Oi, what a day. First, my blog goes down, and now I find out that one of the most anticipated games of the year has been leaked.

A game that promotes theft has been stolen. Talk about ironic.

Smarmy remarks aside, Rockstar North's forth-coming crime-a-palooza (gotta love those hyphens) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been stolen, with pirated software, cover art, and manual making the rounds on various warez sites.

Rockstar has stated the following in response to the leak:

"The proper authorities are investigating the theft and are continuing to investigate all possible leads to ensure there is no further dissemination of our creative content. Downloading, possession and distribution of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, including making the game available on the internet, is theft.

We take the theft of our intellectual property very seriously and we are and will continue to diligently and aggressively pursue this matter."

Much like with Halo 2, Rockstar is also stressing the fact that they believe in no way will the leak be affecting the official October 26 (October 29 in Europe) release of the game. Unlike Microsoft though, Rockstar has yet to say anything about possible consequences should one be caught pirating or possessing a pirated copy of the game. Judging by the game's content though, pirates should probably keep an eye out for Sam Houser and his posse driving around with Glocks and Uzis.