Half-Life 2 Already Being Illegally Sold in Russia

freidog writes "A short blurb on GamesRadar reports Half-Life 2 is for sale, sort of. It seems the 'leaked' Half-Life 2 source has found itself nicely updated and packaged for sale, in Russia. Some work has certainly gone into this production, as 'Hackers have apparently even gone to the length of translating text in the fully playable code into Russian.' However, one would imagine the game's content would be pretty sparse, and stability and polish lacking on such an early build." Another reader points to a page with more information on the bootleg discs, although only the disc art and packaging is mentioned as being translated.

In Soviet Russia...

[Green Light]

...Half-Life 2 illegally sells YOU?

Capitalism! Viva!

[Schezar]

Step 1: Develop long-anticipated game.

Step 2: Leak source to said game.

(Step 1.5: Make deal with Russian hacker types, give them better copy of "leaked" code)

Step 3: Use back doors in said code / existance of said code to

a) Royally screw pirates

b) Steal ccns for extra, secret income

c) Generate even MORE buzz about your game

Step 4: Profit!

(I'm KIDDING!)