I'm confused, dont App Store games have some sort of copyright/DRM ?

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Distinct88, Oct 14, 2011.

  1. Distinct88

    Distinct88 Well-Known Member

    Apr 6, 2010
    73
    0
    0
    First and foremost, I'm sorry if this is the wrong board, or if my post is in any way against the TOS. I don't post here very often. Feel free to move/delete my post if it's in the wrong section/illegal.

    So I've recently become a huge iOS gamer after selling my console.
    Have a iPhone 4 and a iPad 2.

    Just now, I bought like 9 games on my iPad (I can't believe how cheap they are compared to console games), and I was going to rebuy two of them on my girlfriends iPhone so we could play together (Worms and Dungeon Hunter 2).

    Anyway, I took up my girlfriends iPhone, went to the app store, found Dungeon Hunter 2 and pressed buy, and got the notification to log into my app store account. Not really focusing, I logged onto my own app store account instead of hers, and got the message that I've already bought this game, so I could download it for free.

    Now my curiosity got the best of me, and I pressed okay to download so I could see if it would work.
    Downloaded and started the game without any problems.

    Even when I logged off my account and on my girlfriends account she could still play the game.

    So I searched google for answers, found nothing, and then came here.

    I'm sure this can't be intended. How on earth does apple/developers make money when one person can download a game and give his account info to 20 of his friends and they all get it for free ?

    Was this a bug ? Is there something I'm missing ?

    If this was a bug, where can I report it ?

    Thank you.
     
  2. r2ks8x

    r2ks8x Well-Known Member

    Aug 19, 2011
    640
    0
    0
    so you've played an HD version of DH2 on iphone ? :eek:
     
  3. Distinct88

    Distinct88 Well-Known Member

    Apr 6, 2010
    73
    0
    0
    No, I downloaded the iPhone version so me and my girlfriend could play together even when I'm using my iPhone. :)
     
  4. backtothis

    backtothis im in ur base killin ur d00dz
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold Patreon Bronze

    Jul 13, 2009
    13,250
    1
    0
    college student (junior)
    Houston/Austin, TX
    #4 backtothis, Oct 14, 2011
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2011
    You can redownload a game as many times as possible once you've purchased it on any device or computer. It's intended. How do they make money? I sure sure as hell wouldn't trust anyone with my credit card besides my family and my girlfriend. Would you? I share my games across 4 iOS devices and 3 computers. This applies to songs as well. So, unless you're a huge supporter of certain developers, I wouldn't buy any games more than once. Apple actually encourages this. This is what "Home Sharing" on iTunes is for. I don't think they intend for people outside of your family to get this benefit though. Like I said, most people wouldn't share an account attached to their credit cards anyways.
     
  5. farmboy74

    farmboy74 Well-Known Member

    Aug 26, 2011
    179
    0
    0
    Uk
    This is another reason why I love IOS and my consoles are getting less and less play time. If my kids want to get into gaming it will be far cheaper on this platform as I can share the apps across multiple devices.
     
  6. lord-sam

    lord-sam Well-Known Member

    Feb 25, 2009
    2,482
    0
    0
    United Kingdom
    I think you can only add up to 5 devices. Just like songs on iTunes can be shared across 5 PCs.

    People would get angry if they had to buy a copy for their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. (but if they have all those devices they should afford 99c!!)
     
  7. C.Hannum

    C.Hannum Well-Known Member

    Feb 13, 2011
    2,512
    0
    36
    New York State
    To the best of my knowledge, there is no hard limit on the number of devices (just like with music), but the computer authorization limit is still enforced. So, sure, a person might be able to log in and download a game to 20 of their friend's iDevices directly, but those friends will never be able to update without you showing up to authorize the update, and they won't be able to transfer it from their computer to any other devices because their computer won't be authorized. Think of it as a generous loan system ;)

    At any rate, it's precisely because Apple's DRM system is as out of your way as it is that I do spend so much money with them. If it was like Nintendo's godawful tied to the device DRM, or like many systems on competing platforms where you can only transfer it a certain number of times, I would have never bothered. Instead you've got a four member family where everyone has use of an iDevice and while we may not be buying multiple of every title, we are buying a lot of titles :D
     

Share This Page