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After one day my Android game has had more customers from bittorrent than Google

Yesterday I released my Android game Total Pool. I did the usual stuff you would expect to promote it myself. I linked to the Google Play page on my Facebook, G+, NeoGAF, xda, my housemate stuck it on reddit.

The results as of 30 minutes ago:

ivsEZDpsQMPiu.PNG


Too early to be a failure but not setting the world on fire, and one of those downloads is mine.

As a little experiment I also put it on The Pirate Bay, a well known torrent site, later in the evening. All I wrote was "Shit hot pool game on Android" and a link to the Google Play Store. Now although there is a paid version this game the torrent was just to download the ad-supported one.

After an hour I was seeding happily.

j988lAove4EIx.PNG


And as of 30 minutes ago I had seeded 744mb, at the very lowest possible estimate where I have seeded every single mb that people have downloaded this puts the total number of people with the game from bittorrent at 50 (a more realistic estimate at least doubles this).

So what am I saying? Piracy (attempted) is more popular than legitimacy? Google's store is a failure? I have no friends? My game is shit rather than shit-hot?

I don't really know, and to be honest I was kind of expecting this, I think that makes it worse.
 

Lazy8s

The ghost of Dreamcast past
Demand from the pirate market is probably front-loaded to a higher degree, so sales of the legitimate version should have better legs in the long run.

Or, at least, I hope so, cause that is kind of depressing.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
If you aren't on the Editor's Picks list or top new free, you have no exposure except at the end of a dozen pages of search results. Google Play store.
 

ShinNL

Member
I haven't bought an Android app for a long while because my debit card is expired and I don't feel like getting a new one.

That's my gripe with Google Play (previously Market), there's still no other way to pay other than credit cards.

CCs really aren't that popular here in The Netherlands, we have our own system (iDeaL) for online purchases. Heck, we also use PayPal since they allow us to link that directly to our bank accounts (so no CC needed).

As least for The Netherlands, stuff like Amazon and Google Play (not sure about App Store, I don't own an iOS device, but I think that was CC only as well) don't really lift off simply because of the lack of payment options.
 

confused

Banned
I haven't bought an Android app for a long while because my debit card is expired and I don't feel like getting a new one.

That's my gripe with Google Play (previously Market), there's still no other way to pay other than credit cards.

CCs really aren't that popular here in The Netherlands, we have our own system (iDeaL) for online purchases. Heck, we also use PayPal since they allow us to link that directly to our bank accounts (so no CC needed).

As least for The Netherlands, stuff like Amazon and Google Play (not sure about App Store, I don't own an iOS device, but I think that was CC only as well) don't really life off simply because of the lack of payment options.

IOS appstore allows prepaid cards, available in 15, 25 and 50 euros. I agree that that's one of the things that stopped me from buying loads of games on Android market. Instead I just buy the for my wife's Iphone.
 

confused

Banned
9th is not bad, considering how common the words in your game name are.

Search on android market is borked anyway, I've sometimes typed in the exact name of apps and they don't even show up in the search results.

But anyway, OP. Shouldn't you just be glad that your game is being downloaded at all, especially as it's the free version and takes no money out of your pockets, yet can lead to potential sales ?
 
But anyway, OP. Shouldn't you just be glad that your game is being downloaded at all, especially as it's the free version and takes no money out of your pockets, yet can lead to potential sales ?
Maybe that's what we should take away, that putting your game on a torrent site is good for exposure. I'm interested in the broader picture than just my game though.
 
Rest assured that most of those people won't even play it. They're just downloading compulsively, like most pirates.



true. a lot of people have compulsion to just download everything to have a complete set. These are not people who closely followed OP's project and waited for someone to crack it so they wouldn't have to pay.

uploading the free version to torrent sites seems like good free publicity, its just putting the demo into more hands. i would consider it if i were making a game--a whole viral marketing campaign centered around torrent sites, with rave reviews in the description and several accounts to rave about how awesome it is in the comments. It's a torrent site afterall, so who cares?
 

confused

Banned
Maybe that's what we should take away, that putting your game on a torrent site is good for exposure. I'm interested in the broader picture than just my game though.

Also, keep in mind that people on lower versions of Android can't acces the official market. (I don't know what versions of Android your game supports. just throwing this out there.)
 

EVIL

Member
would be interesting to see who would buy the full version more, the appstore downloaders? or the torrent downloaders. Not sure how you could check that.
 

Interfectum

Member
i think the biggest step in your marketing plan was making this thread...

Haha nailed it.

Auto-downloads off a torrent != lost sales. Ignore that shit, market your app legit and see how many real customers you can get.

Do an official website (splash page), do a trailer for the game, get sites to review your game, etc.
 
Hah, that was my first thought after reading the OP. At least be a little sneaky about it and don't put links to your app but I think mods aren't going to do anything either way.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't want people to check out my game, but I think the topic has merit and the links are all relevant.
 

sazzy

Member
if you're just linking the free app, then it means nothing other than that you're still getting ad revenue.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Way to call legit customers pirates, guys.

It's the free ad-supported version, released by the developer over bittorrent.
 

Interfectum

Member
Don't think anyone is saying they are, I put the torrent up myself as an experiment.

Yeah but 99% of the 'customers' you got off bittorrent will never even put the app on their phone. I'm just sayin to not sweat it, as it's not as bad as it looks. The Google Play store is still the way to go.
 
Yeah but 99% of the 'customers' you got off bittorrent will never even put the app on their phone. I'm just sayin to not sweat it, as it's not as bad as it looks.
No I think you are missing my point, I want as many people to download the torrent as possible. What I am wondering is why doing a half-arsed job of promotion on The Pirate Bay gets you more hits than all your other efforts combined.
 
No I think you are missing my point, I want as many people to download the torrent as possible. What I am wondering is why doing a half-arsed job of promotion on The Pirate Bay gets you more hits than all your other efforts combined.

Because the Android market sucks for new apps unless you're some huge well known developer. It used to be a lot better but now if you are relatively unknown it's difficult to get your app noticed which is why I suggested you get your app reviewed by some places to get the name out there. There was a lot of discussion about this when Google changed how the market worked. It now favors popular apps and/or apps Google wants you to try. When Android first came about it was all about new interesting apps and the little guy actually had a chance to have his/her app noticed...now not so much.
 

Interfectum

Member
No I think you are missing my point, I want as many people to download the torrent as possible. What I am wondering is why doing a half-arsed job of promotion on The Pirate Bay gets you more hits than all your other efforts combined.

My point is 1 legit download from Google Play is worth more than 100 pirated downloads.

If your free app is ad driven there is a very good chance the legit Google Play customer will play your game, thus leading to ad exposure. As for the pirated copies there is a very good chance they will never even get installed let alone played, thus no ad exposure. Also there is also a good possibility a lot of your downloads are international and whatever ad service you got may or may not even count certain countries for ad views.
 
Kind of a misleading thread title. I think it would be obvious that placing an ad on a site that people use exclusively for downloading would get faster results than the ghost town of G+.
 
Kind of a misleading thread title. I think it would be obvious that placing an ad on a site that people use exclusively for downloading would get faster results than the ghost town of G+.
I didn't place an ad, just added a torrent. Surely the Google Play Store should count as more of a place people go to download Android games than The Pirate Bay?
 

Menelaus

Banned
Lol at this thread.

My game got decompiled, had the licensing code removed, recompiled, and spread around all the major filehosting sites.

Yours on the other hand was handed out by you for social experimentation. Totally different.
 
Lol at this thread.

My game got decompiled, had the licensing code removed, recompiled, and spread around all the major filehosting sites.

Yours on the other hand was handed out by you for social experimentation. Totally different.
Yup totally different. I wouldn't argue with that. And I didn't make this thread to bitch, I want more people to torrent it.


So what you're saying is that torrents are a better distribution platform than direct downloads?
Well maybe, although I certainly find it less convenient myself. Perhaps torrent sites generally have a higher quality of stuff than the Play Store.
 

Haunted

Member
I didn't place an ad, just added a torrent. Surely the Google Play Store should count as more of a place people go to download Android games than The Pirate Bay?
There are 720 entries on TPB for Android games. How many games are in the Android store? I assume more. Easier to get lost among others in a bigger pond.
 
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