Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks’ reimagining of the brilliant Fallout series, is still weeks away from launching. That hasn’t stopped the pirates though. Dodgy copies of the game, which can be played on modified Xbox 360 consoles, are already spreading like wildfire on Bit Torrent websites.

The distribution of pirated copies of games on Bit Torrent sites is something that every game maker has to put up with. Fallout 3, an RPG shooter set in post-apocalyptic America, was never going to be an exception, but it’s still a serious dampener to have a pirated copy this far ahead of commercial release.

Fallout 3 isn’t due to launch in this country until October 31^st, but just hours after going gold, it’s already being seeded by hundreds of Torrent users and is currently being downloaded by thousands more.

It’s usually PC games, that are first to get pirated to kingdom come. However, this version of Fallout 3 is only compatible with specially modified Xbox 360 consoles. If there is a silver lining in a situation like this, it is that it might finally take some of the heat off PC gaming which some developers have described as “dying” under the weight of piracy.

While PC games like Spore came with controversial, invasive anti-piracy software malware, which sort of justified not installing a legit copy, there’s no such excuse here. This is theft, plain and simple.

Out Oct 31| £40 | Fallout 3 (via MCV)