Rumors are spreading around the 'net that illegal copies of Alone in the Dark have recently been leaked. Many European game sites have already got their hands on copies of the game, and have been rather harsh with their review scores, most of which range from 3/10 to 6/10.
Atari hasn't taken too kindly to this, and are threatening legal action against these sites for having pirated copies of the game. However it seems only game sites who have given Alone in the Dark negative reviews have reported being targetted by Atari. How very fishy ...

Scandinavian games site GameReactor (The Norwegian edition specifically) were one of the first to review Alone in the Dark. They gave it 3/10. Ouch. However, they then promptly pulled the review, and accusations of shady dealings were levelled against the site by Atari, who said that press copies had only been sent out the day before (the review has since been reinstated, and the 3/10 stands). Odd, seeing as many other European publications also had reviews go live this week.

German site 4Players reviews the game. Gives it 68%. Then is threatened with legal action by Atari because, yes, Atari had no idea how the site got a copy of the game.

Tor-Steinar Nastad Tangedal, from Norwegian site Gamer.no, has contacted us with a similar story. He writes (though without proof we're unable to confirm this):

quote

Gamer.no was the second publication in the world to publish a review, and we also gave it 3 out of 10. The review was based on a retail copy obtained from a store on Tuesday this week. Atari contacted us just minutes after it was published, claiming that our review is probably based on a preview or pirated copy, and requested it to be removed. We never removed it, of course.

It's interesting that Atari are so worried about publications securing their own copy of a game. Do they fear that, because these outlets may have received copies of the game "early" (ie from pirated copies), that they're somehow reviewing incomplete code, which could affect their opinion of the game? Maybe.
Pessimists could, however, be forgiven for thinking it's a convenient excuse for Atari to attack negative reviews of the only game they're releasing in 2008 that has any chance of making them some money.

Miss Razz via kotaku.com »