First of all, just to address the "people who buy games they don't play", for me it is opportunity cost. I get excited about a release but wanting and having are not always the same thing and if I am time constrained when a game comes out I may not play it right away. Occasionally that means a game here or there will never get played. I don't regret the purchase though. I actually bought X-Com (half off) and have yet to play it but if I end up travelling again it will be nice to have. Since I played the hell out of it on PC I at least know it's a good game. As for piracy, the real hard part is how much does piracy hurt sales? How many of the people who pirated a game would pay for it if piracy wasn't an option? Is it 10%? Is it 1%? No one really knows. I'm of the mind that pirated copy does not equal a lost sale. I think piracy numbers are interesting to track, would be even better if something could be done about it but pirates are, in general, not customers you haven't converted to paying yet. They are just thieves. The problem in the PC realm is that the focus on piracy has led to all sorts of ineffectual measures that mostly harm paying customers. I have been bitten by anti-piracy measures more than a few times. It's beyond frustrating because it leaves a sour experience for me and it got to the point I just won't do business with certain companies. One of those is no longer in business. Instead of focusing on piracy the idea should be "How do we get more paying customers?" While I have read some hilarious anti-piracy measures I'd much rather see companies focus on attracting people who are willing to pay but are unwilling to steal. The question with Impulse GP is really about how do you attract more people? I know of the game because I come to TA, but how big is TA's audience versus the number of AppStore visitors? The piracy number is a red herring and if you spend too much time trying to figure out that puzzle you ultimately won't increase sales and be tilting at a windmill no one has knocked over yet.
Personally I dont buy your theory about buying a good tv cos someone pirates movies (from personal experience among friends). I think its just greed and/or entitlement but we just have to agree to disagree, I think. Like you said its complicated.
It certainly looks from a quick Google search you're getting a decent amount of publicity now, I'm not sure when you sent out your press releases but if it was AFTER the game release then it would make sense that the publicity only just started to trickle in. I sent press releases for Cubix Challenge a two weeks prior to release (release was June 19th) to quite a few sites, admittedly with a release embargo (following advice from an article online, regrettably in hindsight). Unfortunately the efforts didn't generate any press at all. There were definitely lessons learned from the process. Posting on the various forums helped, the TA thread in particular generated a few sales. Interestingly, the Android release was far more successful without the marketing push I put into the iOS release, I think this is due to the way new apps are presented on Google Play. It's a shame really because I also had high hopes for the game, especially as all the feedback has been very positive with over 80 reviews between the platforms and a rating of 4.5*. Like countless others I was also a victim of piracy now tracking over 30,000 unique installs of the game. Of course it feels great that people are actually playing the game, but I sure wish they had paid for it! I know these numbers may be considered a failure regardless of being pirated or not, but had even a tenth of them been sales it might have been the difference between some visibility on the app store or not. Where to go from here? Not sure, I don't like the idea of shoehorning my apps into a freemium model and some of my ideas just don't fit well with the ad supported model. One thing is for sure, I'll definitely start the marketing push earlier.
To be fair having a preview of the game in an upcoming thread to generate hype and to get free beta testers is the way to go Very few games here seem to be a hit if they instantly appear. Leos fortune being one of the exceptions as that appeared from nowhere
Omg,this is crazy.Thanks for sharing your data,really sad to see that it's already THAT much on ios For just a 3 bucks game...ridiculous. And hello to you,pirates.I'm sure some of you are reading here:you are a bunch of pricks! And PLEASE don't tell me anybody again a jailbreak is not mainly for pirating or"testing"games these days.I didn't believed it before and that's another proof that i had the right feeling about it.
Jailbreaking is not about piracy. It's about being able to do what you want on your device. Being able to do what you want can allow you to pirate but many of the things you can do on a jailbroken device is super useful. I haven't been jailbroken in years but I really miss the amount of customization you can achieve with a jailbreak. Also, Apple gets many of "their" ideas from jailbreak tweaks.
Yeah,i know all this arguments very well...but we are not running iOS 6 anymore,there are less and less arguments for a jailbreak these days.Even if a minority is honest (of course i'm not saying EVERYBODY is a bad boy,i'm not an idiot) you can thank the majority (the pirates) that a jailbreak has such a bad reputation.And a JB makes it very hard for every developer to track down bugs cause you are running a not supported iOS (but want to have and expect support for an app that don't run properly on your"special"iOS version,don't you?) but that's another story...
Actually, with iOS 8 being even more closed than before there is more reason to jailbreak than ever. However, jailbreaking in of itself has nothing to do with piracy. If someone is jailbreaking their device just so they can steal, yeah that is bad. Jailbreaking is not equivalent to piracy. And no, I haven't jailbroken my iPad but that's because it would defeat the purpose of why I have it. Still, I have known many people who have done this sort of thing and do so because it's their device to do with as they please. Let's not make criminals out of people who have done no wrong. There's enough of that going on these days. Let's just agree that piracy in of itself is bad and people playing a game they didn't pay for is wrong.
My old phone was jailbroken. I was still spending $10-20 a week on games. I jailbreaked so i could use old emulators, not for recent games like PSP/NDS, i wanted to play 25 year old games via emulator as i couldnt buy those on iOS. Not every single jailbreaker is a 'prick' as you so kindly put it. This 'prick' spends a lot on games every week, at release prices rather than waiting for codes/sales etc.
Unfortunately the damage is done. Going free to play will not resolve the piracy problem because the pirated copy continues to be available on the internet and thus will keep gaining downloads, however it is still necessary. I've been in this hole before but I did manage to dig myself out. What you should do is release a free version and support it with ads. Your game screams free to play. The mobile market does not take kindly to a premium game of this nature. I would re-work a free version, add interstitials and video ads for sure as they are least distracting, but also consider banner ads if they are in a non-threatening manner. You will likely not gain much IAP unless you are going to be pushy with it, so you will earn revenue from ads, and this of course is dependent on your download volume, so marketing is still a must. I have turned around a game that was in this type of situation into something that makes my company over $500/day. It may not be a viable revenue stream for large companies, but for an indie like us it does help fuel development for future products in which we have a much stronger course for marketing, distribution, and quality. If you would like more info please send me a PM.
And you know that's all well and good and admirable. I'd expect nothing less from you as your honesty is clear and evident. The problem is that you are the minority where jailbreaking is concerned. Even Saurik has publicly stated his opposition to piracy and jailbreaking in and of itself is not immoral or wrong but since Apple has closed the door on that "enterprise" option that people used to avail of to conduct these illicit activities, jailbreaking is the primary and sole means by which people steal apps, it's really as simple as that. As such, all jail breakers are NOT pirates but all pirates ARE jail breakers. There is plenty of data and research out there that supports that hypothesis and will even represent actual numbers which show that the vast majority of people avail of the jailbreak not for customisation (the original purpose Saurik and legitimate jail breakers envisioned) but for the sole purpose of stealing apps. There is no contesting that fact because as there is simply too much data to support it, all readily available through a quick internet search with the appropriate key words. Once "Rootless" is implemented fully and finally, hopefully it will have the desired impact and we will see less and less of the issues demonstrated in this thread and hopefully developers will get the just reward they deserve for years of hard work put in to a project rather than seeing thousands and thousands of people stealing their hard work. And yes I'll happily concede that jailbreaking is not the primary REASON people steal apps and that there is a question mark as to whether said people would have bought the app in the first place (I still think a percentage would but that is a number that would be nigh on impossible to qualitatively calculate), but when such an easy way to acquire something with a monetary value for nothing is put in front of someone with no consequences or reproach, let's not kid ourselves and say that the majority won't actually avail of that option. They will just go ahead and get that thing of value without paying for it because of course the majority still will do just that. And they are. And they are using jailbreaks to do just that. So in that perspective and from the perspective of the original post in this thread, it should be pretty difficult to actually defend jailbreaking when that is the sole method by which this developers hard work has been stolen and ripped off by so many people. But anyway, hopefully Rootless will do what it's supposed to. Yes it will cause some pain to some "customisers" or save file "transferers" but you know what, that's no financial loss to them but for developers in this situation it most certainly is (despite many piracy apologists saying pirates will never buy anyway, I still ascertain that a certain percentage, no matter how small it be, would) so I'm not bothered about customisers being at a loss but I'm certainly bothered about developers being at a loss. So, I think we are at a stage where jailbreaking needs to go away in to a corner and die a quick death as it is ultimately doing much more damage to a much wider group of people (developers, publishers, independents primarily) than satisfying the customisation needs of the few that actually continue to use it in its originally envisioned purpose as opposed to the majority who use it to just steal other peoples hard work. Oh and @ Ecotorque, congrats on the TA review. Four and a half stars well deserved. Hopefully ye will see an upturn in legitimate downloads from it. All the best and best of luck with the game going forward.
This makes me sick I truly hope the best for you all. As far as my vote, I will cast my vote for the paid version. I like giving money and knowing it's my game, full out. Not partial, not timers, etc. I'll gladly pay $5-$10 for a decent game. I've paid $60 for many....many poor games, so what's the harm in $5 for a game that I can enjoy, anywhere...anytime. Just sharing my opinions
How exactly is it "incorrect"? Is that meant to be a statement? A qualitative reply? Or just some random comment? Because I can't see the meaning or intent you were going for there. I'm generally referring to iOS 8 onwards as it is the current os. Many apps have iOS 8 as a requirement. Xcode was "considered" an option by some less scrupulous types but it requires source code and is not an option a whole lot of people would be capable of doing let alone distributing wider. As to iOS 7 and some leftover "enterprise" options that became popular in China in late 2013, the door is firmly closed on that and very closely monitored so any new "developers" that try to use it are quickly "removed" from the enterprise program and intelligible to rejoin. It is closely monitored and evolves all the time. It also puts users of it at great privacy and security risk. Other methods such as some kind of date trick, that did offer an alternative to jail breaking, have been closed off by Apple in recent months as well and any still existing are actively been written out and will be closed off soon enough. Leaving jail breaking as the primary method the unscrupulous use so I have no problem standing by the line you quoted. Note that I did not say all jail breakers are pirates, they are not, but absolutely all pirates are jail breakers or jail broken. Jailbreaking can be painted and pr'ed up as "customisation" but let's not kid ourselves here and claim that piracy is not what the majority are using it for or delude ourselves and think that pirates are not jail broken and don't use it as their primary piracy method because the facts are that they do. Cheats and thieves will always choose the easiest option available to acquire the things they want for nothing. Some qualitative counter point rather than a generalised statement with no actual content or meaning might be more effective in reinforcing your point next time. Anybody can go around saying anything is incorrect. It still doesn't mean it's actually incorrect if all you're going to offer is just that statement.
Jailbreaking is used by pirates because it is relatively easy. If jailbreaking goes away, piracy does not. Piracy is usually committed by a handful of highly technical and unscrupulous people who then distribute the means to pirate to others who may have some technical proficiency but don't really have to understand all that much about software. These "script kiddies" are the majority of your pirates. Do not think for a second that if jailbreaking goes away iOS piracy goes away. While I do not understand it myself, there is a whole community that dedicates a lot of time and resources to figuring out ways to steal software. I believe "Day 1" is still a thing in the PC community. The biggest problem is there is virtually no penalty for piracy. Despite having been an ongoing problem for well over 2 decades we are woefully inadequate in prosecuting cybercrimes.
IIRC, jailbreaking lets Devs go beyond the Apple limit of designating up to 100 devices as test devices? Many devs have said 100 is still not enough.
TestFlight, the now inbuilt Apple beta test system, allows for up to 1000 individual devices so Apple has addressed that one quite a while ago. Anyway, using jailbreak devices to test an app is not a good idea considering the system resources jailbroken devices drain up anyway, it wouldn't be a representative test of what devices can do.
Nobody thinks that for a second. Piracy has always been a problem. It will always be a problem. However, jailbreaking allows those with virtually zero technical proficiency, other than the ability to plug a phone in to a computer, download something and hit "jailbreak" button, to steal just about any app or iap they want. Removing a jailbreak option will dramatically reduce the ease to pirate and dramatically reduce the number of those pirating because the majority simply are not technically proficient enough to do it on their own or without a piece of software, the jailbreak, holding their hand and guiding them through the whole process. Simply as that. It's a numbers reduction battle, not an elimination battle. Should Apple just roll over and let people jailbreak away and allow them the easiest means imaginable to steal apps all day long? Should developers just sit there and take it where it hurts just because some kid in a basement somewhere is too cheap to pay for their app so he downloads the jailbreak and steals away? I don't think so. Some of us are not in the roll over and take it game. The vast majority of pirated apps by a huge margin are pirated using jailbreak means. Apple knows this. Developers knows this. Hell even the pirated app knows this. This data is accumatable and is accumalated somewhere in Apple, why do you think they are developing Rootless? Why do you think they close off jailbreaks as each one appears. Their response time has only slowed down in recent years in order to develop Rootless or to be aware of each new exploit as it shows up. Eliminating jailbreaking won't eliminate piracy, nobody is deluded enough to think that, but it'll have one hell of an impact on reducing the numbers of pirated apps. As far as I'm concerned that's nothing but a good thing for the platform because the moment it reaches Android levels of piracy, we can all kiss goodbye to any possibility of offline premium games and a big reduction in the number of developers developing for mobile because at the numbers in the first post, it certainly doesn't look like it's worth the effort in the first place and Apple is perfectly aware of this. Oh and by the way, in early 2013, 42% of iOS devices in China were jail broken. That number is substantially higher by a very significant amount today. If you look at the Chinese numbers from the first post, or just look up anywhere on the Internet the piracy rates in China for apps, I think the correlation between jailbreaking and piracy should become very clear. Any measure, any measure at all that reduces the number of jail broken devices out there will have a direct and quantatative affect on piracy.
Pirating is always propogated by those with limited technical proficiency. As I said, it is a small handful of dedicated highly technical people that figure out the means and then distribute the method to a larger group. Jailbreaking or not, that will still be the case. The issue is that Jailbreaking has legitimate uses and it is a red herring. It seems like it is easier but that's simply because it already exists. If it weren't jailbreaking it would be some other method. Eliminate jailbreaking and the pirates will be in a tizzy for maybe, at best, 2 weeks and then they figure out a different method and life goes on for them with very little impact. PC games have been dealing with pirating for a long time and even console games to a lesser extent. Apple making iOS such a closed system doesn't stop piracy but it does make it more difficult to use for end users that are technical. Believe me, there was a serious temptation for me to jailbreak my device because I find the Apple method for backups insufficient since it places a burden on developers who don't always take advantage of it, not to mention I really dislike how it is "all or nothing" when backing up apps on my device. I keep telling myself I went to an iPad because of how quirky and esoteric the Android tablets could be and how I don't want to have to think like a developer when I'm trying to relax but there are some days where the arbitrary barriers set up by Apple really get under my skin. As long as I've been in this game, and really longer than that since my Dad was also in the software field, piracy has been an issue. I'm not ok with it but I acknowledge the reality. Saying "stop jailbreaking to stop piracy!" just reminds me of yet another easy answer to a complicated problem. I think it will work like most DRM attempts where it punishes paying users while pirates just remove the DRM and keep on going.
