Gates of Troy gold master stolen

In 1963, Britain was the site of the Great Train Robbery, where daring hijackers made off with 2.6 million pounds ($4.78 million). Today, the island nation was the site of a Less Than Great Game Robbery when the gold master to Gates of Troy was stolen.

According to a press release from Slitherine Software, the gold master was being delivered from the duplication plant in London to its head office in Epsom. At "around 11:05[am] GMT, the Royal Mail postman was assaulted and his bags stolen." The expansion to the Ancient Greece-themed strategy game Spartan had only gone gold this past Monday.

Slitherine's release read that it was unclear as to whether the postman, who was unharmed, was targeted because he was carrying the Gates of Troy master or because, in the words of Slitherine, he encountered "just a piece of extreme bad luck." However, the company voiced its optimism that the two were unrelated and told the world it hoped "the thieves do not realize what they have, or if they do, that they will not have the knowledge and ability to make any use of it." Presumably, the thieves were not on the Slitherine mailing list.

Much like the Half-Life 2 source code theft, the Gates of Troy theft is causing the game's release to be pushed back because of "the possibility of a pirated version hitting the streets." However, Slitherine Technical Director Philip Veale assured the public that the developer-publisher is "working hard to make up for the lost time this will cause and hope the fans can bear with us."