Topic: 3 Million Steam Promotional codes for Codemasters Dirt 3 leaked

The title says it all really. They were having a promo where if you bought a Radeon video card, you'd get a free copy but after an error on their website, the entire list of codes got leaked and are being shared around online. So it's now officially a free-for-all

o.o Would it be illegal if I found one of these codes and got it for free?

Yeah, there's also the fact that either Valve or Codemasters will start cracking down and potentially banning users who have used the codes. So I'm just going to stay out of this one.

I knew it was too good to be true

Hmm... maybe I should find a code >.>

@Terra I honestly have no idea how it would work, but it would be absolutely stupid for Codemasters and/or Valve to do nothing at all. That's 3 MILLION copies of a game, which equals about $150 MILLION in retail value (according to Steam).

@Terra: they must have had some way to keep track of which codes they'd handed out and which they hadn't (if nothing else, in order to not give out the same code to two customers). It wouldn't be too hard to figure out which codes being used now hadn't technically been handed out yet.

this kinda reminds me of when Microsoft was banning users who had pirated Halo Reach before it'd even hit its release date, lol. use a code at your own risk... they're not stupid, and they'll find you if they want to :3

I agree with you there. That's a lot of money to be fooling around with. Someone should be fired for this.

Someone needs to be fired?

/me fires tbd

@Terra: You're awfully optimistic, lol — i take it you redeemed a code?

the bottom line is that it's theft, plain and simple. i wouldn't be surprised if they came down hard on everyone involved :3

Steam will suspend any accounts involved in this, the Terms and Conditions should explain it much better.

Just noticed it and i have stopped downloading and i feel bad now

Any idea how i can delete my account?

They can trace the download and see if you've played the game or not, you should be fine and I wouldn't get too worked up over it. I wouldn't finish installing it and playing though.

Well, I'm not going to risk it as i have an Nvidia card

Thank you for that i'm happy now that i am not in any serious trouble

Three million codes, people. They're not gonna take each stolen code as an individual case and send the lawyers around, it'd cost billions, so no-one will be 'in trouble.' They'll just batch-deactivate the lot of them
Those who bought a card legitimately will probably be able to obtain a new code by entering the card's serial number or some other identifying digits. Is it a new card? If so, they could just release a software to detect the hardware and distribute codes that way (and then deactivate the software when their normal offer period ends)

The real question....would anyone actually legitimately purchase Dirt 3?

But you still did steal something. Just because you didn't download it doesn't mean it isn't stolen.

I didn't even want it free