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[$h@d0w]

Three weeks ago my little studio, Lucky Frame, released Gentlemen! for iPad and Android. If you aren’t aware of it, it's a 2-player head-to-head Victorian dueling game for tablets. Two players required, local multiplayer only.

Without a doubt, Gentlemen! was one of the best-reviewed projects we have ever produced. We received a coveted 8/10 on Edge, 4.5 stars on Touch Arcade, and a 9/10 Gold Award on PocketGamer. This was totally brilliant, and we are so proud. It’s interesting to think about why we got such great reviews. Obviously it’s a game that we’re super proud of, and we think it’s amazing, but that’s not always enough to secure great critical acclaim.

On the Android version:

after three weeks those numbers are now 144 copies sold, 50,030 copies pirated

Article: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Yann...cessful_game_is_also_our_least_profitable.php

Here's the game on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.luckyframe.gentlemen

 

[Hiccup]

Ouch. That's ridiculous. Is it always this bad??

 

[zoukka]

Freedom fuck yeah!

 

[granabanana]

And handheld gaming is doomed? Lol

 

[spineduke]

Ouch. That's ridiculous. Is it always this bad??

Nope.

 

[benny_a]

All these Chinese pirates.

 

[Ein Bear]

Jesus fucking Christ. I don't really follow Android very much, is it usually this bad?

 

[Bgamer90]

Dang.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

All these Chinese pirates.

wat?

 

[Sendou]

Must feel disheartening. Seems like the most profit is to be made with games featuring micro transactions or ad based free games. Makes sense that developers are looking into portable platforms with no piracy as of yet (Vita, 3DS).

Of course comparing the install base of those machines to iOS or even Android is laughable but then again we have seen a lot of movement there and apparently successes too. Shows exactly how critical it is for Nintendo and Sony to keep their platforms piracy free.

 

[NinjaCatfish]

Jesus fucking Christ. I don't really follow Android very much, is it usually this bad?

I wouldn't expect it's so bad for every title, and I'm sure there are factors not taken into account, but I see articles very similar to this more often than I think is reasonable.

 

[Chao]

All these Chinese pirates.

Dat racism

 

[benny_a]

Dat racism

Dat facts?

 

[Bboy AJ]

Add the proper security measures.

 

[reptilescorpio]

I buy quite a few Android games and have never even heard of this game until now.

 

[michaelius]

So around 1300 copies sold so far at 5$

That huge money in mobile gaming is truly amazing.

 

[Toppot]

And I wonder why so many apps don't come to android =/ This is appalling!

 

[xist]

It's not quite as bad as it seems at first though(see below quote) and hopefully as word of mouth spreads the sales will pick up. A slightly more expensive, local only multiplayer game seems like a tough sell to me though...

About 95% of the pirated copies are being installed in Russia and China (and of those, mostly China). We didn’t even translate our Google Play store into Russian or Chinese, so it’s almost certain that the pirates just found our app on localized pirate sites.

 

[Radec]

Should have went f2p style with p2w mechanics..

 

[Sendou]

Add the proper security measures.

Like what? Android is an open platform and as such there is nothing they can do without redesigning it from scratch.

 

[Haunted]

In comparison, they sold 1,114 copies on ipad. Not a great success either way.

Seems like a nice bunch of dudes with a good idea and solid execution. But not everyone can win the mobile lottery.

wat?

Dat racism

It's in the article:

One thing that helped me reach that conclusion was the location statistics for the pirated copies. About 95% of the pirated copies are being installed in Russia and China (and of those, mostly China). We didn’t even translate our Google Play store into Russian or Chinese, so it’s almost certain that the pirates just found our app on localized pirate sites. On the other hand, I’m glad our menu design is intuitive enough that you can play the game without speaking English!

 

[Krilekk]

Ouch. That's ridiculous. Is it always this bad??

There used to be 10 pirated copies for every PC game sold, so yes. There is no copy protection at all for most Android games, it's just download, install, have the full game. They even show up in the Play Store as games you have bought.

 

[Zarx]

lol that is a lot of piracy. No wonder freemium and micro transactions dominates on mobile.

 

[Mithos]

wat?

Dat racism

Dat facts?

From the article:

About 95% of the pirated copies are being installed in Russia and China (and of those, mostly China).

Fact indeed..

 

[NewGame]

No wonder so many Adroid games are F2P w/ ads.

 

[lights]

And people wonder why developers prefer to make iOS games.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

It's impossible to find on the Play store. Not going to help them.

 

[akaoni]

And people wonder why developers prefer to make iOS games.

 

[Visualante2]

Don't publishers charge less on Steam for Russians? Maybe they should look into that strategy, it probably is working.

 

[ToxicAdam]

And people wonder why developers prefer to make iOS games.

It's just as bad on IOS according to some of the devs that post in the monthly thread. They said its mostly Chinese pirates, also.

 

[Xenex]

I feel bad for the developers, if that was me I would just concentrate on iOS only. If Android users aren't going to respect the developers then they don't deserve the product.

Edit:

It's just as bad on IOS according to some of the devs that post in the monthly thread. They said its mostly Chinese pirates, also.

Whilst this is true, 144 (Android) compared to 1114 (iOS) is a joke. There's no incentive to develop for Android.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

In comparison, they sold 1,114 copies on ipad. Not a great success either way.

Seems like a nice bunch of dudes with a good idea and solid execution. But not everyone can win the mobile lottery.



It's in the article:

From the article:


Fact indeed..

Apologies. My fault for failing to read the provided links. Damn Chinese pirates.

 

[polyh3dron]

down with walled gardens

 

[Fitrix]

That was horrible.My sympathy for them.

Hope the game will be a hit when they decided to release it on Vita.

If they wanted to release it on 3DS,someone hopefully can remind them about Gateway flashcart.

 

[$h@d0w]

lol that is a lot of piracy. No wonder freemium and micro transactions dominates on mobile.

At the end of the article they do say they should have put microtransactions into the game.

if we had anticipated this situation we probably would have included some sort of in app purchase, perhaps to unlock extra levels or game modes

 

[Randdalf]

I wonder what their sales are now, post-article.

 

[grandjedi6]

Yeah, there's rampant piracy in Russia and China. Always has, always will.

 

[Chao]

From the article:


Fact indeed..

I guess the piracy rate is the around the same on every country, it's just that there will be more pirates in a bigger country.

I have yet to see a paid app on an android platform here in Spain.

 

[benny_a]

If they wanted to release it on 3DS,someone hopefully can remind them about Gateway flashcart.

They can always launch on the eShop.

 

[twofold]

It's just as bad on IOS according to some of the devs that post in the monthly thread. They said its mostly Chinese pirates, also.

Yup. Everywhere I went in Asia, there were stalls set up where you could load 100 games onto your ios/android device for $1-2, and all the locals were using them. Nobody buys software out there - it's all pirated.

The real story here is that Gentlemen! failed to get any traction on Android in the west, despite getting great reviews. I wonder why that is. Without looking at their situation in depth, I wouldn't be surprised if their marketing is awful. I think the main reason why a lot of iOS/Android apps fail to attract attention is that their marketing is godawful.

 

[Durante]

I don't know how useful that stat really is. The vast majority of those (Chinese) pirates wouldn't buy the game if they couldn't pirate it, they just wouldn't play it. They even say "it’s almost certain that the pirates just found our app on localized pirate sites" -- those are certainly not lost sales.

 

[The Abominable Snowman]

Never heard of this game.

And he's counting those "Android game bundle week of 8/17-8/24" torrent downloads as downloads of his game. Those people probably never even specifically wanted to DL his game. Oh well.

 

[Sendou]

That was horrible.My sympathy for them.

Hope the game will be a hit when they decided to release it on Vita.

If they wanted to release it on 3DS,someone hopefully can remind them about Gateway flashcart.

Did you even bother looking the game up? It's clearly designed for tablets and wouldn't work on either Vita or 3DS. Gateway flashcard on 3DS doesn't mean anything currently.

 

[Haunted]

It's just as bad on IOS according to some of the devs that post in the monthly thread. They said its mostly Chinese pirates, also.

At the same rate, that'd be 387.037 pirated copies on ipad.

Pretty impressive reach. I'd say that's groundwork to get the word out for their next game, but if 95% of the pirates are in China or Russia... probably not.

the main problem is that most of these pirates probably exist in a commercial ecosystem where the Google Play store does not even exist

Can't convert people with in-app purchases if they're not part of the ecosystem.

 

[witchedwiz]

Honestly?
Never even heart of the game...

 

[zerokoolpsx]

Dang. That is a crazy piracy rate for that game. Poor devs.

 

[elohel]

It's just as bad on IOS according to some of the devs that post in the monthly thread. They said its mostly Chinese pirates, also.

well maybe except ios does still make a lot more revenue I believe

so it can't be quite as bad, though im sure there are some exception

 

[Fitrix]

They can always launch on the eShop.

I must be mistakenly assumed that you can pirate an eShop game LOL

Thanks for correcting me.Much appreciated.

 

[Atraveller]

down with walled gardens

Andriod is walled garden? What?

 

[Perkel]

50 000 lost sales !!!


Game buy ratio :

Android: ~100
iOS ~ ~1000

Yep. Looks like Android and iOS market is just saturated so much that people don't simply give a shit about small indie games.