So some of you may be aware that I released a new game this week called Bear Paw. If you don't know what it is you can read the thread here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=33512 and a user review here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=33771 Anyway from the quick calculation I've done it would look like the piracy rate is 75% or only 1 in 4 copies being played were purchased.... Be interesting to see if that is sustained and what the play profile of the pirate copies are over time.
how you come up with the 418%? but ya it sucks getting ripped off like that. hope Bear Paw will have reasonable sale, enough so you wont have to worry about ppl pirating it
100% would mean that every copy is pirated, it can't be more than 100%, that's not how you calculate it, read Palfince comment. But yeah, that suck...
do what meteor blitz did. They let you play the first world and after that they said to buy the game for the full experience. its on Alley Lab's site.
Yes your quite right should be 75%, take it from shock of working out the number and forgetting to do the last step in to %s
Hi, This is a shame. Unfortunately, the popularity of the Iphone brings out all the pirates. Then again, it also gives us all these great developers that we need to support. I do hope this does not keep you from further development. Wish there was a simple solution here but there does not, unfortunately. Good luck with the game and I really hope the legal numbers go up. David
I think you have to put an asterisk next to those numbers. That is terrible that your rates are so high, but I wonder just how many actual sales you lost. How many of those people really had no intention on buying the game anyway? If they couldn't pirate it, would they have bought it? I have a feeling there are alot of people who try everything, just because they can. Still sucks to hear piracy is so rampant, especially considering the prices of these applications. I think if you cannot afford a dollar or two every now and then, you probably should not have purchased an Iphone\touch in the first place.
Hi, It really does not matter if they did not intend to buy, do not pirate something that someone put a lot of time, effort, and money into as a way to support themselves and/or family. There is no rationalizing that makes sense. Sorry for the rant, just this subject is important and needs to be addressed. David
Do a free app with DLC like ngmoco is doing. You give the first level for free and purchase the rest from the inside. Auditorium is doing something similar.
Hi, As a customer, the Ngmoco method does not work for me. I am in the minority but I have stayed away from their offerings a result of this. David
I am not trying to rationalize piracy, nor am not saying it is right, but just what I think is happening. Unfortunately, every industry whether its movies\music\computer games\xbox\ps3 or the app store deals with huge amounts of piracy. Every DVD can be cracked, every computer game can be cracked, every app can be cracked. That is the way it has been and until we all have to login to NSA supercomputers to hyper analyze everything we own for authenticity, the way it will probably remain. Honestly, If they can successfully crack Windows7\XP\Vista, products that come from the one of the richest companies in the world, I don't hold much hope of Apps becoming uncrackable.
Hi, Blueseas25, apologies if my post implied you were ratonalizing piracy, that was not my intent. My point was that any reason is the wrong reason for piracy. Just your post brought up a reason that pirates use, not that you were rationalizing it. You are right, it will continue to happen but hopefully by discussing it, we can change some mindsets and hopefully curb the piracy. David
Which is the perfect statistic to prove that some pirates would have bought the game if they didn't pirate it. If not, that piracy rate wouldn't grow faster than sales rates. With such a number growing, this means that your game is gaining interest to pirates. And if a product interests someone, he justs buys it, doesn't steal it. As I said in another thread, I suggest you to send these stats to other serious gaming sites like Gamasutra, Pocketgamer, Slide2play, or even Macrumors and Engadget. They're often doing articles about piracy. Those numbers are interesting and could be analyzed to an article. Mediatize piracy, so that Apple just gives it a damn.
when sales is not as expected, it maybe due to market share. also mean that your game is not pick up well by people out there. some of the best sellers games such as doodle jump or flight control also have many piracy but they also do very well in the mainstream.
PS3 games can be pirated now? I must be missing some really important breakthrough then, since I remember they weren't piratable just this September in the fastest pirate technology breakthrough country. =O
