作者：Mike Rose

Android游戏的盗版问题仍然严重，导致开发商们越来越偏爱iOS。如何扑灭盗版的猖獗火焰，谷歌似乎也拿不出太多主意。

《割绳子》开发商ZeptoLab首席执行官Misha Lyalin认为，导致盗版形式严峻的一个大原因是，一般的智能手机用户没有意识到Android盗版问题有多糟，结果可能会意外地下载了盗版的游戏。

android piracy(from pcpro.co.uk)

Lyalin指出：“用户往往通过搜索引擎寻找《割绳子》，结果下载了盗版。那只是一个诚实的错误。

“虽然我们努力拿下大部分山寨和盗版，但许多保护我们游戏的方法可能会让玩家不太高兴，或者达不到我们的质量标准。因为玩家才是最重要的，我们往往选择把注意力放在调整商业模式上——利用广告和IAP，而不是打击盗版。”

Lyalin承认，因为Android的问题，Zeptolab仍然会优先考虑iOS平台，尽管在Android平台上还是可以向广大玩家推广工作室的游戏，无论玩家是否为产品付费。

他表示：“毕竟，那对我们才是最重要的。”

抵抗无方

Madfinger游戏工作室（代表作：《Dead Trigger》和《Shadowgun》）营销总监Anna Porizkova不太认为盗版问题是Android本身的难题。

Porizkova认为：“对我们而言，盗版是一个普通的现象。人们轻易就能得到免费的盗版，甚至没有想过购买。”

“这在今天是一件很习以为常的事。不为能免费得到的东西付款是很正常的，没人关心这回事。所有开发商都在处理这个问题，我们也是。”

因为过高的盗版率，Madfinger工作室最近将它的僵尸射击游戏《Dead Trigger》变成免费模式。然而，这已经不是该公司第一次遭遇盗版问题。

Dead-Trigger(from gamasutra)

她坦言：“《Shadowgun》盗版率其实更高，达到了90%，几个月之后下降到80%，现在还在一点一点地下降，现在是78%。售价先是8美元，后来改成5美元，我们没有什么有效的办法来对付盗版。”

但是，该工作室认为，“Android和iOS一样重要。无论如何，两个平台各有优劣之处。至于开发问题，两个平台之间没有差别。我们并没有更偏好二者当中的哪一个。”

她继续说道：“Android的用户基础太庞大了，开发商们无法置之不理——特别是当使用Unity引擎制作游戏更加容易的时候。”

Porizkova尚不确定Madfinger的下一款游戏是否要定为免费模式，尽管她意识到这个模式时下非常流行。她补充道：“再看看接下来几个月的情况吧。”

令人震惊的盗版率

Sports Interactive工作室的游戏《Football Manager Handheld》年初时在谷歌平台的盗版率高达9：1。

该工作室主管Miles Jacobson表示，他见过很高的盗版率，但从没见过这么高的盗版率——《Football Manager 2009》的盗版率是5：1，在《Football Manager Handheld》登陆Android以前，最高的盗版率就是这样了。

”我们充分认识到所有平台的盗版问题，也料到Android的盗版形势不会乐观。但当你看到盗版情况这么恶劣，你还是会感到震惊！这对公司的经济成本和机遇成本都会有影响。”

Jacobson认为Android平台不能对现状置之不理，否则，所有谷歌游戏玩家都会抛弃它的免费游戏。

他补充道：“某些聪明人也许能做点缓和形势的事吧，但是盗版不会消失——在接下来的30年里都不会有根治的办法。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Android piracy problem

by Mike Rose

The piracy on Android train continues to roll on, with developers continually favoring iOS as a result. And there doesn’t appear to be much being done on Google’s end to quell the piracy fears, either.

One huge issue is that the average smartphone gamer doesn’t even realize that piracy is as bad as it is on Android, and subsequently may accidentally download a pirated version of a game, Misha Lyalin, CEO of Cut the Rope developer ZeptoLab tells Gamasutra.

“Users ofter search for ‘Cut the Rope’ through a search engine and end up downloading a pirated version,” Lyalin says. “That’s just an honest mistake.

“While we do try to take down most copycats and pirates, a lot of ways to protect our games would be not very user-friendly or won’t meet our quality standards. Because the user is the most important piece of our puzzle, we generally choose to focus on adopting our business model — utilizing ads and in-app purchases – rather than taking on pirates,” he says.

The iOS platform is still Zeptolab’s top priority as a result of Android’s issues, Lyalin admits, although the Android platform still allows his studio to deliver its games to a huge number of players, despite whether they actually pay for the products or not.

“Ultimately, that is what’s most important to us,” he says.
Dead on arrival

Madfinger Games marketing boss Anna Porizkova isn’t so sure that the piracy issue is a problem of Android itself.

“To us, piracy is a general contemporary problem. It is so easy to get a pirated copy everywhere for free that people don’t even think about buying it,” says the Dead Trigger and Shadowgun developer.

“This is the norm nowadays. It’s normal not to pay for anything you can have for free and nobody cares. All developers are tackling this problem, and so we are.”

Madfinger recently made its zombie shooter Dead Trigger free-to-play as a result of terrible piracy rates — however, this wasn’t the first time that the studio had fallen foul to piracy on the platform.

“The piracy rate for Shadowgun was actually even higher,” she tells us. “It reached 90 percent, then after a few months decreased to 80 percent and now it is falling bit by bit and averaging at 78 percent. Being sold for $8 and $5 later, there was no effective way of defending against piracy.”

And yet, the studio believes that “Android is just as important as iOS. Both platforms have their pros and cons anyway. As for development issues, there are no differences between these platforms. We do not prefer one of them to the other.”

She goes on to note, “The Android install base is so big that it can’t be cold-shouldered by developers – especially when using the Unity engine makes this process considerably easier,”

Porizkova isn’t sure yet whether Madfinger’s next game will also be made free-to-play, although she is aware of the current popularity of the model. “Let’s see how it will be doing in couple months,” she adds.
Shock of the new

Sports Interactive’s dabble with the Android space was well documented earlier this year, when its game Football Manager Handheld saw a piracy ratio of 9:1 on the Google platform.

The studio’s director Miles Jacobson noted that he has never seen piracy rates that bad before — Football Manager 2009 had a 5:1 piracy rate, but that’s about as bad as it had been before Football Manager Handheld hit Android.

“We are well aware of piracy on all platforms, and were expecting it to be bad on Android,” he added. “But it’s still a shock when you see just how bad it is! It has had an effect on the company – there are costs, both financial and opportunity wise, for each person playing the game, and each hurdle that we face.”

Jacobson believes that the Android platform simply cannot stay in the same way that is currently is otherwise all Google Play users are going to be left with is free-to-play titles.

“Someone clever will come along and do something to help fix it,” he adds. “Piracy will never go away though – it hasn’t on any format in the last 30 years.”(source:gamasutra)