Strange sales numbers. Are pirates downloading my game?

SinSquidSinSquid Member, PRO Posts: 135
edited August 2012 in Business and Marketing Theory
Hi
I released my game "BlackMetal Man" 1. august.
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/no/app/blackmetal-man/id543673608?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2

Currently I have 2487 users on game center
But only 1602 sales in Itunes connect.

I´ve been following these numbers close, and they`ve been very different all the way.

How could this be? Are there that many pirates with jailbroken phones, or people with serveral GameCenter accounts?
I think a differentiation of almost 1000 is pretty mutch.

Any theories?

Comments

  • JoVeJoVe Member Posts: 224
    Maybe the app is used by jailbreakers, they can download apps for free when other people upload it to sites as the Piratebay.
  • BazookaTimeBazookaTime Member Posts: 1,274
    Some people own multiple systems, so one purchase can mean multiple GC names. I have five systems, so on certain games we have five GC names.
  • PBEmpirePBEmpire Member Posts: 676
    i dont think it is jailbreakers. i prob. be ppl with many gc accounts. nice game though! :)
  • AppTekAppTek Member Posts: 152
    Do some google searches about downloading it free, that what I did and I found 3 sites with downloads. I contacted them and had the links deleted.
  • PBEmpirePBEmpire Member Posts: 676
    Hey! i found that ur game is available in installous. there is one from slingfile.
    here is the link. contact that website and get it removed.
    http://www.slingfile.com/file/WZ068LVBR2/BlackMetal Man (v1.0%20LP%20os40)-most_uniQue.ipa
  • HapiappsHapiapps Member Posts: 373
    Its hard to battle piracy but there is no way to stop it. Just focus on the sales you can get and on making great games. Halfbrick gets more pirated than most companies but still makes a lot of money.
  • JoVeJoVe Member Posts: 224
    The link to slingfile is posted on 2 places, http://apps.su/program/50207/blackmetal-man.html and and http://www.iphone-apps-ipa.com/Download-ipa-games-for-iPhone-iPad/BlackMetal-Man-ipa-v1.0.html People who have a jailbroken device can download it here. Follow the advice of @gsrockz123 is my tip.
  • quantumsheepquantumsheep Member Posts: 8,188
    Unfortunately I'd wager it's been pirated.

    Same thing happened to one of my apps. More than double the amount of GC players than sales.

    Very disappointing, but, I guess, expected. Some research showed my game on several sites after just a quick google search.

    I asked a couple of sites to take the links down, which they did, but the damage had already been done.

    The only way I can think of combating this kind of thing is to make games that sell so many copies, the pirated ones will not matter :)

    QS :D

    Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
    Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io

  • UtopianGamesUtopianGames Member Posts: 5,692
    Yep most probably pirates, one way would be to make it free with an in app purchase to unlock the full game similar to what big fish do with there adventure games.

    While on the subject I remember submitting bumps to big fish on pc and it was pirated before the testers had finished testing so trust no one lol.

    Darren.
  • JuggerJugger Member, PRO Posts: 238
    Unfortunately now you can get even IAP for free on jailbroken devices
    And cut an advertising. Nothing protects us for now (
  • JoVeJoVe Member Posts: 224
    @utopiangames This doesn't work IAP is even easier for jailbreakers. They can buy it without paying.
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