I don't think developers understand that pirates aren't customers, they are thieves. It is a crime of opportunity. If they can just take something for free they will, because they are probably 10-20 years old and they don't have enough disposable income to make buying a game easier than pirating one. So, they trade their extra time for their lack of money and go the pirated route even though it's a PITA.
Yes, there is a lot of piracy and there always will be. The only way around it is to ignore it and keep making software for your real customers - the people who paid for it in the first place.
The other thing you can do is try to use the thieves to promote your product. Hold contests, get them to post on message boards and other junk about your game. Have them post scores to FaceBook or Twitter. Turn them into your "street team" so to speak.
The point is, whining won't get you sales, so stop complaining about piracy and run your business.
It drives page views. I mean, I had never heard of this game until this HN post, and I never would have heard of it otherwise. There are many, many thousands of alternatives in the App Store, and I don't play a lot of games.
So why stop complaining, necessarily? It doesn't cost much, and it helps your paying customers feel righteous, which provides additional value for the dollar.
These complaints often have a certain Br'er-Rabbit-and-the-briar-patch quality, and this one is a particularly good example of the genre. "Oh, please, pirates, please don't think our game is so awesome that exactly 15,950 of you download it in the first few days, making it look like a runaway success and building an enormous community of fellow players who will vie with you on Game Center if you buy the game at the absolute bargain price of $0.99!
"And, whatever you do, don't make us write a blog post talking about our awesome new app and how people can't stop downloading it, even breaking the rules to do so, because it's so crazy and viral and addictive.
"And don't make us complain about how we took a risk and sold our valuable app for the low, low price of $0.99.
"And, whatever you do, don't generate controversy that will get our blog post upvoted to the top of news aggregators. And don't slag on us in the comments, forcing us to issue a poignant reply that will also get upvoted on news aggregators.
"My god, if the controversy gets big enough Apple might actually respond, which might drive this issue into the mainstream news, where millions of people with iPhones and money might accidentally read the name of our app and learn how many times it has been downloaded. What a catastrophe that would be. Please don't let that happen. Please stop, pirates, I'm begging you, stop talking about our game and forcing us to talk about our game."
You're talking like it was planned by the authors of the game. What you're describing might happen but doesn't have to necessarily. I'm sure the authors would be happier if there is 80% of paying customers not 7% and they wouldn't have to blog about that.
The number of freeloaders may not be planned, but the blogging is most definitely planned. Nobody is being forced to write a blog post.
The authors have the option to ignore the freeloaders. Most software publishers do, or there would be little room in industry publications for anything else. This genre of complaint goes all the way back to Bill Gates in 1976:
Perhaps it's better to focus on something else (as Bill Gates eventually did) rather than tilting at a thirty-five-year-old windmill. Unless, of course, windmill-tilting looks like a useful news hook.
While I agree, I think this boils down to a broken windows argument. Is it better to spend some money dealing with piracy, or not worry about it at all.
That one, I think, has a consensus: spend some money on anti-piracy features. Spend more than zero, but as little as you can get away with. Don't make an app that's trivial to pirate - but don't spend more than trivial amounts of time trying to deal with the people who do pirate your app. Work on the next actual project. As gratifying as it may sometimes be, punishing pirates is not building revenue, skills, or adoption. Focus on those three things, and spend as little time on anti-piracy measures as you can.
Yes, there is a lot of piracy and there always will be. The only way around it is to ignore it and keep making software for your real customers - the people who paid for it in the first place.
The other thing you can do is try to use the thieves to promote your product. Hold contests, get them to post on message boards and other junk about your game. Have them post scores to FaceBook or Twitter. Turn them into your "street team" so to speak.
The point is, whining won't get you sales, so stop complaining about piracy and run your business.