both stink and are often full of urine - but even if you’re super disappointed in the lack of them, pirating a game is not really on.
Which is why it’s hard not to chuckle at inventive counter-measures like this. Anyone remember the anti-piracy scorpion from Serious Sam 3?
