Evening Reading

Footage allegedly from a pirated version of Crysis 2 made its way around the Net over the weekend. Such material puts news sites in a difficult position. In the modern era, once something like that hits the Net, it's out there, impossible to contain. But it's also content maliciously taken from its owners. This isn't a situation like say a whistleblower coming to the press. It's pirates, ripping off the game. Yes, we cover piracy in the video game industry but basing coverage on pirated material is a whole other matter. We can't stick our heads in the sand and pretend it's not out there, but neither can we in good conscience knowingly use pirated material for a story.

In their response, Crysis 2 publisher Electronic Arts said "Crytek and EA are deeply disappointed by the news. We encourage fans to support the game and the development team by waiting and purchasing the final, polished game on March 22. ... Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community." Should the game's PC sales fail to meet expectations, it's a safe bet there will be plenty of fingers pointed back to this moment.

There was plenty of other video game news today and here are the top stories from the Shack:

• Serious Sam 3 Due This Summer

• Microsoft Preparing 'Defiant Map Pack' for Halo Reach, due in March

• Batman: Arkham City Director Says Game is Single-Player Only

• Magicka DLC Plans Revealed as Sales Pass 200,000

• Portal 2 Pre-orders Begin