Symbian in Motion

N-Gage Fix in the Works, Excuse for the Problem: Piracy

by Zach at 10:26 am | May 23rd, 2008 | Category: Games, Tangents

Thanks to this blog, I have been able to develop great relationships with countless mobile developers over the past year and a half. Anyone who knows me knows that I am extremely pro-developer; Symbian developers are, after all, the very thing that makes S60 such a terrific platform.

An issue came up this past Wednesday that you’ve all read about already. I dubbed it “N-Gagegate” over on BGR but it really isn’t a laughing matter. On the one hand, it’s a stunning testament to just how responsive Nokia can be in some situations. Two sentence recap: It was discovered that N-Gage games were locked to a device IMEI so if the purchaser acquires a new handset, all games are lost forever. Two days later, a solution was announced to be in the works. Awesome job Nokia - users (and press) spoke, you listened.

I did want to comment on James’ post from Nokia Conversations however. Here’s a quote:

As it stands, you can transfer your profile and associated info, but due to piracy issues, not the games.

I’m not shooting the messenger here but Nokia, this is not only a bad excuse, it’s a terrible one. Rookie, even. Rule number 1: Don’t damage your relationship with paying customers in order to prevent “non-paying customers”. Never. There is no question that this issue came up many times during the N-Gage development process; if we tie games to the IMEI, piracy will be made more difficult but users will be pissed! The fact that the N-Gage product was ever released in this fashion is inexcusable in my opinion.

As I’ve discussed with many developers, 95% of “pirates” would not have paid to use your application even if a pirated option was not available. To be honest, I’ve yet to find a developer who would disagree with that statement. Developers need to focus on potential business, not a bunch of children with no money who are using pirated copies of their software. Yes, of course you should implement a certain level of security - no need to tempt real customers over to the dark side. To take the route that Nokia did with N-Gage though and attempt to make games disposable is a joke. But…

The interesting thing now is that this will be a change for mobile gaming. More often than not, games and apps are tied to a specific device and can’t be transferred to a new one.

No. Not good enough. Nokia is supposed to revolutionize! Furthermore, the system itself dictates game portability. Let’s not get crazy here. Thankfully, James goes on to say:

As N-Gage games are tied to a profile and a device, it’s more realistic to be able to port them. That said, it isn’t without it’s challenges, but thankfully those are being figured out. Finally.

In the end, I’m glad that Nokia found a solution to the problem [that they should have never created]. Response time was fantastic, so kudos for that. Project Management should have thought this one through a bit better though because we all know how news is - 75% of the sites who posted “the bad news” won’t post this “good news”. Rightfully so, perhaps, if a lesson is learned.

Viewing 4 Comments

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    Nice post Zach. I rather liked the N-Gagegate name :)

    I think to be fair to Nokia they have a point about transfer on other mobile games. But ultimately you're right - and just because others do it...

    Piracy is an interesting issue, there clearly is a bit of problem in some areas as a number of developers have commented. Personally I think you need enough protection to put off the casual person (e.g. some kind of code), but the more barriers you add (e.g. IMEI locking, online registration) the more you annoy legitimate users. I guess its a balance.
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    Thanks Rafe ;) and I couldn't agree more - a balance is absolutely crucial. I would say that the initial implementation tipped the scales more than anyone could have imagined, hence the backlash and Nokia's amazingly fast and necessary reaction.

    An example of what I view to be an excellent compromise is DRM Commons Solutions. It has good security functionality but it also gives the user many benefits, ie no need to re-input a license code when you reinstall the app after flashing, the ability to check for updates, etc. The initial N-Gage is almost a polar opposite. Extreme security along with an incredible burden.
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    Right On!! Zach, amazing post i so agree with every word man, specially the part of kids with no money lol!!! and that by using this lock real customers wouldn't even pay, nice buddy it really gets the word out....
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    Well said Zach, although I'm not a huge mobile gamer, it is a terrible excuse. Furthermore it isn't like these games are high priced pieces of software that are in super high demand. I mean i like the ability to have a cool game with nice graphics over the regular sudoku or othello clone on cellphones, but games that are a mere 8-10 bucks a pop, i think nokia can let us port them over. Otherwise it just feels like we are getting nickle and dimed. Or at least give us the option to buy a slightly more expensive version of the game that lets us port them from handset to handset without having to buy it over and over again via a special license (jivetalk from beejive for Blackberries comes to mind as software with that kind of selling model -- Buy a regular licence for 15 bucks, good for those who stick out their device for two years, or for 30 dollars, move it as many times as you like to new blackberry devices). While i'd rather not see a 2x price increase for the special license, it would certainly be a way to let people keep porting them over if they are worried about piracy, and (god willing) i might land a few more bucks in the dev's hands (as naive as that sounds).

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