The piracy community is typically never short of excuses for pirating software and/or video games ("those people are rich anyway", "I need to see if I really like it", or "I can't afford it" are common), but the word from iPhone developer NaturalMotion really boggles the mind. According to the studio's Torsten Reil, "a lot of people" have pirated their 59p (99) football title Backbreaker Football: Tackle Alley -- the lowest possible price on the App Store.
The console version of the game is quite impressive, too (handheld version looks similar, just scaled down), particularly with the sweet Refused track in the trailer:
Reil, understandably, is quite frustrated with the results:
"At 59p it's pretty fair to assume that a lot of those pirates would have been able and would have bought the game, but there's an overall attitude that it's fine to pirate," he says.
His feeling is DRM is not the answer though, but changing that very attitude:
"There is in general a feeling that IP and content should be free. That's fine to say, but if you have to pay all the people that actually put their heart and soul into a game – who have to pay a mortgage off and have children – it becomes much more difficult. Yes, you can limit [piracy] with technical tricks, but there needs to be an overall change in the perception of IP and the people who create it."
Ironically, we've witnessed people with mortgages and kids freely pirating. As we've communicated before, it really does seem to come down to a lack of consideration, perhaps perpetuated in part by the fact software and video games are virtual, and as such are not seen as tangible goods of value, explaining the pervasive double standard between them and physical goods.
If you happen to be a pirate, we have a word for you: freeware.
Source:gi
Sections:Console Games, PC Games, Handheld Games
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