While developers and publishers often do everything they can to prevent video game piracy, Angry Birds studio Rovio thinks that, in the end, bootlegged merchandise and pirated games might be a good thing.
Speaking at the music-focused Midem conference in France, Rovio chief executive Mikael Hed said that his company learned a lot about handling piracy by watching the music industry, reports The Guardian.
"We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy," said Hed.
He explained that unless pirates are harming the Angry Birds brand or ripping off consumers, it isn't worth it for Rovio to fight back with legal action.
Rather, he says the company simply hopes that any pirated goods will generate more interest in legitimate Angry Birds products.
In addition, Hed explained that Rovio strives to treat its consumers like fans rather than users. By doing so, he believes the company can foster a loyal audience, and therefore a reliable business.
"If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow," he said.
Last week, Rovio confirmed that it plans to launch the official Facebook version of Angry Birds this February, and is organizing a launch event in Jakarta, Indonesia to celebrate the occasion.
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B.) From a utilitarian point of view, if games are made unprofitable then new games will stop being made, which has a negative effect on you if you enjoy games.
Giving money to people who produce something you like will generally encourage them to produce more things you like.
Would YOU care about piracy?
Is there some narrow band of opportunity and success that a piracy-neutral developer has to be in order to be listened to?
You can`t compare development and investment of Angry Birds and let`s say Witcher or any other AAA title.
I am not saying legal actions can solve the problem with pirates, all I am saying is You need to see the whole picture.
In first instance you must treat pirates like potential customers, not like criminals. They haven't bought your game yet, but may in the future (or the squeal). For example L4D has a relative slow start. I know a good number of people that pirated the game, when the L4D2 came out, they bought the game as preorder. Things are not so clear cut and treating people badly will almost never help you.
An Example is how the vast majority of iPhone games on the highest grossing are actually free.
The increasing amount of downloadable titles and freemium games is also a noticeable change in paradigm.
Today for example I will rarely buy a game that I have not tried, but if I like what I'm seeing I will definately send the developers some love.
The typical paranoid approach of "I'm gonna skrew them before they screw me" has seriously been showing its cracks. The whole picture (and the cool thing about this article) is that fans are not the enemy. If your Game is good and people actually like it, there will find value in your original product.
Imagine this: If your band plays at a gig, and people are selling bootlegged items of your band, that money may not go to you, but people that are really your fans apart from this pirated material, will value owning your original t-shirts, and will get the limited edition of your album. You shouldnt treat them as criminals if they got into your music through a burned cd. Make your fans take pride in buying your products.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/206831/the_origins_of_angry_birds.html
As such, in relative terms, I think that's reasonably equivalent: 10 people and $140,000 is a pretty hefty investment for a company of that size.
And in absolute terms, I'd suggest that there's been more piracy of Angry Birds than there has been of a game like The Witcher, especially since it has significant appeal in non-western countries such as China, where piracy figures can potentially be measured in tens of millions.
(Anecdotally, I went to China last year, and I've seen how many people play Angry Birds/Plants vs Zombies/Fruit Ninja on the subway - and I've also seen the street markets where stalls are literally crammed to the ceiling with knock-off AB/PvZ toys...)
And there's a nice article on how Popcap and Rovio have managed to make money in China despite the lack of strong IP protection here: http://sinocentric.co.uk/?p=1618
Whatever else I may think about Rovio, they're handling this particular scenario perfectly.
And while I'd be the first to acknowledge that this approach may not work for everyone, I'd also point out that while there's few reports of anti-piracy measures increasing revenues, there's plenty of stories about how relaxing anti-piracy measures and/or working with the community has succeeded in increasing revenue, from the Grateful Dead (who encouraged bootlegging of their gigs) to gaming initiatives such as the Humble Bundle...