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

[HEXUS]

Publisher will see if money can be made on Android solely through IAP.

Read more.

[Fraz]

The sense of entitlement some people have is just unbelievable. That level of moaning because they have been "cheated" from a whole 75 pence.

I can barely imagine how demoralised Madfinger Games must feel right now.

[dcwt2010]

Just like to say that I paid for it and I think it's a shame that there's so much piracy with even such a low price BUT I would ask how they arrived at said figure.

[crossy]

The sense of entitlement some people have is just unbelievable. That level of moaning because they have been "cheated" from a whole 75 pence. I can barely imagine how demoralised Madfinger Games must feel right now.

It IS annoying (and I'm one of the folks who happily paid the 75p - actually I'd have paid a lot more to not have any IAP's - say £10) to feel that you've paid for something that a lot of folks are now getting for nothing. So don't trot out that "you're a cheapskate" nonsense - it's not the amount it's the principle!

Actually pseudo joking aside, it's the pirates that I'm a LOT more angry at - heck 75p (or whatever the dollar/cent equivalent is) doesn't buy you more than a choccie bar these days, and some folks begrudge even that.

I'm lead to wonder though whether app developers are also being a little bit lazy. I've certainly had Android apps that were pretty firmly locked to one device, and you had to "deactivate" that install to be able to migrate it to another one. So if one company can do it, then surely others can too. Although it would mean that you'd have to get the software and buy a license key as two operations I guess, but I'm sure that there's a way to streamline that too. Or allow you to download the software, but you then have to register it (in app) and the app checks (every few startups) whether you're on the same device and aborts if you aren't.

Game's not bad either (Galaxy SIII for me) although I've spotted a couple of horrendous bugs in the version I got (for which there's since been a patch - maybe quashing the problems I found). Only downside is that it drains your battery pretty horribly.

[HalloweenJack]

`people` will complain even when its pirated......

[DLUK]

"OMG!" it was 75p but is now FREE! Then people moan they spent 75p to help dev' a game. Final proof many gamers have more teeth than I.Q.

[OilSheikh]

I feel 79p is a decent price.Those who think they lost out on 79p - Seriously ? You can find 79 x 1p on any high street over an hour. Come, I will give you 79p!

[mark22]

I think some of the issue here was disabling some features and keeping them just for tegra 3. A lot of people were finding pre patched apks to download that reenabled the ultra high settings so they could get all the graphics on their s3 etc. that was more than capable of anything from the tegra 3 camp.

[mcmiller]

The sense of entitlement some people have is just unbelievable.

How is that a sense of entitlement?

[Tattysnuc]

I've seen comments on TPB complaining about cracked copies of full price games that they downloaded for free.

I can't believe the amount of bitching that goes on. Someone is putting stuff out there hoping to make a living, and they have spent days, weeks, even months putting together something like this, and then counted on selling lots of them to make some money out of their talent.

People who complain about losing 75p need to wake up. Open source software is very good, and free software like UBUNTU or open office are great, but people who develop these things don;t do it for free. They're not millionaires sat around with nothing to do and game writing skills... Often there are other revenue streams.

Excellent review sites like HEXUS.NET are around to inform the market about the quality of a purchase. Those who paid 75p for the software probably read a review about it first, then downloaded it, so they obviously thought that it was worth gambling 75p on. The licensing model changed because some people don;t want to play the game and people downloaded it. Play the game and enjoy it - what else can you do that keeps you entertained.... for 75p!

Simply people moaning for the sake of it. Grow up!

[FRISH]

Kinda sucks that people complain about having to support developers. I mean sure I'd be bummed a little, but less so for something as little as 79p and knowing that I helped contribute to the development of the game.

[lanham192]

will everyone please stop being so self righteous and whining about pirates. no games company has ever droped the price of a game to free becuase of pirates, never have and never will.
the reason this game is now free is becuase they make their money from the in app purchases. and charging a quid for this game only stood in the way of that. they tried to get paid at both ends, they failed, they are now cutting their losses, a smart move.

if you dont believe me look at all the other games on android, each of them get pirated just as much if not more and do they drop their price? no becuase if the game wasnt based on a IAP system to start with it would cost more money to either change it to one or put adverts in then it would to just keep it at that price and keep some money coming in.

[miniyazz]

79p is so cheap it's practically free for something like this. As has been said, most people would spend that on a chocolate bar, which is obviously a one-use only thing.. it's the same mentality that objects to paying £40 for an operating system, despite it being something they will use almost every day for several years.

Edit: My Firewall being silly, not the app

[Fraz]

How is that a sense of entitlement?

Some people, having paid less than a pound for the game, feel they are entitled to hurl some pretty nasty abuse at the developers who've being forced into changing their business model by another group who feel they are entitled to get the game for free, instead of paying the price of a chocolate bar for it. Heck, you could probably find that amount of money looking down the back of your sofa.

It sickens me how people feel they can rip off the hard work of others rather than paying such a small amount for something that'll probably provide several hours of entertainment. And yet, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd complain about paying even triple that price for a pint of beer that'll last 30 minutes in the pub.

[pp05]

People view tangible goods different to goods paid via credit.

Some people, having paid less than a pound for the game, feel they are entitled to hurl some pretty nasty abuse at the developers who've being forced into changing their business model by another group who feel they are entitled to get the game for free, instead of paying the price of a chocolate bar for it. Heck, you could probably find that amount of money looking down the back of your sofa.

It sickens me how people feel they can rip off the hard work of others rather than paying such a small amount for something that'll probably provide several hours of entertainment. And yet, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd complain about paying even triple that price for a pint of beer that'll last 30 minutes in the pub.

[Malphas]

Yeah, I don't buy this reasoning that they've made it free due to piracy. I don't know the ins and outs of this developer or the game, or the politics possibly involved, but really this "we made it free because it was pirated so much" smells of BS. Surely every game and paid app has a similar level or piracy (I have no idea what the statistics are for piracy on Android to be fair) unless they've specifically done something to increase piracy (someone mentioned something about cutting out certain features?).

On the wider issue of Android piracy, I wonder if maybe it's just the fact that people aren't so invested in smartphone apps yet to justify paying, even when it's cheap? I know that sounds incredibly cheap for things priced under £1, but I've noticed that without even thinking if I see an app/game isn't free, I'll just lose any potential interest in it instantly (although I don't pirate it either), even though I could just pay for it easily (I have no problem paying for expensive software for Windows and have hundreds of games on Steam). Maybe that'll change in time once people feel more invested in the platform and that purchases are worthwhile.