Generally, most game developers view piracy as an incredibly harmful factor in their sales figures. It's interesting then that when one of the year's most anticipated titles got leaked to torrent sites, the studio's reaction was actually fairly positive.
Gears of War: Judgment, the follow up prequel to the Gears of War trilogy, is not set to be released for another several weeks. Unfortunately, a leaked copy of the game has made its way online, leading to Microsoft declaring that "vigorous action" would be taken to stop downloaders.
Epic Games, the developers on the game, aren't so worried though. At a London preview event, lead level designer Jim Brown told Gamespot that it pointed towards fan interest in the title, saying, "From my perspective, that tells me people are excited--that they want to get their hands on the game, which is a good thing, right?
"I think that's ultimately going to be good for us," he added, "I'm trying to look at it from the perspective of, ultimately, that if somebody is that interested that they feel the need to do that and risk their entire life, well, okay."
Brown does admit that others at Epic Games are a little more upset than he is, but he believes that Microsoft has it covered and that "it's taken care of. Things are happening."
The game is currently set to launch exclusively for the Xbox 360 on March 19th. The game is set before the events of the first Gears of War, and will follow Damon Baird and Augustus Cole as the protagonists.
While it might be tempting to find and download the leaked version, I highly recommend you wait until a legitimate copy is released before checking it out. Getting sued by Microsoft is simply not worth playing a game a few weeks early.