Some new data about app piracy was released, and had this thought that I wanted to share while the topic is back on people's minds. My feeling is that a large part of the piracy problem is caused by teenagers without access to credit cards or payment options. Asking their parents every time they want to download an app is more trouble than just grabbing a pack of 20 games from a torrent site. I think it would be great if AT&T or iTunes started selling parents on adding iTunes credit to their children's accounts in a monthly amount. The parents subscribe them, and the kids get a set amount of money to spend on iTunes each month. This might exist in some form, but I don't believe it can be added to a phone account, and I've never seen iTunes promote it, especially not for apps. But, I think if parents bought into it, we could see a lot more sales from impulsive kids, and a decrease in the amount they pirate for apps that they would normally pay for.
Parents can also order them online and get a virtual gift card emailed. I don't know enough about the iphone/ipod hardware, but xbox/playstations were only able to play pirated games if they were hard modded. No one in the right mind would go mod their iphone to play games if that's what it took.
To mod the iPod, or iPhone is just 1 click now a days.... no hardware mods needed where have you been?
Yeah, gift cards fill the same function. But, they are marketed as a tool for buying music. I guess, it would help if parents were more conscious that kids need money to buy these games. Software is basically an honor-based system and I think parents would find ways to help keep their kids honest if they realized their children were just gonna take what they can't buy. Getting AT&T to put an automatic amount of credit on a child's account, just like texting or voice minutes would be great for those of us trying to sell games.
It must be nice to be a kid these days!! I can just imagine my parents reaction if I'd asked them for an extra allowance for games when I was a kid.
I don't worry about piracy anymore. People will either pay for games or not, and there isn't much we can do to change it.
what ever happened to "you get nothing, and like it!" that's what my dad used to say. Why do kids need to have such luxuries? If you don't have a job, you don't get no games! Honestly, you're assuming everyone has money here. What about the kids that download games because their parents are poor and they have a stolen iPhone/touch?
I know. I've tried it myself. No security feature is completely safe, but some may set enough of a barrier (require a hardware mod) to deter most casual pirates. I just remember it was a huge PITA to mod the PS2 (51 pin solder or something) and risked bricking the whole thing. It's probably an unfair comparison since consoles have to have the physical disc in the drive.
There's already a solution like that from Apple. You can give your kids a monthly allowance to their iTunes account. And you don't have to give them your credit card. Kids still get allowance nowadays, right? This would be the same thing.
Nice. That's exactly what I was thinking. Now they should just do an ad campaign promoting it for games.
I could never take that attitude with my products; it's completely unfair to my customers to say I don't worry/care about piracy. They've been honest and paid me for a copy. I feel that if I said, "people will either pay for games or not, we shouldn't worry about it," it would be a slap in the face to the customers and make them wonder, "Why shouldn't I also pirate his games if he doesn't care that some people don't pay?" That's always been my biggest frustration with piracy It's not just that the people are stealing a product, it's that their dishonesty gets it for free, while the honest people are working and paying for their games, movies, or music. Blah, sorry just ranting.
Possible all time fix? If i were a developer this is what i would do. 1: Always always make a lite version with any application you put out, but here is what you do. If its a game with levels and lets say you have 10 lvls in your game put in the first level but also include a timer that expires within 30 seconds. This gives the person enough time to see if the game play style, controls, and also see if your game is fun. If its a puzzle type add 1 type of puzzle for each different type of puzzle IE: If you have a puzzle game with different categories, Box ,circle , Triangle then include 1 of each type. no need to have a light version have 20 puzzles and a paid version have 100. its a lite keep it lite. If its a picture type app like "animals in outer space" (made up app) include only one pic of each animal vs 5 or 10 of each Make a little box open up explaining this is a lite to show off the quality of your images, and the different options they will have. 2: For Paid small apps this is what you do , You make what I'm going to call "a Shell" When you go to download the game its FREE, but has not one Byte of gameplay, if your game has a video intro feel free to add it but as soon as its over have a pop up box come up and say due to Piracy the game is only available through DLC . Then with an option to "proceed to DL game" - or "remove" This idea will probably work with only small size games but i have another solution for larger games 3: For paid larger apps it has the same concept as #2 with the exception you add all the content except the most important feature that makes the game run. this is what i mean. For first person shooter make the controls be the DLC. for driving type games let the cars be sold as a pack (they will still remain a locked part of the game that has to be opened by completing X event and so forth) but in now way are these cars transferable w/out going through itunes and re-downloading it. this is just 2 examples,I strongly feel those who are willing to buy it will have no problem being redirected to itunes and having to pay through DLC and the ones who will go out and get a cracked version click "delete" These methods can be utilized in any game or app it just requires a little bit more effort from the developer and i feel those who want what the developers have to offer will have to pay and any app not payed for should never work for the non paying customer. One last thing.. I'm very aware that a lot of developers already offer free games with DLC but with their versions you can fully play their games with not having to pay a dime. The idea here is to figure out how to put money in your pockets(the devs) for your hard work without putting free games into the pockets of the non paying person. Now i don't know if this will work, but its an idea i have not seen mentioned and my goal is for you damn hard working developers to make the money you deserve to keep making and bettering the games we buy. What are you guys opinions?
I absolutely detest piracy, but hell, its a lot better than shop-lifting. You may think its a matter of giving them an easier way to purchase apps, but face it, kids are selfish and sometimes despicable. They won't buy something unless they positively have to. You'd be surprised at what they would do just to break the rules and get what they want.
I've heard you can make more money off of ads in a free app than off of making people pay for the app. I wouldn't mind having an ad in a paid app as long as it is unobtrusive. I have actually seen a piracy blocking addon to themes in jailbreak. It'd be nice if more people included it in their themes, as I'm sure 99% of pirates have Winterboard.
iTouch? Yeah, but then there's that thing about AT&T not being at all involved with the app store or iTunes in any way shape or form, besides giving 3G access to them. That's all apple's domain of sales now... maybe instead of that, having an option to charge a certain amount of money to your iTunes account.. now THERE's an idea!
