From what we know so far the gold master was on its was back from the duplication plant in London by special delivery for approval and sign off by Slitherine at its Epsom Head Office. At around 11:05 GMT the Royal Mail Postman was assaulted and his bags stolen.

At this stage there has been no official contact between Slitherine and the Royal Mail or Metropolitan Police and the only information we have comes direct from the Postman who was only moments away from making his delivery outside the Slitherine office. It is not clear whether the Postman was deliberately targeted because of what he was carrying, or if it was just a piece of extreme bad luck. It is hoped that it was a random attack and the thieves do not realise what they have or if they do, that they will not have the knowledge and ability to make any use of it.

Philip Veale at Slitherine Software said, "Obviously we're very upset about it and the delay this will cause to the release of Gates of Troy, but we are working hard to make up for the lost time this will cause and hope the fans can bear with us. We're also concerned about the possibility of a pirated version hitting the streets now before we can get the original copies of Gates of Troy ready."

This attack comes hot on the heels of the theft of the Half Life 2 source code and shows how vulnerable games companies can be. With many man-years of work on one CD it makes you realise how careful games companies need to be with their IP and source material. Iain McNeil at Slitherine said, "It has been a wake up call to us and Slitherine will be reviewing its procedures in future to ensure the same type of thing cannot happen again."