Well, The Sims 4 may not be what its fans have been waiting for (and some features that were included in The Sims 3 may not be present in this new part of the series), but this does not give gamers the right to pirate it, right? Still, we all know that some will join the dark side in order to give Maxis and EA the middle finger, however – and if you are one of them – you are in for a big surprise.

Similarly to Croteam’s Serious Sam 3, The Sims 4 features a hilarious anti-piracy countermeasure. As you may know, a pixel censor effect covers your Sims’ ass whenever you send them to the toilet or shower. Maxis decided to be clever and creative, and has enhanced this effect in the pirated copies of the game.

What this means is that this pixel effect will grow bigger and bigger, until the entire game gets pixelated. And… well… you won’t really be able to play it afterwards, unless of course you enjoy old retro low-res visuals.

Kudos to Maxis for coming up with such a trick. Oh, and a note to all devs: more of these anti-piracy countermeasures please instead of those ridiculous DRM systems.