[Rocol]

A beta version of PSP title Gangs of London - the latest from the team behind mobster hit The Getaway - has been leaked onto the internet, with copies of the game now readily available on BitTorrent sites.

For their part, Sony are now trying to fathom how the internal beta version of the game was leaked in the first place, whilst simultaneously trying to reign-in those distributing the illegal code.

Sony UK have warned gamers that the leaked game is buggy and incomplete, but must still be fuming over the negative effect this will have on the new game's launch.

"The version of Gangs Of London that you have brought our attention to here is a pre-production 'preview' version," Sony's David Wilson explained. "It is not the complete game and it has anomalies in the code since it hasn't been through our QA process yet."

Wilson was also quick to assert Sony's intense dislike of game piracy, highlighting the negative effect it has on the production of videogames, not to mention the links often noted between piracy and more-reviled forms of organised crime.

Gangs of London is due out on the PSP at the end of the year, and promises mob action set against the backdrop of the world's most famous capital.

Whether it is the ' Proper Game ' or not, I bet that has really hit them hard, especially with it being made available to all, via Torrent Sites