This is why console development is bound to get ever more popular. Companies will realise that PC games are always going to lose up to half their sales through piracy whereas consoles are much harder to pirate.

Ok if someone wants to run an illegal game they can go and buy a modchip and install it and everything, but its a lot harder than just downloading the game through the internet.

Looks like good PR to me seeing as piracy is the hot topic atm.

I think one way EA could cut piracy is to release a demo of Sims 3 for free that way people can see what the game is like before buying, thus less people will download the game illiegaly though you still have some people who will do it anyway. The next thing EA could do is include something exclusive only if you bought the game such as maybe a collectable sims 3 comic or something, that way I think alot of people will put off downloading the game and buy it!

However EA shouldnt resort to DRM because it does make people angry and people will boycott the game and download it. I refused to play spore because of the DRM imposed on it, I rather have a game that I didnt have to connect to the internet everytime to play.

Thats my opinions on cutting piracy,

Maybe EA released this themselves? I think they have the money and resources needed to monitor every download of this. The crack used to run the game could easily have code embedded to sent even a miniscule packet of data to the EA servers, that logs your IP address. Considering this is the biggest release this year, it wouldn't be to harsh for EA to contact ISP's and at least induce a ban, maybe even a fine.