www.Multiplayergames.com – Multiplayer Games

Just a note: If you’re reading this, and you’ve pirated Tap-Fu or any other iPhone game (or really any game at all for that matter), you’re an asshole.

That out of the way, developer Smells Like Donkey posted a fantastic insight into the sales vs. piracy debate and how it affected their small iPhone game. Simply put, the results are depressing. Their $4 (now $2) iPhone game was pirated by about 90% of its players posting scores.

Oh, but surely those that liked the game purchased it, right? Not at all. In fact, none of the pirated copies were turned into sales… not a single one. The game was live on the App Store less than an hour before a pirated version was pushed out onto the Internet, and then the free-loaders took over.

The idiots over at Appulous, one of the main sites to download iPhone games for free (and illegally) actually justifies themselves as discovered by SMD:

Appulous is a collection of links to allow iPhone and iPod touch users the ability to try out full, unlimited versions of device software before making the decision to buy it.

Unfortunately, the stats SMD pulled show otherwise, leaving the pirate community out in the cold without a single excuse as to why their theft is justified.

It’s hard to imagine why Apple wouldn’t be fighting harder to curb this, especially since their platform is perfect for small developers. SMD now has to work on the problem themselves as Apple does not seem to be responding fast enough, meaning they have less time to program while money is being tossed around… and out of their pockets.

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