tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3648287505936626900.post87152640806294660..comments2023-08-25T06:39:10.216-07:00Comments on 20th Level Marketing: Smartphone Games ZoomingSteve Petersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13699029352175505260noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3648287505936626900.post-37353512336979351652011-05-20T07:55:01.292-07:002011-05-20T07:55:01.292-07:00I doubt that pirates will be able to crack in-app ...I doubt that pirates will be able to crack in-app purchasing, because they won't be that motivated to try. It's not like the reward is a $60 game for free; you get one piece of DLC that probably doesn't cost more than a dollar or two anyway. Besides, both Google and Apple have plenty of advantages in this battle, not the least of which is tracking every customer and download.<br /><br />The real protection from piracy comes from pricing; when the price of games is low (or free), the incentive for piracy goes away. Why pirate when you can get a copy you know is not glitched in some way, for free? Or a couple of dollars?<br /><br />Many smartphone developers have reported lots of pirated downloads of their games, but many of them just seem to collect the games and never play them. Server usage by pirated copies can be expensive, but as long as you sell enough DLC to pay for the servers and bring in a profit, piracy is then just another marketing method. You turn piracy to your advantage.Steve Petersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13699029352175505260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3648287505936626900.post-71438689755486113752011-05-20T00:11:54.152-07:002011-05-20T00:11:54.152-07:00I can't see the Freemium model being a longter...I can't see the Freemium model being a longterm solution to piracy. While the model works well for procedural games, it is generally more difficult to translate a traditional linear or story-based game into Freemium without shoehorning and breaking either the gamer's experience or the developer's profits.<br /><br />And as a solution to piracy, surely it only works up until pirates inevitably crack the in-app purchases system?<br /><br />I am hoping the problem of piracy will be stymied by more modern digital copyright law, which would block piracy websites from the Internet. It's the simplest and most effective solution to the problem of piracy it seems.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com