If you guys are interested, I can keep you updated on how this unfolds for Tap-Fu over the next few days/weeks.
A friend of mine has a game that just came out and he's getting ok sales but 100x more pirate downloads from just the one site we found (I assume there are other sites and sources too). A smaller fraction of these pirate downloads are actually showing up in his online scores. There is a whole lot of piracy going on even for 1$ apps...
A official report in the Netherlands states: *People who are downloading pirated games do buy more legal games than people who don't download. *Its seemed almost impossible to value the "pirated" volumes as loss income ( opp. loss ) *A lot of people download games/music/ movies they would normally not buy/see/listen Link: http://www.google.nl/url?q=http://www.ivir.nl/publicaties/vaneijk/Ups_And_Downs.pdf&ei=0QbgSofbJo_W-Qaj4-C0Cw&sa=X&oi=spellmeleon_result&resnum=1&ct=result&ved=0CAkQhgIwAA&usg=AFQjCNFjn8WrDD0suO4zdi4E3uDaiGv7Pw
Darn, I don't know the language so I can't read the report. I think the first point can be interpreted in multiple ways. I suspect it means that almost everyone who is interested in games is pirating them... (and they also bought a few games in their time). This is the attitude/behavior I see in the young people in schools these days. Once their phone is jailbroken its open season... This must be a huge portion of the iphone game-playing "market"? The second point I mostly agree with; I don't assume that x pirated copies would have been x sales. Its probably some percentage though!
This is true until a certain extent : - if one guy pirates 1-2 games a month, he still have the time to buy 1-2 more games. - if one guy pirates more than 2-3 games a month, please could you explain me where does he find the time to play some more bought games ? Anyway, there are still 1 to 3 game studios that are being stolen here. Not precisely, I agree. But still, it is a loss, nobody can deny it. And considering the actual estimations about piracy, this is still a big loss, even after cutting out all the people "that would never have bought it anyway". Finally, here is the main argument of most pirates. And here is how to destroy it : You don't buy a product when you're not interested enough in it. So if you're not interested in something, you just don't invest some time on playing a hacked version. Pure logic. Now for the other argument saying "I'm interested, but not enough to buy it", here is another counter-argument : You can judge your full interest in a game only by its value to your eyes. And for the precise exemple of a game, you can't know its full value before having finished it. That works for good and bad products : If you buy a bad product, that means it had some form of value in the first place (marketing, novelty, etc). And then you realized, by playing it, that it has no value anymore for different reasons (boring, quality falling down, etc). So unless you already finished that game, you are just unable to know that you're not interested enough, because you wanted to own it at the start. This is the main reason why we buy things : curiosity. We buy things because we want to discover them, having more and more of the initial impulse, not because we already know that we love them. And why do pirates download hacked games ? Because they're curious, just like a legal customer. So, this same curiosity that leads pirates to download and play games, even for 1 day long, has a monetary value. Which justifies what we call potential loss. A pirate who says that he wouldn't have bought it even without hacking is just lying to himself.
Please do. I was the one who mentioned your name and Tap-Fu because I've been reading through the TF thread. I love your game btw! I really do think it is messed up that you have to sit back and watch the # of pirates playing your game for free, and your options to counter are very limited if any. I agree with what you said though and I'm not doubting your numbers. I hope the sale and the exposure of being featured will help boost sales and increase the legitimate community. I do think that 85% ratio should trickle down with time- it's a solid game and hopefully with some smart marketing word will spread. I think people have made some valid points in this thread and though it makes no difference after the fact, I have to think that of that 85% playing for free, only a fraction would have paid anyways. Good luck with TP! Can't wait for the next episode with Pirates! Yaaarrgghh!
I find it hard to give credence to anything from a country where its citizenry are perpetually high on weed.
QFT I honestly have less respect overall for those who lie to themselves in this way than I do the ones who are just honest about why they do it and don't delude themselves into any sort of false "rationale" for their actions other than the one true one: "I wanted it, but didn't want to pay for it" Because, when you get down to it, that's the only real reason it goes on.
That's like me saying I give no credence to a game from the US about being nice because it's citizens are too busy shooting each other / bombing other countries / torturing innocents / warming the globe etc. That would be nonsense, just like your statement.
Steps to join the living hell of an indie iPhone developer. 1) Go through shit loads of drawing chart to pick the right title for your production. 2) Start designing the game the framework of the game. 3) Complete the freaking game and look out for flaws. 4) Upload the game and wait at least 2 weeks to find out if Apple accept your idea or perhaps the way your app/UI may be similar to theirs. 5) If you're lucky enough to get approved, now try marketing your app and stand out in front of 85,000 other apps on the App Store. 6) Lucky to start off with a few blogs writing about your apps or even luckier if you get featured. 7) Try to make as many sales to peak your selected category to even cover your cost 8) Freaking hope that piracy don't overtake your sales count (almost never happen) 9) Praying to get featured on the store's front page (pretty similar odd to getting a lottery ticket). 10) Hope that the hype is long is enough to survive a few weeks and put you to the top of the chart. ~) Restart at step one to actually make a living out of this business.
i don't pirate but actually 90-99% of people that pirate would never buy the apps so really the devs dont lose profit. Unless people advertise it. I nvr knew there was pirating on the iphone b4
I'm appalled by this. I've probably spent $300 on iPhone games so far. The claims that piracy is 90% is a fraudulent claim. I have 148 apps on my phone and would not begin to know how to pirate an app. I call shennanigans on NgMoco! Where is the thanks to the people actually buying your games?
How many users on here play pirate copies of games? What perentage? I already know a few members who do it. I don't. I see some of them with 7-8 pages of apps! WTF? 7-8 pages? I personally have only 2 pages albiet only essential stuff. Maybe 5 games and 10 apps.
On a site like this, dedicated to iDevice gaming, you can't just assume people pirate just because they have a lot of games or apps. I probably have well over 8-9 pages of legitimate apps/games and I know others have even more.
There are thousands of 99 cent and free games. Spending $200 to have 10 pages of games in not that much money. It is less than the price of 4 console games.
Yeah, look at mine. I could have cracked apps because I jailbroke my iPod. I jailbroke just to get more space for apps. See?
