Dead Trigger free on Android due to very high piracy rate

[pcslookout]

Madfinger Games has announced the relaunch of its game Dead Trigger, a zombie FPS for smartphones, as a free app. The reason given was simple: piracy rates were out of control. As a result, you can now download the game for free from the official Google Play store: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.madfingergames.deadtrigger.

Many Dead Trigger users who paid for the game are posting angry one-star reviews on the page because the game is now free. Madfinger, for its part, says it was forced to stop charging. Here's the company's statement, released on Facebook:

Regarding price drop. HERE is our statement. The main reason: piracy rate on Android devices, that was unbelievably high. At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible - that's why it was for as little as buck. - It was much less than 8$ for SHADOWGUN but on the other hand we didn't dare to provide it for free, since we hadn't got XP with free-to-play format so far. - However, even for one buck, the piracy rate is soooo giant, that we finally decided to provide DEAD TRIGGER for free. Anyway - DEAD TRIGGER is not FREEMIUM, it always was and still remains FREE-TO-PLAY, that means, all players are able to play it without IAP! We stand up for this statement, because all members of our team are playing (and enjoying) DEAD TRIGGER without IAP.

Dead Trigger was originally available on Android for $0.99. It remains available on iOS for the same price. You can grab it from here: itunes.apple.com/ca/app/dead-trigger/id533079551.

Piracy is a serious problem for both platforms, but the general consensus is that the issue is much more serious on Google's Android than it is on Apple's iOS. After you add fragmentation into the mix, many app and game developers find it more difficult to succeed on Android compared to iOS.

There are many reasons given for this large gap. Some say it's because Apple users are simply more willing to spend money than Google users. Others believe that since Android has a larger market share, it also has a larger group of pirates.

I think the problem largely comes down to a much lower barrier to entry: on Android, you can sideload apps after changing a setting in the operating system, while iOS requires you to first jailbreak the operating system. Thankfully, paid app encryption is coming to Android. We'll see soon enough if the feature makes a large enough impact.

http://www.zdnet.com/android-game-goes-free-due-to-unbelievably-high-piracy-rate-7000001412/

 

[QueBert]

I really feel for Android developers, between side loading and ad blocking apps it's gotta be shitty. The developers here imho should have just pulled the app from the store.

 

[Chiropteran]

We will punish you for pirating our game by giving it to you for free! Take that, evil pirates!

 

[psych2]

I would like them to release some real numbers on the level of piracy before I would comment, just to compare with PC rates.

Anyway it looks like Google is getting serious against piracy with the new app encryption tools in Jellybean

http://nelenkov.blogspot.com/2012/07/using-app-encryption-in-jelly-bean.html

 

[Anubis]

i really wouldent have guessed piracy of aps was that big of a deal

 

[ponyo]

Sounds like marketing ploy. I never even heard of this game til now. So now they get free publicity and exposure.

 

[TuxDave]

i really wouldent have guessed piracy of aps was that big of a deal

Heh, this all reminds me of the Dreamcast. All the pirating is what killed the console (at least that's how I remember it)

 

[cheezy321]

We will punish you for pirating our game by giving it to you for free! Take that, evil pirates!

What do you suggest they do?

Piracy is a huge problem on android. It seems to follow the 'open source' community. I don't know what android can do to avoid this. I hope google takes a real hard look at this and figures out how to treat their developers. Eric Schmidt said developers will prefer android in 6 months back in 2011. I doubt they will ever prefer android with the amount of piracy going on.

 

[Chiropteran]

What do you suggest they do?

If it's not profitable, get out of the market. Somehow franchisees such as fruit ninja angry birds and cut the rope are successful enough to spawn multiple sequels, I don't think the failure of one lesser-known game is a sign of much of anything.

 

[psych2]

What do you suggest they do?

Piracy is a huge problem on android. It seems to follow the 'open source' community. I don't know what android can do to avoid this. I hope google takes a real hard look at this and figures out how to treat their developers. Eric Schmidt said developers will prefer android in 6 months back in 2011. I doubt they will ever prefer android with the amount of piracy going on.

Installous, and lets not forget the Apple In-app purchase fiasco :hmm:

Also frequent app updates. One of the reasons I buy apps is to get them consistently.

 

[QueBert]

If it's not profitable, get out of the market. Somehow franchisees such as fruit ninja angry birds and cut the rope are successful enough to spawn multiple sequels, I don't think the failure of one lesser-known game is a sign of much of anything.

Ah yes, bring up a few of the successful games to prove a point, totally ignoring the 99% that are failing in the process. I think the failure here is uh, quite a bit bigger than "one lesser-known" game.

Developers here should fret, Android will be implementing this uber app encryption. But developers will soon after discover what I already know. And that's 95% of the Android owners I speak to get vulgar when you mention "buying apps" Most act like they would rather have sex with their own mother than spend money on apps. They don't pirate, but they refuse to buy what they considered should be free.

 

[cheezy321]

Installous :hmm:

Great, lets deflect the conversation. Piracy is huge on android. You can pirate on iOS, but it is obviously not as big of an issue as it is on android.

http://androidheadlines.com/2012/05/android-has-a-huge-piracy-problem.html

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/app-security/231601064

http://kotaku.com/5925510/the-piracy-problem-why-ouyas-biggest-strength-may-be-its-biggest-weakness

Never once have I seen an iOS developer do something like Madfinger games did. Care to point me to one? Or are you just trying to deflect the absolute fact that piracy is a huge problem on android?

 

[QueBert]

pirating on iOS, jailbreaking and jumping threw other hoops.
pirating on Android, clicking "install from unknown sources"

hummm, I wonder which developers would view as a bigger problem? The fact the company that made their game free only did so on Android, the iOS version still costs money so apparently it's still selling well enough and not being pirated nearly as much.

 

[cheezy321]

If it's not profitable, get out of the market. Somehow franchisees such as fruit ninja angry birds and cut the rope are successful enough to spawn multiple sequels, I don't think the failure of one lesser-known game is a sign of much of anything.

Isn't it ironic all the games you mentioned became successful on iOS first. iOS users were main driver of success for those games. They came out on android after the fact. Further proving the point that if you want to make money, you go to iOS. Android is an afterthought.

 

[basslover1]

I don't get it, according to the play store it's been downloaded between 100k-500k times. How high is a "high piracy rate?"

Granted the # of DLs spiked in the last day or two because it's now free, but still. I want real numbers not just "the piracy rate is soooo giant..."

 

[gorcorps]

What the hell kind of logic is that? The pirating rate is so high, that you decide to get rid of the small amount of money you actually WERE getting? So now the pirates still get software for free, you have no money for your work, and you pissed off all the paying customers. With this line of thinking it's no wonder these dillweeds couldn't make any money.

 

[Red Storm]

Ah yes, bring up a few of the successful games to prove a point, totally ignoring the 99% that are failing in the process. I think the failure here is uh, quite a bit bigger than "one lesser-known" game.

Developers here should fret, Android will be implementing this uber app encryption. But developers will soon after discover what I already know. And that's 95% of the Android owners I speak to get vulgar when you mention "buying apps" Most act like they would rather have sex with their own mother than spend money on apps. They don't pirate, but they refuse to buy what they considered should be free.

I didn't know Madfinger Games had 99% of the market cornered. That's impressive.

I'd like to see some actual numbers before making an opinion, but this seems like a publicity stunt more than anything. If they were actually mad at pirates, they'd pull their game.

 

[cheezy321]

I don't get it, according to the play store it's been downloaded between 100k-500k times. How high is a "high piracy rate?"

Granted the # of DLs spiked in the last day or two because it's now free, but still. I want real numbers not just "the piracy rate is soooo giant..."

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/De...y-Because-90-Android-Users-Pirates-44969.html

90% of downloads are pirates.

They’re angry, they’re pissed and sensationalism with a dash of real-world numbers is the best way to express their frustration over the fact that a $0.99 game like Dead Trigger was pirated at a 9 to 1 ratio.

 

[Chiropteran]

Developers here should fret, Android will be implementing this uber app encryption. But developers will soon after discover what I already know. And that's 95% of the Android owners I speak to get vulgar when you mention "buying apps" Most act like they would rather have sex with their own mother than spend money on apps. They don't pirate, but they refuse to buy what they considered should be free.

And whats wrong with that? I went through a buying phase when I got my kindle fire, bought a bunch of apps and games that looked fun. Most of them were a waste of money, and now I am far more selective. I don't think I have bought an app in the last 3 months.

It's a competitive market and most of the apps out are crap, not surprised at all that others agree. Check back in 10 years when the market has matured a little and I might be willing to spend money on something other than a safe ultra-popular app again.

 

[basslover1]

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/De...y-Because-90-Android-Users-Pirates-44969.html

90% of downloads are pirates.

Well, except if you read the article and followed the link to The Guardian (who did the research) you'd see that the 90% was the rate at which a different app was being pirated:

Madfinger isn't the first developer to talk publicly about high levels of piracy for its Android games. In April 2012, Sports Interactive said that in the first two weeks after it launched its Football Manager Handheld game for Android, its piracy rate was 9:1 – that's one sale for every nine illegal downloads.

 

[QueBert]

And whats wrong with that? I went through a buying phase when I got my kindle fire, bought a bunch of apps and games that looked fun. Most of them were a waste of money, and now I am far more selective. I don't think I have bought an app in the last 3 months.

It's a competitive market and most of the apps out are crap, not surprised at all that others agree. Check back in 10 years when the market has matured a little and I might be willing to spend money on something other than a safe ultra-popular app again.

The problem is Android owners get angry when you bring up buying apps. Where iOS owners have no problem buying a solid app. Android owners go as far as installing Adfree because they can't be bothered with seeing ad's on a FREE app. So not only do they refuse to buy apps, but damn you to any developer who puts ad's in to try and make a little money.

 

[ControlD]

I can't follow any of the links right now, but do these articles explain exactly how the developers know the percentage of pirated vs. free versions of their programs? If they can actually detect pirated versions of their programs running you would think they could code accordingly to gimp those programs in such cases.

I read an article some time ago about how even iOS developers are moving to the freemium + IAP model to help combat piracy.

 

[Mopetar]

Piracy is a huge problem on android. It seems to follow the 'open source' community.

What does piracy have to do with the 'open source' community?

I like the concept of open source and other similar endeavors such as Creative Commons. Yet I "pirate" very little these days. Please explain how believing in an "open source" philosophy in any way means that a person also believes that they should be able to acquire things which normally cost money for free.

I honestly believe that Android being open source has absolutely nothing to do with the amount of piracy of Android apps. Unless you have a seriously compelling argument or some better data to suggest otherwise, quit with the subtle smears.

 

[cheezy321]

I can't follow any of the links right now, but do these articles explain exactly how the developers know the percentage of pirated vs. free versions of their programs? If they can actually detect pirated versions of their programs running you would think they could code accordingly to gimp those programs in such cases.

I read an article some time ago about how even iOS developers are moving to the freemium + IAP model to help combat piracy.

Most developers use a program called Localytics. You can use it to measure the amount of people using your app vs. the data you have on the people who have paid for it.

From their facebook post:

We are using localytics and comparing it with real sales

 

[QueBert]

I can't follow any of the links right now, but do these articles explain exactly how the developers know the percentage of pirated vs. free versions of their programs? If they can actually detect pirated versions of their programs running you would think they could code accordingly to gimp those programs in such cases.

I read an article some time ago about how even iOS developers are moving to the freemium + IAP model to help combat piracy.

I believe they can't detect a pirated version directly, but the app downloads a ton of extra data after it's been installed. So if the play store's saying they sold 10k this month (just a number I'm making up) but their server's showing 60k people downloaded the data needed for the game. It would be pretty obvious.