Case Study: How Piracy Destroys App Profits

The folks at GAMEized were proud. They had produced a great iOS soccer (football) game called FingerKicks, built it with full HD support, and waited with bated breath as soccer fans in country after country began to pick up on the title. But things weren't looking very good. According to Apple's own sales data, first day sales hit $97 while day after day they saw lower and lower sales. Things leveled off and rather than depend on Apple's numbers they decided to check out the Game Center leaderboard. To their astonishment, suddenly 5,000 people picked up the game over the weekend. They were over the moon. Even at 99 cents, 5,000 players meant a nice chunk of change. They waited for Apple's official sales numbers and realized the sad truth: only 160 purchases were registered that weekend.

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