The developer of the iPad game, Aqua Globs HD, is claiming a 50 percent piracy rate in an interview with Pocketgamer.biz. Vladimir Roth determined the piracy rate by noting that twice as many accounts posted high scores for Aqua Globs on OpenFeint, as had actually purchased the game.
Developer notes iPad piracy is 10x worse than on the iPhone, iPod Touch
Roth, whose company Qwiboo published Aqua Globs HD, remarked that the piracy rate for the iPhone version of Aqua Globs is around 5 percent. He didn't have accurate data for that number; 5 percent is merely the estimated percentage of jail-broken iPhones in the marketplace.
Roth feels the price of iPad games leads to the higher piracy rate compared to the iPhone, especially if the iPad title is merely the same as the iPhone game with up-scaled graphics. Ultimately, he feels the pirate doesn't want to pay for the same game twice.
Roth also doesn't let piracy bother him. If a game company tries to disable a pirated game, they run the risk of disabling one downloaded legitimately. He thinks the pirate wouldn't have paid for the game in the first place.
Game piracy killed the Atari 800
Back in the 1980s, game piracy played a large role in the demise of the Atari 400 and 800 computers. A company produced a special disk drive that successfully bypassed most of the copy protection schemes of that time, so many game developers moved quickly to the Commodore 64.
Hopefully something similar won't befall the Apple iPad. Columbus gamers interested in legitimately checking out the world of iPhone and iPad gaming, merely need to visit either Apple Store at Easton or Polaris.
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