Quote Originally Posted by Sr7 View Post
Actually, most publishers are trying to stop pre-release leaks/cracks.

The reason for this is that, before a game releases, if it is available via torrent, even honest people who would've otherwise paid for the game get tempted to download the pirated version (because in this case people who get it illegally actually benefit from an "early release" in addition to getting it free).

Publishers are looking to dissuade those honest people from pirating through the use of DRM, hopefully pushing out the crack date at least a few days. They know the game will eventually be cracked and posted everywhere, but if it at least gets them their "honest purchasers" sales, they're happy.
It would be trivial to keep people from leaking the game early without the use of intrusive DRM, simply encrypt the entire game contents and release the encryption key through online activation on the release date, I belive this is how Steam preload works and it's pretty much uncrackable.