Over the weekend, some gamers received a special code from Electronic Arts as thanks for completing a survey. That code allowed them to download a free game from Origin, EA's online store for PC games.

Or, it would have if EA thought to secure the code properly. Instead, it was quickly discovered that the code could be used to download as many free games as the internet wanted.

Shortly after the codes were sent out, news was circulated on community site Reddit that not only did they work for any US or Canadia Origin account holder (not just those who took part in the survey), but it could be used to download multiple games. For free.

Call it stealing, call it taking advantage of an administrative oversight, the fact is EA's online store spent the weekend handing out thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of free games to people before the loophole was closed down.