With more and more gamers turning to free apps and ways to cop their favorite games online, developers are getting more and more snarky. We've reached the point where they are even pirating their own games and uploading copies onto bit torrents just so they can troll potential users.
Canadian indie developers at Noodlecake Studios are even using a popular EDM artist to make a point. The developers have plenty of hit games but recently noticed that some shocking data on their new critically acclaimed Wayward Souls game: only about 11% of their downloads were actually paid for. Even though the game is just $0.99, Noodlecake decided to get a little more creative.
In their latest release called Shooting Stars! (which has a premium edition and is available on iPhone and here on Android), Noodlecake decided to put a pirated version of their game online and upload it to a number of bit torrents. However, unlike the real version, this pirated copy featured a final boss called “Premium Funk” that confronts users and delivers a message about pirating content. The dude is a very close Daft Punk knock off with a similar look and helmet.
The Music reported this story and added that, “Although the game-makers concede that it's impossible to tell how much revenue is really being lost to piracy — ‘many of those players would probably have never bought the game to begin with,' the statement acknowledges — they nonetheless decided to have a bit of fun with the folks hellbent on cracking Shooting Stars! premium content for free, essentially by creating their own pirated copy of the game to let out into the world's torrent sites and direct-download forums a few days before its Android launch — with a specific difference from the vanilla build.”
It appears to be working, at least from a standpoint of media attention. The full version is available in premium for $2.99.
Check out the full trailer here:
