Oct 23
We wrote an article on App Store Piracy. You can find it here:
In summary, Tap-Fu has been pirated a lot. We discuss many of the things we’ve noticed and possibly a few things that we can do to try and manage it a bit.
We wrote an article on App Store Piracy. You can find it here:
In summary, Tap-Fu has been pirated a lot. We discuss many of the things we’ve noticed and possibly a few things that we can do to try and manage it a bit.
Hi,
I just found your blog entry on slashdot and bought your app. I am a casual gamer myself and not a skilled one. It is the first time I buy apps for a phone even though I used to own a smartphone in the past. I would like you to know that you will always see people who pirate software. Some people simply do not have the necessary ethics or will do what is easier for them. I find the App Store the easiest way to get quality software in great prices. The economies of scale that are inherent in the App Store, as a developer gets a broader audience for his apps, allow you to sell for less to me as a consumer and I do not have to think twice about buying an App. You app is currently 1.59 Euros on the Greek App Store so I bought it at a blink of an eye. It may suck badly as I haven’t played it yet or it might be great. At 1,59 I can surely afford the risk. I know I have been playing a lot more than I deed before I bought the iPhone. From time to time I have bought software that I had pirated before, just because I thought it was worth it. I have not pirated any app on the iPhone as I do not see any sense in that. Also I have felt punished in the past for buying instead of pirating when I tried to play CounterStrike with some friends who had pirated and guess what? I had to install a pirated copy myself to play with them… Still I think that Steam and the App Store provide me with an easier way to get games at reasonable prices.
Do what you think is best to protect your sales but do know that if you treat your customers as thieves, you will only get thieves for customers…
Valerio
Ah, you’ve just learned what I learned back in the early 80’s — “Thieves don’t buy”.
I used to get really, really steamed about all the piracy of my games, and spent a lot of time trying to fight it, but I finally realized that its effect in terms of lost sales was negligible.
The real challenge isn’t stopping piracy, it’s ensuring that the thieves don’t impose support costs on you.
Best,R
I’m curious about how you are detecting the pirates. I have an app that I’m about to release and I’d like to be able to track stats much like you did. In our case, pirates have the potential to be a significant economic burden on the service, since customers use real resources, but it will also be simple enough to disable iphone access for users that don’t pay, if we decide that that is the appropriate response.
The easiest is looking for specific files that have gone missing but it’s not the only way. If you buy an app off of itunes and then download it (From appulous or something), rename the .ipa files to .zip and decompress them, you should be able to spot a ton of differences as well.
I must honestly say that I was a bit surprised at seeing the 0% conversion rate. But I am also quite sure that measuring, if such a test were possible, how many people would have bought the game if they couldn’t have downloaded a pirated version, the result would be about the same. I agree with your conclusion that the effect on actual sales is negligible.
People who download pirated content usually download it not as a substitute for the real product, but simply because it is free. Would they have to pay even a few cents for it, they would either not download it, or just download something else. It’s a matter of “it’s free so why not have a look at it” rather than “it’s free so I don’t have to pay for it”. People who actually get pirated content instead of legitimate copies are usually ones who wouldn’t have the money or the possibility to purchase an original in the first place.
I like how objectively you look at this. Knowing the entertainment media business from both a consumer and a producer perspective, I know how it must feel to see your work being widely pirated, but let me assure you that you have the right attitude. Focusing your efforts on the pirates by trying to prevent them from copying your products is a waste of time and money because on one hand it is a hopeless cause, and on the other hand these people are not even your customers. You will never see any money from them, so why even pay any attention to them? People need to instead focus on their actual (and potential) buyers, and cater to their needs, not only for direct financial success but also if they are hoping for repeat sales.
The PC game business is currently doing the exact opposite, shooting itself in the foot by pissing off their legitimate customers with draconian DRM schemes that makes playing their games tedious if not impossible. The afflicted buyers will think twice before buying their next game. People are not unwilling to pay for stuff they like. Treating them with respect and making them feel like they get something great in return is the best, if not only way of creating an incentive to buy.
Yeah.
The thing is guys, and I’m not meaning to be rude, I would venture that the reason your game is seeing no priate conversions is a lot simpler than you want to admit to.
Tap Fu is not very good. I’m a legitimate purchaser and I played your game for about 5 minutes. It’s one dimensional and unchallenging. If I’d been able to play a demo of it I would not have bought it. Your game has good production values and all (for an iPhone game) but it’s just very… blah. Average. Uninteresting.
Most games are very blah. Most games are very uninteresting. What you’re not seeing is that the “try before buy” argument often concludes with the realisation (once tried) that a game is not worth buying. I’d bet that many games therefore don’t get a lot of conversions because they aint worth it.
Sorry.
I really don’t mean to sound like a troll but I feel the truth is that your game is just not worth purchase after trying.
No problems man. It’s definitely something that we’ve considered. But these guys are playing it for hours at a time and dominating the high score list. It’s not that they are playing it for 5 minutes and deleting it.
As for your problems with the game, I’d love to hear about them. We are planning many patches and any suggestions you have would be helpful. We’ve already begun incorporating ideas from others to make it better.
But are they doing because the game is good or it is a competition by the people that downloaded? Patch a single survey into the game to figure it out.
Unfortunately I have to second that. I’ve read your article and went to AppStore to buy the game. I’ve deleted it after 10 minutes: it looks nice, but sooo boring. I would better go through Live4Ever for the third time.
Change your perspective on piracy and business in just 10 easy steps!
1. I haven’t played your game but going off the comments posted, your number one problem is that you need to improve the game. No ones going to pay for something that is boring and provides no value to them.
2. Piracy is not the problem, see above, and also because piracy is an indication that a particular business model isn’t working. In your case, the product itself lacks the quality of being desirable to the public, let alone pirates.
3. Piracy happens. Fighting it is useless, you will spend more time, money, and effort trying to combat it than you would finding a solid strategy makes you money because people want your product or something related to that product. If you can offer it for free and give people a compelling reason to buy an addition or other product, then you will be successful. Right now, if you work through Apple’s system, it’s not very easy to branch out with new ideas, but limitations breed creativity and that can be an opportunity you are missing if all you’re doing is blaming piracy for your troubles.
4. Pirating games, music, movies, any content is not a moral issue, period. I don’t have a moral obligation to buy anything out there. Piracy, however, is not a right either. I do not have the right to download somebody else’s content because I don’t want to pay for it. Yet this is where the two ideas cross and become confused. Most people believe that if someone doesn’t have the right to something, it is then a moral issue and should be dealt with accordingly, but this is narrow thinking and false. The two ideas are related, but distinctly different. I have no moral obligation to pay for your product, just as you have no moral obligation to provide me with a valuable product. However, if the value is presented in such a way that I feel compelled to provide you with money for your product, you have the right to profit from your hard work just as I have the right to recognize and buy your product. That’s business at its finest.
5. People who provide content and expect to be paid for it are lazy. This ruffles some feathers a bit, but let me explain that it’s not laziness in a traditional sense, but laziness in expectation. It could be said that by downloading something without paying for that copy is not a nice thing to do and that those who create and when their creations are used, deserve fair payment, but it’s irrelevant when there are other ways out there that money can be made. Those that complain they aren’t being compensated for their creations haven’t put the effort into finding effective and compelling reasons for people to buy. In a digital economic environment, don’t expect money from the product, but from the community that forms around it.
6. You MUST explore your options and experiment in different approaches that work to build stronger communities willing to spend money to be a part of the product or the community itself. If you don’t, you WILL fail. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Simply feeling like you’re entitled to get paid and that somebody should be punished is nothing more than pouting and foot stomping that does not address the matter and usually just makes it worse.
7. Embracing the community that builds around your product is the key to success, and that community INCLUDES pirates as well. If there is a rise in piracy of your content, something you have done has had a diminishing effect that needs to be fixed right away. Look at the pirate community as a free business analyst. When there is a drop in piracy of your content, you’re doing something very well, keep doing it but don’t be afraid to continue exploring new ways to make the community happy. You will reap very hefty rewards for your work.
8. Recognize and examine the real profit. Stop viewing money as the only compensatory option you have. I’m going to keep saying this because it needs to be said, but community is extremely valuable. It is its own form of payment, just as valuable, if not more so than money. Get the dollar signs out of your eyes and recognize what it takes to make money, what the actual value of your work entails and what the true value is, rather how much money you can get.
9. Understand that no one feels sorry for you except for the community of individuals that also feel sorry themselves because they believe they’re entitled to same kinds of things. Notice that if there’s a community of people that don’t care about your success or failure, but that do care about what you can offer them, it’s your job to give them something valuable that they are willing to pay for. How you determine what that value is, is the hardest part and you need to focus most of your energy on defining it. If you embrace that community and they welcome you, they are more inclined to support you so long as you continue to offer something of value. When you neglect that community or you alienate them, the community has every right to find something else better. Yes, that is a right and not a moral issue.
10. Finally, it’s never too late to embrace new possibilities. In fact, every single company, artist, programmer, content creator out there should be fiercely competing to find new ways to grab people’s attention, not their money. Finding ways to give things away that yield profitable return is the goal here. The money is the afterthought, it’s the reward you’re given for performing well and smartly recognizing what the value is to the customer. Ultimately, the customer is going to choose whether or not to give you money based on the value you provide for them. If they don’t give you money, don’t fret about why there isn’t any money, but what you are doing that has diminished the value in the products you provide. The way to make money is to not worry about making money, simple as that.
10+1. Donations don’t work. You may feel that it is effective for a while, but that’s just getting by until you find something that is an actual income model. Getting by is not a healthy way to run a business of any sort.
First – Pirating is wrong, plain and simple. If you can’t pay for it, then you can’t have it. Simple, just because it’s in cyber space & nobody has a ‘lost’ a physical copy doesn’t mean you get something for nothing. You’re getting the authors creative efforts, their ‘talent’. Otherwise that creative ability isn’t worth anything – why create something if people are just going to steal it?
2nd – I can’t believe I read your post – but… WTF? are you crazy?: “Most people believe that if someone doesn’t have the right to something, it is then a moral issue and should be dealt with accordingly, but this is narrow thinking and false.”
I can’t believe I’m coming to his defense, but…
First, there are perfectly legitimate reasons to pirate a piece of software. Some publishers cripple their software until it is paid for, others (such as this case) forget or simply don’t make a demo for people to try, and some others make demos but limit the software so much that you can not form an honest opinion. The only solution I’ve seen and like is the one implemented by big companies like Adobe, who give you the full software, uncrippled, unhandicapped, and free to try for a specific but decent amount of time – usually 30 days. While I am thankful to see other companies jumping to this solution, there are many companies who don’t, and pirating a copy is the only real way to assess whether payment is worth it.
Now, don’t mistake what I said here: I’m not justifying those who truly are pirating it, who play the game or use the software repeatedly while not paying for it, nor do I think he is either – from what I gathered from his remarks, he said essentially what I just said. (It’s the fact that he’s using this excuse on what is essentially a $4.00 piece of software that bugs me – seriously, that’s a little too douche-bag for me.) I don’t think he is saying that it is ok to steal or pirate; I think he is stating that, rather than focusing your efforts on how to block pirates and DRM your product in the future, you should pay attention to them in addition to those who legitimately paid for the software and focus your efforts on those people who paid, played, and did not come back, using that information to help fuel and improve your next piece of software than to attack those customers who liked your last product.
I’m not in complete disagreement with you; stealing is wrong no matter what the platform or method, and some people are going to do it anyways, no matter how much we don’t want them to. I think you should reread what he said as well as the article, because I really think you missed what he said – even if I’m not in complete agreement with it.
I realize the verbal beat down I will get for this, but there are times when I feel piracy is justified – for example, when a company charges a price that is higher than the program itself is worth. The cases for the justifications I have, though, are few and far between, and usually involve apps costing over the cost for the average consumer.
With only a couple of exceptions (I’m looking at EA’s Spore right now because of the protection scheme they tried to implement), games have never been one I could solidly justify pirating. Most games fall into the “you can purchase on one paycheck” category that makes it really tough to say “Let’s steal it.” (Granted, there’s Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but most of that $200 is being spent on the peripherals for the game.)
What suprises me about this article is:
#1.) The fact that the game is VERY cheap (C’mon, you really can’t pony up $4.00 to pay the developer?)
#2.) How many people were able to do it
#3.) How easy it is (I’ll have to remember this article when I get an iPhone – I’ve been interested in the stuff the jailbroken phones can do, and for the stuff I want to fo with one, I may need to jailbreak mine)
#4.) How this could not have been foreseen ahead of time (kudos on developing a system to track this activity, but shouldn’t you have developed a system for crippling the illegitimate versions?)
As a creator and hobbyist programmer, I have a lot of sympathy for you – no one likes investing into something and watching people just take it when you didn’t give it to them. I hope that you don’t take the approach many in the media creation industry takes and shoot your customers instead – as a few have pointed out, you are on track.
I do have a response to mrbonky: I like your arguments, but there’s one big problem I have with them: the starting price, which was already super low. Even in an economy as difficult as ours is, if you can afford the cost per month for the iPhone you can legitimately afford that game easily, and the reason to steal it is total and utter BS. Granted, a demo version should have been made available to the public so that they could test it first, but I blame that problem more on Apple (who, in recent weeks, made headlines over a system to allow people to do something like that more easily.) With that said, you couldn’t pay $4 for a freaking game? Give me a break!
I wish I could say something nice about Tap-Fu or say that I bought it, but alas, I don’t even have anything to play them on. Hope you get better results with your next game!
Hi,
Now that I have actualy played your game I’d like to do a follow up. For a casual gamer like me I’d say it’s awsome. It’s realy easy to learn and the gesture control is excellent. I hate virtual D-Pads, and though I have to admit my right thumb is tired and maybe a bit burnt I am enjoying it. The story line seems to be a bit short, I think I am on the last level, but I’ve read somewhere on a review you will be adding levels later on. I hope we get at least a few more for free befor you start considering charging for them. Also please consider a Mac version, I’d love to play this on my MBP as well.
And one more thought, piracy does not hurt sales, thieves do not buy anyway. What you need is not some draconian DRM scheme, it’s getting your product recogniseable on your target group.
Hey thanks for the follow up. You will be glad to hear that we are going to be releasing a patch soon that makes Ch1 a little more interesting and eventually there will be a major update that adds Ch2 for free (you get you beat up pirates, arrrrr). Stay tuned…
I can’t believe some of the garbage people are typing. Is this Russia? This isn’t Russia.
If a product is terrible, you aren’t entitled to steal it. If a product doesn’t have a free trial, or discount, or is “overpriced” you aren’t entitled to steal it.
There is no need to embrace piracy or live with it, or welcome it.
People who steal, need to become content creators and have their own work stolen. Then, perhaps, due to self-suffering, they will awaken from delusions.
I understand there are many handouts in the US, and human nature often allows us to justify improper action. But who we really are is often revealed when we do not think anyone is watching.
The best solution, out the thieves. If there was a way to brand a person with a scarlet P, so that everyone would know what games they have stolen. Their forum names and email addresses would have a large P. Their phone number would indicate they are pro-piracy.
And then, then, once they are outed, they can defend their actions. They can they pirated to try, or because the game was terrible, or because Mars is in retrograde.
Or they won’t pirate, because the true rationalizing agent is a protective shield of anonymity.
If you really believe there is nothing wrong with piracy, then admit to piracy. Offer a real defense, for once.
In Brazil you can’t buy the iphone games legaly, the store doesn’t connect. I wonder how many countries does that happen and where do the pirates come from.
I would love to see an updated list with those kind of numbers crunched by country and official itunes store available there.
I remember to have to IMPORT a freaking gta IV so I could play it legally =/
do you have per country stats?
It’s not so clear that In App Purchase will reduce piracy:
http://blog.off-by-one.mobi/2009/10/in-app-purchase-and-state-of-iphone.html
Forgive me if I am wrong, but doesn’t at least one person have to buy the app before its pirated? If not its Apple’s problem, if so you should use a unique id for each person who buys it and if that id appears on other devices as pirated you have now found your culprit and you could press charges.
What about only showing the high scores of legit buyers?
Pirates who upload high-scores are obviously *proud* of them so hiding them might make them buy the game or they simply cannot show the world how good they are
Hey guys, I was forwarded to this article by reading a reference from http://frontpage.fok.nl, a dutch news blog.
I must say i am rightly surprised and a little shocked.
I must confess that i do have a jailbreak, but i only use it because i want more control over the looks of my iphone; i love the winterboard and lockscreen info stuff!
All of my apps are legitemately purchased, and i consider most apps _VERY_ reasonably priced, and i beg to differ that buying via itunes is harder; it’s only 1 click!
My question is; if you’re able to detect pirated versions through the scoreboard; why not block their upload to global scores? If people are willing to spend hours on-end to reach highscores, then surely given some education they’ll be willing to buy the game at a measely 2 bucks? Why not have their iphones get a message upon trying to upload a score: “if you want a global highscore, try buying the game!” ?
Greetings to you, and please don’t give up.
For sure there is nothing to do when they do piracy as a lifestyle. But there are others you can save…
I live in Brazil and I know the cause of it: The difficulty to access the US App Store. Have you tried to launch an app in all app stores around the world? Could be a great test for comparison with the results you have now.
To have everything original I need to take some risk and buy itunes gift cards on ebay. You are right saying that it is more difficult to buy on itunes than to pirate the app.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thiago