Sims 4's 'Pixel Bug' is a middle finger in the face of pirates

Piracy has been a problem in the industry since the age of the floppy disc, and designers have been messing with pirates for about as long. Red Alert 2 had a pirate's base blow up after 30 seconds of play; Earthbound spawned more enemies, making the game next to impossible to play; and Batman: Arkham Asylum made a pirated Batman completely useless at gliding. Among this pantheon of games giving a deserving rude hand gesture to pirates, The Sims 4 now stands tall.

The 'Pixel Bug' looks like a relatively innocent bug at first, causing many a pirate to take to the game's official forums asking for a fix. When your sims go to the bathroom, you'd expect there to be a pixelated area over them while they do their business. If you're playing a pirated copy of the game, however, the whole screen will become pixelated and will stay that way even after your sims have hiked their pants back up, forcing you to relaunch the game to continue playing.

This is not to say that The Sims 4 doesn't have a number of actual bugs still in it, but as we've already seen one patch released to combat those, the team appears to be working to solve them quickly. Don't expect to be able to play the pirated version problem free any time soon though, as the bugs therein are a deliberate statement on the developers' behalf.