recently more and more developers crying over piracy on their games and said that 75% of the piracy owns their games. could this end iphone gaming? seems like the stats showed that most iphone users are not into gaming and even if they play some games, these casual gamers rather go for lite versions instead? Does introducing the lite version and $0.99 sales trend kills the games and profits? we also see a lot of games sales in just after 1-2 weeks when launched. is this a sign of poor sales? i think people prefer to wait because they know prices will drop further somehow? are there actually any facts that iphone gaming is doing well in general as a gaming platform, or we are just seeing some lucky game titles getting some profits.
Piracy has always been an issue with digital media but I don't think it will kill iphone gaming because there's always new developers eager to hop on the bandwagon. I'm guessing Piracy is only going to get bigger though as time goes on because some people just get plain sick of buying apps so much even though they most are only a few bucks or less. I'm pretty sure there will always be people buying apps even though it's not the majority of the people who play them. I probably won't buy apps as much anymore because I never get around to playing and finishing the ones I already have. It used to be the other way around but now I prefer to buy and finish the more commercial apps like Broken sword and GTA vs buying a boatload of indy apps for a few bucks or less. It's just too much to keep up with after a while!
Of course not, developers have benefits like: - Great supporting crowd of customers in forums like this one - People offer their time to help beta testing/translating a game for free. Big companys usually have to pay for these services. - No need to go through complex legal mumbo jumbo to obtain a SDK, no need to be an official developer. If you meet the hardware requirements, you´re in. Unlike Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft, Apple doesn´t handpick their developers. Anyone can supply his/her app/game to the App Store. - Using forums, developers can keep direct contact with their customers - Utilizing DLC in a clever way can breath fresh air into an obsolete game (Think The Creeps), while preventing piracy at the very same time. - The developers have the opportunity to use Promo Codes to promote their game, so they´ll happen to have many people advertising their game on their Blog, Twitter or at least write a good review on the App Store - At this time there are not many big companys developing for the iDevice, so the competition is not even remotely as high as on the NDS or the PSP. The App Store is an Indies Paradise right now.
Yes, you've got a point there. I can't keep up with the new releases every single day - and really haven't played most of my apps at length. In the first month, I bought 20+ games. In the second month I am owning my iPhone I bought 15+ games. This month, it was 6 - 7 games I bought so far. I like to support the indie devs as well as playing a bigger title sometimes. But where from should I take the time to play all this stuff? Maybe next month it will be just 2-3 titles. And after that, just one? Maybe Final Fantasy only? I am going to pre-select the games I want to buy right now and I am starting to go for the bigger titles. Next month it will be PvZ, for example, maybe the 100 Rogues game (if released), an indie game... and that's it. How am I supposed to help more indie devs? I simply haven't the time to play all day. And my friends and cousins behaviour of buying is changing also, same way as I am doing. I have no need for games that are just laying around useless on my iPhone anymore.
Of course not. The iPhone has struggled with piracy ever since the first game was released on the Appstore, but 18 months later, the iPhone is ever growing, not dying.
Hah, yeah. There are three games on my wish list right now. Broken Sword, PvZ and Towers in Space. (2 Indies and one bigger title) But i just don´t have that much time on my hand to play all of em. I´ll possibly buy em next month though.
Haha, my oh my, i´ve already spent so many bucks for games this month, so i have to be a bit picky on the price tags.
perhaps developers should consider giving game updates to existing games. Game updates means a lot to their fans and is what makes the game a classic. how come there are so few quality games with good updates? this puzzles me. this is one good tactic to entice gamers and stays competitive in iphone gaming. I think defender chronicles did very well
Remember when napster came out like 10 years ago and everyone thought it would be the end of the record industry. Well the industry has changed but bands are still putting out full length records by the dozen. So pirating is inevitable and is getting bigger. But so is the number of people with iphones and ipod touches and hopefully many of these are honest people who will pay for the applications. Its just amazing to me that someone can't fork over a couple bucks for a good game that provides hours of entertaining, but they don't mind going to McDonald's and getting 3 double cheeseburgers for 3 bucks and enjoying the many calories that it provides and the 3 minutes of joy followed by the 30 minutes of "oh my god did I just eat all of those!"
@Vovin: I am experiencing the same thing. I just don't have the time anymore. I think I've bought one game this month.
asking will iphone gaming die due to piracy. isnt it the same thing as asking will the music industry die due to piracy. will the movie industry die due to piracy. NO IT WONT.
Yes, and that's not all... Besides the 50+ games I bought in three month, there are another 70 free/lite version/aventcalendar/promo code games residing on my iPhone. All eleven pages are full and I don't know how to add more pages. But even if I could... when am I supposed to play 'em all? And: no. iPhone gaming won't die due to piracy. The number of freshly released games is ascending day by day, not descending. Look at the releases a year ago and the releases now.
Like music people demand things for a certain price point but there will always be some who won't pay ether way. Right now the thing the iPhone has going for it is that it's the cheapest gaming platform in history. It's one thing to download a $60 EA game and quite another to cheat an indie developer out of a dollar.
I totally agree with you, Neehan. It's drive me nut, to see how many people jailbreak there iPhone just to have free games. It isn't like music and/or movies...:the singers can always do show to get some profits and money and for movies there's theaters to get profits...But for iPhone gaming (correct me if I'M wrong) there's no way except to buy those games.