By Hang Lauv

Less than a week before its official release, illegal copies of [i]Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[/i] has been leaked to the internet, along with copies of the manual and cover art. This is just the latest of illegal game copies hitting the web before their release: Halo 2, Doom 3, and Half Life 2 being the others.

Rockstar, the developer of [i]Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[/i], stated, “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 [i]Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[/i], including making the game available on the internet, is theft?We take the theft or our intellectual property very seriously and we are and will continue to diligently and aggressively pursue this matter.”

[i]Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas[/i] is scheduled for release on October 26 in the US and October 29 in Europe for the PS2.