News - Piracy forced Dead Trigger Android to go free instead of 79p

[Hicks12]

Its a big PR stunt, personally I would never consider buying anything with in app purchasing as I dont like the fact I could pay £x and then have to pay even more just to use it fully.

I avoided this game as it was known for IAP so i didnt want to fork up cash for it, when it went free i tried it and it was very laggy on my O2x but was ok. I would be happy paying a few quid for it but I wouldnt be happy having IAP aswell as the low purchase price.

I still dont understand why people would pirate it for just that £0.75 but if it avoids IAP i guess thats the incentive... I wouldnt say piracy is really that bad but it could be better. I dont care about pirates, its to cheap for applications on mobile devices and if it is really expensive i just wont use it.

I think piracy is rife on both mobile operating systems but thats because its pretty easy to do on both platforms. Theres more Android devices out there so of course there will be more piracy, its hard to get any true figures anyway and since Android devices cover every price point you will find alot of people wont buy it because they have "no money", bollocks really as piracy is piracy but it happens unfortunately, it helps i guess (in a bad way!).

As soon as JB gets put on every android device piracy will be heavily reduced and probably less than Apple.

[Gordy]

Out of interest I'm not sure on how many countries the Google play store takes payment from? Could that be a major cause of piracy on android? If you cannot pay for it there is only one choice?

Edit , found a list 129 or so countries: https://support.google.com/googlepla...&answer=143779

IOS is over 150 so I doubt it will account for too much difference between the two platforms.

[crossy]

After careful analysis of the principles, mores and traditions involved, I conclude: you're still a cheapskate.

Guilty as charged m'lud - although the " " was there to indicate that I was saying with tongue firmly in cheek. I'll state this clearly, if the game's good then I've no problem with the idea of paying £5, £10 or even £15 for it, (sorry, but £20+ means that it's got to be beyond reproach in my book), and I actually find the idea that some ... "persons" ... decide that paying <80p for what is actually an okay title is too much and decide to steal it instead is beyond the pale.

Indeed. It's the same principle as other goods anyway. e.g. You stop at a bakery on the way to work in the morning and buy a donut for £1, on the way home in the afternoon you notice the same bakery having not sold enough of the donuts during the day is trying to offload them for 10p each. Do you piss and moan about your "wasted" 90p or do you just carry on with life realising these things happen, and the price you pay for a good is liable to change due to market forces at any given time.

Hmm, I managed to miss out on that "Economics 101" class.

Joking aside, there's been comments elsewhere that Madfinger either always intended DT to be "free+IAP" and that the niggling cost was them just "chancing their arm". If that's the case then they've been extremely cynical. And there's the other comment that I took note of - namely that there would have always been folks (like me) who would have been content to pay. So by $0ing it Madfinger have actually prevented themselves getting some (minor) revenue that they would have otherwise got - cutting their nose off to spite their face?

I'm not sure what the truth is here actually - Madfinger's PR machine certainly seems to have been very effective at getting the message that "we've been ripped off" out there. A person more suspicious than I am could perhaps ascribe other motives to it....

[spoon_]

Piracy on Android - watch this space.

Mate of mine just got SGSIII, full of apps - needless to say none of them were purchased legally, pirate copies of silly Angry Birds even...

Is this where Android is heading? iOS can be jailbroken but unsure on pirate content.

[jimbouk]

Mate of mine just got SGSIII, full of apps - needless to say none of them were purchased legally, pirate copies of silly Angry Birds even...

And all his data is probably being sent via China to extract passwords and bank details. Risky business...

[matts-uk]

So by $0ing it Madfinger have actually prevented themselves getting some (minor) revenue that they would have otherwise got - cutting their nose off to spite their face?

Economics 102. Selling things creates overheads, which then have to be paid for.

[crossy]

Mate of mine just got SGSIII, full of apps - needless to say none of them were purchased legally, pirate copies of silly Angry Birds even...

Erm, I'd be VERY, VERY dubious then. That much yo-ho loot yells "also contains trojans and malware" to me. I'd definitely flash that back to stock before putting ANY of my data on it.

And why the heck does ANYONE bother to pirate Angry Birds - I just checked and you can get every single edition (free and the few paid Premium/HD ones) and the latest game - Amazing Alex - for less than the price of T3 magazine.
Maybe it IS time that the ants or dolphins took over ...

Economics 102. Selling things creates overheads, which then have to be paid for.

Scottish education - we get it in '101. Especially as Adam Smith was a local lad...

[matts-uk]

Oooh, you must really enjoy being flamed

Aha. The entitlement to abuse someone who offers an alternative point of view, that questions a belief established personally, irrespective of whether such a view is right, wrong or just different

You've got half a point there - there's an expectation that a free OS (which Android is) will also have free apps.

Three quarters of a point, I would say. Children and young adults have a different view of the World due to both nature and nurture. Whilst we can only speak in generalities here, generally adolescents are (compared to mature adults) at a different stage of emotional development, lacking the circumspect consideration which can only come with greater experience. I would suggest that young adults may well struggle to realistically value software, because they have yet to decide a realistic value for their own time and expertise.

I'm an old-fart, and an ex-developer myself, so I'm quite content to pay upfront for my content, in preference to IAP's.

I don't like to refer to myself as an old fart but am content in the knowledge younger people probably do.

I am fine with DLC which enhances or adds peripheral functionality as that's a choice. I hate IAPs which give no clue as to what the true cost to use the damn thing will be.

IAPs are the naughty schoolboy model, it seems to me. If you will not see reason and pay up, we are going to cane you!

Oh dear I guess I am showing my age again there then :smile:

[Fraz]

I tried it out. The touch-screen controls are so awful I just gave up within about 10 minutes. In every other respect, it looked pretty decent. I tried with a wired Xbox360 controller, but no joy. I was pretty surprised it didn't work with a controller, given that ShadowGun worked just fine with one.

I'm amused that so many people think the graphics are "console quality". I don't own an Xbox 360 or a PS3, but to me the graphics look significantly worse than the original Xbox could produce (although admittedly the resolution is a lot higher).

[mtyson]

This app is now free on iOS, so what about the released free on Android due to piracy statement?
http://www.hotukdeals.com/freebies/dead-trigger-itunes-universal-app-free-1278359

[crossy]

This app is now free on iOS, so what about the released free on Android due to piracy statement?
http://www.hotukdeals.com/freebies/d...p-free-1278359

Being charitable to MadFinger, perhaps they felt that not charging for the iOS version either was fairer.

Although, as I said above, the conspiracy theorists would have us believe that they always intended to go down this route, and did the piracy story to get some "free" PR. I'm either too naive, or not cynical enough, to believe that is the case.

[nat327]

I was surprised it became free. I would've bought it if it didn't.

I still can't believe people pirated a 75p game though. The usual "I can't afford it" excuse just don't apply here.

[dcwt2010]

Can someone recommend a decent wireless controller that'll work with non rooted tablets?

[crossy]

Can someone recommend a decent wireless controller that'll work with non rooted tablets?

Try a Google search for "android six axis without root" and there seems to be a good deal of discussion/information on that subject. From my cursory (<1 minute) inspection if you're on Honeycomb (or even worse GB!) then you're probably out of luck.

Personally, I'd just "root that sucka" and use the six-axis controller software that everyone seems to rate. I'm just about to root my Asus Transformer so I can use the second-hand PS3 controller I bought for DT.

And I disagree with Madfinger - yes you can probably play DT without any DLC, but to do so you either need the reflexes of a ninja or enjoy pushing your car to work to save petrol. I figure £5-10 worth of DLC is pretty much required to get into that game. I ended up doing a back to back comparison of that game on my phone (no DLC) versus the tablet (bought some gold so I could level up a weapon or two) - and I'm about twice the way through on the tablet.