Hi, Currently I'm out of business as game developer, but I made some games in the early years of the app store. The other day I have read that several developers are basically out of business due to piracy. I'm wondering if Apple really does not have a method to prevent unpaid games to be played pn iOS devices or if they have it already but do not implement it for any other reason. I have an easy method to prevent unpaid iOS games to be played so I'm really wondering why Apple just dont implement a method like mine. I mean, protect the developer as client and business. What do you think guys?
Piracy is issue on every system including mobile, consoles, and PC. Sadly, I don't think anyone really knows of a fix.
You can - make it free with premium unlock FFS!That's what Ryan Mitchell did with Mission Europa 1 - it was indeed really successful.
Thats valid for both sides, though, isn't it? You can try to fend off hackers, but someone will always find a way around.
Without DRM is almost impossible, however something I saw that some devs do is update constantly their games, pirates CAN get the game, however they CAN'T update them so unless a pirate takes the time to crack the game all the times it gets updated, pirates will need to buy it in order to get a better version on the game.
But that doesn't fix anything. That one person who bought the game can still put it up online and the rest can still hang on to that.
I believe you can't stop piracy. But there is a way to avoid unpaid games to be played, no matter if pirated or not, but Apple must work together with every developer integrating a system to achieve this goal. Maybe is just a dream. Thanks for your answers guys.
Yeah, but (at least to me) it would be a chore, keeping the game up to date would mean at least giving a F' for the game post release, something that most pirates lack
Internet connections are 100% sure way of prevention. Server Side IAP to unlock the FullGame! No need to be completely connected 100% of the time; just to unlock the iAP. I mean it's very very easy to prevent piracy; make every application free; Make the IAP available and server side
i don't think Apple has spent enough energy trying to combat this problem directly, from a developers point of view. They have one of the largest market caps in the world, and they lose about 40-50% of their sales revenue because people are basically stealing the games/apps. And the struggling game developers are hurt even more. Could you imagine spending you life savings developing a game and your personal time, taking the time to do it right, then publishing it. And then checking flurry statistics and realizing that most of your sales are unpaid because someone ripped off your ipa and uploaded it on a server? This is not a developer issue, it is an issue with Apple. They are the only ones that can really slow this down, by technology. Sure, there are many things a developer can do to make it harder, but it seems to me that Apple really needs to take this on.
If apple provided a server service to those who could not authenticate each transaction, apple could possibly see an overall increase in gross profits by minimalizing lost revenue. Small devs florish, quality goes up. Just a dream.
I don't think it's just apple. I was really suprised at how easy it is to download illegally on that platform. When I got my phone I was looking for android versions of some of my fave ios games, and the top links were to the apk file. I won't download dodgy stuff but I was suprised at how simple it's was. You don't even need to mess about with jailbrake and stuff. I'm not sure frequent updates make much of a difference, the new version is up again very quickly, so it doesn't seem to be a chore, or it's not putting people off from what I've seen.
piracy almost killed the music industry. It is surprising that we have not seen significant improvement in this, from Apple, for games and apps. If they made it harder, they would actually improve their own profits for paid games. There are plenty of people who "steal" games who would able to afford them.
I don't have the stats, figures, and numbers available, but it's still a business decision for them at this point. Currently, Apple's raking in the dough whether or not they help the little guy or not. I'd gander there's plenty of their 30% cut coming in from top ranked games alone, let alone stuff that's outside the top 100, but still highly rated. If they have to spend x amount of effort, but only make y amount of $$ where y is a fraction of $$ they recoup in lost costs, but really needed to recoup much more $$ than that to make it worth their manpower (approving other apps, etc.) then it just makes sense for them to not bother. Again, they're already making lots of $$ now. As sad as it is to say, they can afford it if developers leave the arena. I don't think so either. Every update of the OS, there's the benefit of keeping the jailbreakers out, but a jailbreak for the new version gets released in due time as well. Sometimes it takes a year AFAIK? but jailbreakers aren't irked if they don't have the latest version of iOS 'RIGHT NOW'. It should come to no surprise that you can find many IPA files easily online as well. There's a higher barrier to entry there since you need to jailbreak your iOS device, but if pirates really wanted to go that route, they'll be plenty motivated to do so. Plus, with iOS having alot of the good stuff, if they're successful, there are solid rewards for their efforts if it's successful.