Ustwo: 95 percent of Android players didn't pay for Monument Valley

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Lounge' started by unexpect3rd, Jan 6, 2015.

  1. unexpect3rd

    unexpect3rd Well-Known Member

    Dec 7, 2011
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    This was taken from an article from another site of which I shall not link to here:

    "Monument Valley creator Ustwo has revealed that its innovative puzzler suffered an exceptionally high piracy rate on Android.

    "Interesting fact: Only 5 percent of Monument Valley installs on Android are paid for," the studio tweeted. "40 percent on iOS."

    It made clear that this didn't count the Amazon Appstore, where the game went free for a short time over Christmas. And that some of those unpaid installs were legitimate (such as press copies).

    Still, that's a pretty high piracy rate. But it's not too surprising, as other Android developers have experienced similar numbers.

    Butterscotch Shenanigans said 95 percent of Android owners pirated Towelfight 2, while only 5 percent of iOS users looted the game. SEGA saw a 9:1 piracy ratio of Football Manager Handheld on Android.

    And you can guess where that leads us: free to play. Indeed, an 80 percent piracy rate on Android forced MadFinger to make the Dead Trigger games go free."

    That there in red, is the punchline
     
  2. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    Yes it's depressing. iOS was 40 percent wasn't it ?

    This is why we have freemium
     
  3. cloudpuff

    cloudpuff Well-Known Member

    Sep 12, 2013
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    So the installs from the amazon promotion come under the small per cent of paid installs? That makes it more tough.
    Something should be done (though I don't know what) to make it not so easy to install pirate apks. I had a problem with something I'd purchased on google play and the dev emailed me a previous stable build, it was as simple as opening the attachment on my device.
     
  4. ROGER-NL

    ROGER-NL Well-Known Member

    May 21, 2012
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    Monument Valley is for me the best IOS game to date, and I am happy to have paid for it, two times.

    It's just as important as Vincent van Gogh.
     
  5. nemerleb

    nemerleb Well-Known Member

    Jan 19, 2013
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    Sad reality of the gaming industry nowadays.That's why all the people whining and crying about Nintendo's doom and why they should come to ios and android are obviously pirates, and will never support the games. Even with the rampant DS and Wii piracy, Nintendo sold boatloads of hardware and made bank. I'm mad Sony dropped the ball on the Vita because we need more solid dedicated consoles to stand in face of that trend.

    For me the devs (Ustwo and others) have no place to cry about sales and such. They knew for a fact what they were getting into: developping for iOS is cheaper than doing so on consoles, plus they can get away with IAP and releasing a 1h 3$ experience on mobile - whereas they won't be able to do that for a home console (console gamers are more prone to boycotting than smartphone gamers). If they bought a 3DS/WiiU/PS kit, and upped their dev costs, they could have released the FULL game on these devices and made more money.
    So they don't get sympathy from me. They thought it was an easy-money method and lost the game. Too bad.
     
  6. coolpepper43

    coolpepper43 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Aug 31, 2012
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    How did they lose the game. They must have still made a sizable profit. It sold very well, it was in the top list for games for months.
     
  7. JCho133

    JCho133 Well-Known Member

    Jul 27, 2012
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    That is one of the most idiotic things I have ever read on these forums.
     
  8. Anonomation

    Anonomation 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    We're in a catch 22. Piracy encourages freemium and in turn freemuim encourages piracy. Is this our future?

    Those percentages are just godawful.
     
  9. nemerleb

    nemerleb Well-Known Member

    Jan 19, 2013
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    I don't have a problem with that whatsoever. Game developping has become such an easy things with smartphone. Your random dad who dabbles in this can try his hand at making a game and puttting it up on iTunes. Just go to the dev section and see the topics being made.
    My point was aimed at devs who enter a market knowing very well all the benefits they are taking as opposed to the dedicated console market, and yet whine about not making profits. So they only have themselves to blame for whatever reason their strategy didn't take off.
    Finally they are reaping the backlash from a system they set themselves to begin with: free-to-play and IAPs, which devalued completely their games, and sprad like wildfire in the dedicated industry.

    After all of these points please tell me I'm being idiotic (not that I care since I don't see you trying to make sense of the situation and developping your ideas and opinion in a constructive and polite manner)
     
  10. indalico

    indalico Well-Known Member

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    #10 indalico, Jan 6, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 6, 2015
    This is the same game where it did extremely well for the developer and they are going to continue making more mobile games, right? I recall a developer saying something like that, and my memory says it's them and describing this game.

    Interesting stats from them. If the game has done well for them, they deserve praise for not hanging it up before making the excellent Monument Valley.


    edit: They later stated on twitter "We’re not complaining at all by the way, it’s to be expected. It’s just interesting data."
     
  11. nemerleb

    nemerleb Well-Known Member

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    Yeah when I read some articles, they haven't stated that yet, and I don't own a twitter account. That softens me up a bit lol but my point still stands on the current sitatuation!
    I am trying to think why they would need to publish these facts and state them as "interesting". Is it to demonstrate how andoid users are complete pirates next to ios users, and that Apple has more appeal to "hardcore" gamers who are ready to shell out money for their games?
     
  12. iPadisGreat

    iPadisGreat Well-Known Member

    Dec 10, 2012
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    Actually freemium just drove me away from iOS gaming back onto the consoles...

    iPadisPlaying101ClonesOfCounterstrikeOnXBox360...
     
  13. september

    september Well-Known Member

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    This is pretty much what Freemium did for me also
     
  14. nemerleb

    nemerleb Well-Known Member

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    But the mobile format is slowly gaigning ground on console. That's the scary thing.
     
  15. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    Mobile gaming is what you make of it. Yeah theres tons of freemium games, theres also tons of non-freemium games

    I make sure i buy as many good premium games i can as i want that to be successful and i 'hope' my one sale helps.

    I've still got tons of apps i've hoarded over the years, if i never bought another app for 2 years i've still got plenty of games to play. Wouldnt get bored!

    Obviously pirating doesnt help one bit, but also people here who beg for promo codes non stop (there are some users who's only posts are non stop competition/promo code begging) and never mention buying games or waiting for price drops

    I mean Oceanhorn is a classic game, nearly 2 years later people are happy as they picked it up and saved a few dollars in a sale.

    Again you want less freemium ? Buy games and stop waiting for price drops/promo codes
     
  16. ROGER-NL

    ROGER-NL Well-Known Member

    May 21, 2012
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    For me IOS gaming is way cheaper than console gaming and much more fun.
     
  17. Handle

    Handle Well-Known Member

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    I was shocked the iOS Piracy was that high, I kind of expect it from Android (not 95%!) but it's more expected.

    Monument Valley is definitely on my radar. Need to buy it, looks great.
     
  18. Teknikal

    Teknikal Well-Known Member

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    #18 Teknikal, Jan 9, 2015
    Last edited: Jan 9, 2015
    To be honest I'm done with buying things from Google Play I don't advocate piracy or anything but I'm sick of Google removing apps I've paid for and it isn't like apple where you can still download a copy.

    They just vanish completely and the first time you notice it's gone is if you scan your purchased apps, I've lost several apps like this everything from ebook readers to Icon packs Google just seems to kick apps completely randomly for the stupidest of reasons and to me it feels like outright theft.

    edit: I'll also just say Amazons Xmas deals and offers where heavily promoted places like reddit I looked at them myself and decided the Amazon app wasn't worth having even with the freebies. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if the majority of the installs were actually legit.

    Also free 2 play isn't a piracy solution because those are pirated too with infinite coins/gems whatever added and in those cases I have no sympathy at all, I still see those apps as nothing but preying on the weakminded.

    The stats also do not take into account that the game may have been installed onto multiple devices that the purchaser owns.
     
  19. Deewin

    Deewin Well-Known Member

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    I can't say I resonate with the gaming community much, because in the forums it seems like everyone is a know it all and developers/publishers know nothing, at least from what I've seen. Based on sales numbers, Freemium gaming is the absolute future of gaming and some gaming companies like supercell games are making hundreds of millions of dollars a year, which isn't bad for a 4-5 year gaming company.

    I think I'm almost done with buying premium apps on iOS and heres why. On the PC I can get X-com enemy unknown for let's say 20 bucks and I know I can probably play the game years from now because steam isn't going anywhere. But on iOS I'll pay maybe the same price and even if I paid 10 bucks I learned that you can't play the game years from now! I'm not talking about iOS compatibility, but 2kgames actually PULLED enemy unknown from the app store because they want to sell more copys of enemy within! I know you can probably download from the purchased apps menu, but there have been apps pulled from that. I haven't checked for Xcom, but it seems that apps need to be made compatible with the latest iOS to be glitch free and owners of that game are pretty much out of luck when it comes to support. So If I"m going to continue to buy apps, I have to buy with the intention of beating the game within a reasonable amount of time and not really expect support or even play the app anymore a year or so from now.
     
  20. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    Granted there will be some games like that but not every single one. I also don't update to the latest OS unless there's a feature I really want. I have lots of old games and I'm sure some won't work

    Plus I backup all my IPA files so it doesn't matter if an app is taken off the App Store

    Of course x-com is better on PC but for mobile gaming having the game with me so I can easily play anywhere is brilliant. Specially for the sake of 10 dollars or so. Still cheap as anything
     

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