Our games gets hacked and cracked

skottskott Member Posts: 172
edited November -1 in Introductions
Hi,

Almost after we have released drift 'n' burn we have seen that it's on various crack sites.. I think it's a bit funny and are taking it cool (It's kind of a compliment that they spend there time doin it to our game).. but at the same time it's not fair and it's a shame that we are loosing money because of that.

Have others experienced the same??

Here are the link to one of the sites: http://www.sinfuliphone.com/showthread.php?t=22223

Comments

  • BarkBarkCoBarkBarkCo Member Posts: 1,400
    For the record, I'm told that it is not a difficult process at all. Using programs like crackulous, Jailbroken phones can easily "crack" an app and there are systems specifically built for sharing these cracked apps.

    I wouldn't say it is a serious threat to revenue though, as the people downloading your game for free are probably too poor to buy it in the first place... ;-)
  • skottskott Member Posts: 172
    Yeah, your probably right. Poor bastards :)
  • RHRH Member Posts: 1,079
    Seems to be getting positive feedback as well ;)

    Looks like a great game by the way, website looks great as well
  • chosenonestudioschosenonestudios Member Posts: 1,714
    Consider it free advertising because people that would steal apps would never pay for them otherwise and who knows they might show it to some of their friends and they might get it:D
  • jonmulcahyjonmulcahy Member, Sous Chef Posts: 10,408
    yea, it's wicked easy to do unfortunately, and there is pretty much nothing we can do about it, or any developer for that matter.

    that being said, it seems to be to be caused when you give away those promo codes for free on websites, the lurkers grab them, crack them, and post it. It's a tight rope, you need those promo codes for reviews, but you gotta be careful on how you give them away.
  • synthesissynthesis Member Posts: 1,693
    Apple needs to put registration APIs in that allow devs to verify if their app is authentic.
  • chosenonestudioschosenonestudios Member Posts: 1,714
    mulcahy said:
    that being said, it seems to be to be caused when you give away those promo codes for free on websites, the lurkers grab them, crack them, and post it. It's a tight rope, you need those promo codes for reviews, but you gotta be careful on how you give them away.

    Wow so when their stealing your games... they don't even buy it in the first place.... Wow thats spectacular....

    I guess I'm only emailing out promo codes now...

    Apple needs to get their act together.... and fix this.... I'm sure this hurts all of us in one way shape of another....
  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,394
    Yeh its sort of gutting but then i think, well, they were never gonna buy it anyway! So, if they have a cracked version on their jailbroken phone, more than likely that person has friends with iphones that arent jailbroken, they show them, there is a chance they may purchase it.
  • ericdg123ericdg123 Member, PRO Posts: 156
    I've developed for pocket pc in the past and here is the reason apple doesn't care about security.

    On my pocket pc games I made I had to spend a ton of time developing securty. I had to code a program that I put on each game that verified the game with the name on your pocket pc. Plus when I sold the game I had to have it generate a code for each person. It was a real hassle. Plus somebody could just change the name on their device if they really wanted the game for free.

    I sold my pocket pc games for around 8 bucks. This was standard at the time as many pocket pc games were selling for 20 bucks or so. Saving 20 bucks on a game by stealing it instead of paying for it was a temptation people would be willing to put a little effort into.

    However, apple has created a entirely new way to fight piracy. They simply make a easy way for tons of developers to put apps up all in one place. This competition drives prices down to the bare minimum of 99 cents. Many people are not willing to learn how to jailbreak their phones and download pirated apps when it will only cost them a buck to actually purchase the game.

    This is actually a good way to deal with the piracy problem. Sure about 50 percent of the people using your app didn't pay for it, but like someone else said, you are really not losing anything, in fact your game may actually become more popular.

    When you have new pc games coming out at 50 bucks, its much more tempting to spend a little time to get a pirated copy and save $50.

    Crackers will always find a way to crack your program no matter what type of security you have on it. It is a nightmare developing security for a program, then having someone crack it, then developing new security, then having someone crack that and so on.

    It's much less time consuming and easier to just sell it cheap and make money with a high volume of sells at low prices rather than a low volume of sales at higher prices.
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    I actually had someone boldly email me telling me he had cracked one of my games, Creature Memory Match, and that he fixed a bug in the game for me :) lol

    I got a kick out of it
  • design219design219 Member Posts: 2,273
    butterbean said:
    and that he fixed a bug in the game for me :) lol

    Did you thank him? lol

    _______________

    Nesen Probe http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nesen-probe/id377766693?mt=8
    Tickle Stones http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tickle-stones/id363484260?mt=8
    
Food Fight! (free) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/food-fight/id352646643?mt=8
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    I told him I was "flattered" that he cracked one of my games :)
  • design219design219 Member Posts: 2,273
    I'm not sure I could do that. I try to always be polite, but I think I would have to ask him if he honestly felt okay about what he is doing.
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    @ Design Yea I understand, but they're going to do it anyway (I don't agree with piracy at all) but I figure my advice isn't going to deter him. It certainly hasn't deterred people on Gamesalad....
  • Rob2Rob2 Member Posts: 2,402
    ericdg123 has it 100% correct and the hackers/crackers are always able to beat whatever security a company tries to protect their product with.
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