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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Gates of Troy Gold Master Stolen, Delayed 47

Posted by simoniker from the deadly-shadows dept.
Ant writes "According to the story on Blue's News and Slitherine Software's related official statement, the gold master for Gates of Troy, their upcoming stand-alone PC strategy title, has been purloined, via a physical robbery of a UK Post Office carrier, rather than a computer break-in." It may well have just been "a piece of extreme bad luck", but kudos to Slitherine for trying to make the most of this incident, as they slather: "This attack comes hot on the heels of the theft of the Half Life 2 source code and shows how vulnerable games companies can be", and also fret: "It has been a wake up call to us and Slitherine will be reviewing its procedures in future to ensure the same type of thing cannot happen again." - perhaps a heavily armed guard is needed?
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Gates of Troy Gold Master Stolen, Delayed More

Gates of Troy Gold Master Stolen, Delayed

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  • Wow... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Txiasaeia ( 581598 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @06:20PM (#9468550)
    First time I ever heard of a warez group not only releasing a game before it's in stores, but releasing a game that WON'T be released in stores :)
    • It's always weird to see. Half Life (DC) and Thrill Kill come to mind as such titles.
    • Gotta wonder if these idiots have ever heard of Fed Ex...

      And why is there only ONE gold master? Surely they just need to run another copy off?

      This sounds like bullshit to me. If they're dropping a gold master in the mail without insurance or anything, they're obviously run by idiots.
      • Well, they were sending it by Special Delivery, which is a bit different to just sticking something in the post, but I think it's mostly just a priority service, still delivered by the postman. They probably didn't expect the postman to be mugged though (it doesn't sound to me like a specific attack to get the source code).

        Special Delivery is insure, I think all Royal Mail has some level of insurance on it, with Special Delivery being higher than normal post, but not by much.

        FedEx isn't particularly big i
    • AM2's Propeller Arena [spymac.net] for the Sega Dreamcast.

  • Obviously a guard is needed... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) * on Friday June 18, 2004 @06:21PM (#9468558) Homepage
    When you're dropping your company's ENTIRE business model into the "mailbox", you deserve whatever happens.

    Things of value should be protected and transmitted as such.

    I have no sympathy for them. Hell, even Grandma knows better than to send cash in the mail; never-the-less a potentially million dollar peice of software.

    • Re:Obviously a guard is needed... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jackbird ( 721605 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @07:33PM (#9469119)
      Yeah, why the need for a physical gold master, anyway? Seems like FTP would be the way to get it to the duplicators if it was so valuable someone would knock over a post office to get it. Of course, given the comments below about the game's popularity, I say PR stunt.
    • Hell, even Grandma knows better than to send cash in the mail;

      Yeah, thats because Grandma may be old, she may be senial, but she's not so far gone enough to remember that her grown up son/daughter can just use a credit card.

      Thats like saying, 'well billions and billions of different letters and packages are sent through the postal service safely and securely daily, but that doesn't mean we can't take the 234235546234 to 1 chance that our package will be the one that will be lost/stolen.'

  • Pardon me... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mad Quacker ( 3327 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @06:31PM (#9468647) Homepage
    ...but boo-hoo.

    On it's way back from the duplication... How does this delay the game again? Was it the _only_ copy? How long does it take VS to crank out another build? Worried that people will download the warez copy before they can buy one? Simple, make it available for download by purchase.

    Maybe they will delay the game for a year and claim it was because it got stolen. *cough* Half Life 2, but they actually had to do an internal investigation and security audit. That certainly didn't take a year.

    Soon they will be blaming the loss of digital bits for cancer and terrorism (oh wait a sec....)

    • Re:Pardon me... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @06:51PM (#9468786) Homepage Journal
      well, they observed that a good way to get publicity is to get your property stolen and then score for some sympathy points as well as delaying the game of course.

      me, I never had heard of the whole fu*king game before this so they certainly got what they were looking for(free publicity, like, what's the need for them to publicly announce that the gold got stolen other than free pr).

      • Re:Pardon me... (Score:3, Informative)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )
        I hate to reply to myself but now that I checked the page I notice that "Gates of Troy" was an EXPANSION PACK I had never heard for game called 'Spartan' that I've never heard about either.

        and really, if you check the pages it's not really a title you would risk robbing the postman for(financial gains == zero, as well as fame, the game is a quite niche game).

  • How will it help them to delay the release? In fact, they should try to release the game sooner to beat the potential pirates.

    And it's not like they can't ship out another CD right away. (Unless burning a "gold master" somehow involves wiping out all of the company's hard drives and backup tapes.)
    • Looking at there website makes me think I was wrong but, I would have assumed the game has some sort of online component that would be compromised now that the 'Gold' copy has become public before the actual release. A good excuse for Slitherine Software would have been that they want the retail release to be more secure so that they would be ahead of the potential cheaters who would have cheats based of the Gold copy. -Wilde_Karrde

  • hot on the heels? (Score:4, Funny)

    by pizza_milkshake ( 580452 ) on Friday June 18, 2004 @06:42PM (#9468734)
    This attack comes hot on the heels of the theft of the Half Life 2 source code

    The HL2 source code being stole happened last October, over 8 months ago. here's a dated money.cnn.com article [cnn.com]

    if i got laid last October and then laid today, i wouldn't necessarily say this time was 'hot on the heels' of the last time.

    oh wait, since i read slashdot, maybe i would...

  • Nobody ever reported open source code stolen.

    • Re:Quaint (Score:3, Funny)

      by CDLewis ( 775622 )
      Nobody ever reported open source code stolen.

      Didn't SCO?

    • Yes, they do (Score:2, Informative)

      by DAldredge ( 2353 )
      http://www.busybox.net/shame.html

      Hall of Shame!!!
      The following products and/or projects appear to use BusyBox, but do not appear to release source code as required by the BusyBox license. This is a violation of the law! The distributors of these products are invited to contact Erik Andersen if they have any confusion as to what is needed to bring their products into compliance, or if they have already brought their product into compliance and wish to be removed from the Hall of Shame.
    • Nobody ever reported open source code stolen.

      Actually, it does [sourceforge.net] happen [sourceforge.net], and those that it don't become victim of that tend to frequently joke about it [sourceforge.net].

  • They could have at least taken the ISO and incrypted it. Even if they mailed the pass phraze after the disk arrived safely or emailed it or called up and told the people at the other end. It would have made stealing it a moot point. Inless it was an inside job, but once the bad guys are inside all bets are off.

    Charles Puffer

    • but no free publicity then, no? or just have told the plant to burn the disc?

      besides, how does something that's on it's way BACK from the plant delay the games arrival on market? if anything they should hurry it up now.

    • Re:GnuPG anyone (Score:3, Informative)

      by metrazol ( 142037 )
      ...encrypted the ISO...right...delayed...wait....

      THE GOLD MASTER IS THE LAST GODDAMN STEP.

      I sent a DVD off to replication a few weeks ago. I was worried it'd gotten lost in the mail, so I burnt another. Gee, no biggy. Didn't need it, it was just a mail delay.

      There's no source on the master! It's the same as the frickin' disk you buy in stores! Where's the benefit of stealing it? You could just warez it or shoplift it. Heck, the master probably isn't even in a readily usable format, probably a disk
  • Gates of Troy is only available through the Slitherine Online shop - you will not see it at your local store.

    But you WILL see it on Kazaa, eMule, and at Suprnova.
  • I haven't played Spartan, but I have played its predecessors, Legion [slitherine.co.uk] and Chariots of War [slitherine.co.uk]. Neither of them are very special, and the only real difference between them and Spartan (and, by extension, Gates of Troy) that I can see is that Spartan has bland-looking pseudo-3D battle graphics while the others have 2D battle graphics. So this news really only matters to the few Slitherine fans out there and the hardcore pirates that download and play every PC game that comes out.

    Rob

    • Re:Not really big news (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ymgve ( 457563 )
      What are you talking about? Hardcore pirates never play the games they download. They just download, and download, and downliad...
      • I think it's an addiction really. Like anything out there it's the whole Pokemon Syndrome: Gotta Catch 'em all! in regards to warez.

        For example: There's a torrent out there for Stargate SG-1 for all 7 seasons and DVD movie and so on and so forth. it's 56GB. That's right FIFTYSIX GIGABYTES. People have been downloading this thing for about 2 months solid trying to get it all. But why? Is it just because it's a good show? Is it because they missed the first 3 seasons and need to catchup? NO. It's because har
      • I know exactly what you mean.

        Rob (Am I a hardcore pirate? No, no, of course not)
  • If it wasn't the source code how is this different than somebody's copy stolen in the mail? Hell, if the game needs a serial # to install that probably wasn't even with the disk! So it could be worth less than a copy. Just reburn the damn thing and overnight it!
  • Is this that big of a deal?

    Would someone steal a whole bag just to get a game?

    The thief was probably looking to get some money out of other mail that was in there, and he'll probably just throw the disc aside (if he even knows what it is).
  • I was suspicious with the HL2 source code theft, but this just looks plin obvious. First of all, it seems that somebody stealing the master != delay. They can just burn another one. Also, the fact that the only person to report on it in that article was the post man himself; no police, etc. leads me to believe that it was just the company pulling a prank to:

    A. Get free publicity
    B. Have an excuse (however bad) to delay the game.

    Some things just look too suspicious.

  • Guards (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kaellinn18 ( 707759 )
    perhaps a heavily armed guard is needed?

    I can see it now... the little postman walking from door to door flanked by two massive guys with BFGs. :-)
  • I'm sure all those alarmist scapegoaters are going to blame this act of violence on video games.
  • I doubt the thieves were going for THAT disk, but I am curious to know if there is enough gold on a disk to make it worth it? Is a gold master just covered with gold, or is it solid gold? I wonder if they insured it. Be quite a boost of they insured it for 10k, but then I don't know if you can insure it in the UK.
    • I am pretty sure the 'gold masters' no longer use gold anymore. That was my understanding, at least. They are still referred to as "gold" only out of tradition.

      (Some of them, at least, are made of glass nowadays. But I am not sure if that is the final one the devs create - more likely it is an interim disc created by the pressers. Needed for newer copy-prevention, apparently...)
  • 1) First of all, the image of the "gold master" is obviously sitting on at least one machine back in their offices, and is almost certainly backed up securely in several different places
    2) As others have pointed out, if whoever they're sending it to doesn't have FTP capabilities, they're not a legitimate destination, so it's no big deal on the timing
    3) If this is really the "gold master", it's literally bit-for-bit what's going to be in boxes in the store (or available online). There's no advantage to any
  • Yeah, that's just what a bunch of guys creating some of the most violent imagery on earth need: access to really big guns. There's no telling what some of these guys have been through to make them want to create so much artificial death and destruction, but I definitely think it's a good idea for those same people to have access to the weapons that can make their fiction come to life!

    (This was written entirely in jest. I enjoy first-person shooters and, um, Grand Theft Auto.)

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