Piracy Cripples iOS Game in Less than a Week

[kd5jos]

We can all run around and blame pirates but there could be another issue at play here.

Who is to say that the servers would not have crashed anyhow?

And who's to say they would have? Who's to say that the company didn't plan a steady upgrade stream based on purchases? Do you know otherwise? No, didn't think so...

This could just be the case of a developer underestimates the loads their servers would suffer from when it goes live, said servers crash and instead of saying that they stuffed up they blame pirates.

So they take the financial hit AND refund everyone's money? I call B.S. on your theory so far...

The media are all over the story, people feel sorry for the company and feel that they shouldn't be punished any further by them claiming a refund.

You mean people can see a group trying to do something good, and HELP them when it backfires? WTFark is this world coming to?

The company then no longer goes broke from their own incompetence.

Which you have no proof of AND you forgot about the pirated copy of the game floating around out there. Sure that had NOTHING to do with it, PURELY coincidental...

OR it could just be pirates...

That's kinda what all the people that know what they're talking about are saying....

 

[brayhite]

Then why don't you go down to the store, shoplift a pair of headphones, then if you like them go back and pay for them, or if you don't chuck them out?

This analogy doesn't work, considering software doesn't have a CoGS associated with it.

But for the sake of the analogy, I'll say this: what the pirate guy said is no different than someone buying a pair of headphones, trying it out for 29 days, then on the 30th day returning it for a full refund or keeping it. The only difference, assuming he's true to his word, is that he doesn't have to provide a "downpayment" so to speak.

So really, in his case, it's only wrong if you think people should provide money upfront. In the same breath, do you think it's outrageous if the local frozen yogurt shop won't let you sample their flavors without money down? Or if a car dealership wouldn't let you test drive before buying?

 

[Yamcha]

Sad, but I doubt piracy will ever end. I think developers need to find different ways to fund their projects, one example is kickstarter..

People are willing to pay for great ideas or games, it's evident with the success of many projects in Kickstarter.

I'm not sure of the ins and outs of game development, but we gotta find different ways to fight piracy, DRM doesn't really work..

All DRM does is ruin the experience for paying customers. The games get pirated either way.. I remember tons of upset customers because of Ubisoft DRM..

Anyway, I think anyone would be open to good suggestions..

 

[Ibjr]

This analogy doesn't work, considering software doesn't have a CoGS associated with it.

But for the sake of the analogy, I'll say this: what the pirate guy said is no different than someone buying a pair of headphones, trying it out for 29 days, then on the 30th day returning it for a full refund or keeping it. The only difference, assuming he's true to his word, is that he doesn't have to provide a "downpayment" so to speak.

Entirely different. When you have 30 days to return something, you have a finite amount of time and that time is set by the company you are doing business with. In a pirate "try before you buy" situation, the pirate is unilaterally adding his own terms without allowing the other party to consent.

So really, in his case, it's only wrong if you think people should provide money upfront. In the same breath, do you think it's outrageous if the local frozen yogurt shop won't let you sample their flavors without money down? Or if a car dealership wouldn't let you test drive before buying?

The samples and test drives are offered by businesses to convince you to buy the product. It is up to the business.

 

[mrsir2009]

This analogy doesn't work, considering software doesn't have a CoGS associated with it.

But for the sake of the analogy, I'll say this: what the pirate guy said is no different than someone buying a pair of headphones, trying it out for 29 days, then on the 30th day returning it for a full refund or keeping it. The only difference, assuming he's true to his word, is that he doesn't have to provide a "downpayment" so to speak.

So really, in his case, it's only wrong if you think people should provide money upfront. In the same breath, do you think it's outrageous if the local frozen yogurt shop won't let you sample their flavors without money down? Or if a car dealership wouldn't let you test drive before buying?

Well, those examples would be comparable to trying a game's free trial. However this case is stealing the product and then 'maybe' paying for it later if they like it. That is comparable to stealing IRL. No difference, really.

 

[NSeven]

So what, i am a developer, and my apps have been cracked and sent all over the net, we cant do anything by talking about it, people who crack software and make the tools to get them out on the web to people should be taken out into a public open square and shot in the back of the head.

This is the only way people will learn, our world is too soft.

 

[Joe-Diver]

i pirate games, and if i like them i'll buy them. if i dont i delete the game.

Thank you for admitting to criminal activity in a public forum. I hope the administrators will turn over any and all identifying information about you to the authorities so that they can get a search warrant and seize all of your systems.

 

[notjustjay]

The samples and test drives are offered by businesses to convince you to buy the product. It is up to the business.

I do, however, wish that Apple's App Store had a return policy like Google's, where you can get a full refund after buying an app and trying it for 15 minutes.

 

[thewitt]

If they truly believe that the surge in server load was due to pirates, then they should be able to lock them out. Lots of apps have pretty strong measures to beat pirates. Heck, even some popular paid jailbreak tweaks aren't cracked.

And don't blame jailbreaking in particular for this, as any non-jailbroken user can do the same.

Um, no they cannot. You cannot install an .ipa without being jail broken.

 

[topmounter]

This story is just a little too neat and tidy to be 100% believable... In that viral marketing sort of way.

Especially considering there is no shortage of wildly popular paid multiplayer games that have figured out how to deal with the "piracy issue" and haven't had to shut down.

When this game goes back up on the app store, it will once again be in the headlines and sales will skyrocket.

 

[TechieGeek]

I feel like the developers could have priced it lower than $5 I guarantee more people would have bought it instead of pirating it.

 

[thewitt]

Unfortunately there are few options available to app developers.

We have done several different things for customer apps, most relying on a test for Jailbroken devices and then disabling or debilitating the app.

Yes, it hurts the honest Jailbroken device owner, however since all pirates are running on Jailbroken devices, the good get hurt with the bad, but with significantly less impact than the bad destroying the rest.

Our TOS clearly states that running on a Jailbroken device is not supported, so caveat emptor.

We are also among the many developers lobbying Apple for a better way to determine if an app was purchased so we don't have to play these games, but pirates are doing enough damage out there that we have taken measures against them both for our own and our customers apps.

In one example of one of our customer apps, they sold roughly 50,000 copies, yet had over 400,000 active connections to their game servers. This has since been corrected and only legitimate users are now on their servers - up over 250,000 paid users now.

Do pirates hurt companies? Undoubtably. Rationalizing it away as a "trial" use is disingenuous at best.

 

[CindyRed]

Less than two cups of coffee

Seriosly? Pirates are ripping people off for five measly bucks? I mean, you could almost defend them over stuff like a $60 video game that was full of ads, but five bucks from a small company who's biggest expenditure this year was the iOS 6 dev kit for a Benny? C'mon!

 

[kockgunner]

It really sucks for those developers who spent so much time on their app only to have it killed not because it sucks, but because of piracy. It sucks that jailbreaking, which is used to explore alternative UIs, can be used to steal.

 

[a0me]

Can't developers use some sort of server-side authentication that prevents unauthorized copies of the game (pirated games) from being able to log into the game?

People would still be able to get the pirated version, but at least they wouldn't add to the server load.

 

[coolspot18]

Then why don't you go down to the store, shoplift a pair of headphones, then if you like them go back and pay for them, or if you don't chuck them out?

Because software is not a physical good. In most cases piracy does not contribute to loss of income as the pirate would not have bought the app in the first place.

 

[xxcysxx]

i confess, i steal games from torrents sites all the time.
however, "ALL" the games that i own and play are paid out of my pocket. though, i steal them first and play them, then if i like them i go to steam and pay for them and download them again. though, the stolen copy is deleted prior to downloading the purchased copy.

i don't know, i find myself enjoying games that i paid for a lot more than games that i steal.

cheers

 

[AzoozG]

I don't support piracy. But if the content is not sold in my country, I will obtain it illegally.

 

[thewitt]

Can't developers use some sort of server-side authentication that prevents unauthorized copies of the game (pirated games) from being able to log into the game?

People would still be able to get the pirated version, but at least they wouldn't add to the server load.

There is no way to tell who purchased an app legitimately. Apple does not share this information with developers.

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Because software is not a physical good. In most cases piracy does not contribute to loss of income as the pirate would not have bought the app in the first place.

Complete and total BS, used to rationalize theft.

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i confess, i steal games from torrents sites all the time.
however, "ALL" the games that i own and play are paid out of my pocket. though, i steal them first and play them, then if i like them i go to steam and pay for them and download them again. though, the stolen copy is deleted prior to downloading the purchased copy.

i don't know, i find myself enjoying games that i paid for a lot more than games that i steal.

cheers

Though we only have your word on this, I find it completely unbelievable.

 

[maxinc]

This story smells IMO. Any developer should take so called piracy into account when scaling up their models and either be prepared for the extra traffic and publicity they're about to receive or develop preventive measures to keep them at bay. Blame it on the convenient "pirates" is only a convenient way to bail out for whichever reasons they may have.

As for piracy, you really believe that humans love to pay money in order to discover new and amazing things in this internet age? I do respect devs work and I do pay for it but when a means for trying first doesn't exist, I either move away or try other means.

I think the current business model is broken where you need to pay upfront to try. If it works for you it's great for everybody but if it doesn't it's still great for the dev as it doesn't need to scale up but the customer has to suck it up for trying.

 

[Snowy_River]

This story is just a little too neat and tidy to be 100% believable... In that viral marketing sort of way.

Especially considering there is no shortage of wildly popular paid multiplayer games that have figured out how to deal with the "piracy issue" and haven't had to shut down.

When this game goes back up on the app store, it will once again be in the headlines and sales will skyrocket.

Yes, this is why they're bankrupting themselves by refunding everyone the full price of the game.

If they we planning on continuing, I'm sure they would shut down their servers, say that this was due to pirated versions of their app, and announce that there would be an update soon that would address this issue. Then, shortly, they'd release an update, with much fanfare, that would include some anti-piracy elements. But, refunding money doesn't sound like the publicity stunt you're suggesting that it is...

 

[ladeer]

As much as I hate people pirating things, I think this developer simply don't know how to control their online system. They may well require customers to create a log-in and set up their own payment system, or require in-app purchase for online functionalities. There are always thieves, especially for softwares. Don't blame the thieves. Blame your security system. I'm sure in Android there must be 10 times more pirates than in iOS given the difficulty in jailbreaking newer iOS devices. Then why are there some Android developers still afloat? People are cheap and they will steal your thing if it's very easy to do so. It's life.

Wow I can't believe someone would say stuff like this. I guess you agree that "don't blame the rapist who rapes your wife/daughter or the robber who murdered your son/father, blame them for not learning self defense or looking too attractive"

 

[Dainin]

But people have been saying that they have only been jailbreaking to customize. You don't think they have really been jailbreaking to pirate software ?

I jailbreak and have never pirated an iOS app. I've even installed installious, in order to beta test apps (at the request of the developer). Saves them a UDID registration slot.

 

[haruhiko]

Wow I can't believe someone would say stuff like this. I guess you agree that "don't blame the rapist who rapes your wife/daughter or the robber who murdered your son/father, blame them for not learning self defense or looking too attractive"

My point was that they should implement some relatively easy mechanisms (than shutting down the whole app altogether) like an online account system and/or require in app purchase to enable online functionalities. The fact is that thieves are everywhere in the software industry. Also, software piracy, while being wrong, is not at the same level as murder or rape. It's more like shoplifting with a much lower risk to be caught. That's why some deterrent mechanisms can turn many pirates into paying customers.

 

[Shookster]

If they can differentiate between pirated copy and original copy of the client software, why don't they just restrict access to the server for the pirated one?

I'd imagine it's more along the lines of "we sold 3,000 copies and 10,000 people are connected to our server."