Piracy isn't all bad if it helps to massively expand your fan base, says the firm behind the phenomenally successful Angry Birds.
But Hed says that efforts to curb piracy shouldn't affect the paying customer. "We could learn a lot from the music industry, and the rather terrible ways the music industry has tried to combat piracy.
He goes on to look on the bright side: "Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day," he says.
"We took something from the music industry, which was to stop treating the customers as users, and start treating them as fans. We do that today: We talk about how many fans we have.
"If we lose that fanbase, our business is done, but if we can grow that fanbase, our business will grow."
Angry Birds reportedly hit 500 million total downloads in November last year, while titles in the Angry Birds series of games were downloaded 6.5 million times on Christmas Day alone, according to developer Rovio.
Comments
7 comments so far...
theideal on 31 Jan '12 said:
Plagiarist in 'Piracy is A-OK SHOCKER!!!'
TheLastDodo on 31 Jan '12 said:
Good artists copy, great artists steal
SpandexArmstrong on 31 Jan '12 said:
I'm glad he feels this way coz I didn't pay a cent for Angry Birds!
snake2011 on 31 Jan '12 said:
no disrespect but there hardly in a position to talk they made 1 game which is not all that.
cmr333 on 31 Jan '12 said:
Wow, seriously... you defend plagiarism but yet your whole game is a rip of "Crush the castle" on a PC flash game which came out 5 years ago. (I don't know if they were the first to do that game)
Angry Birds is the most boring and dumbest game I have ever played on a phone & I too did not pay a penny for your rubbish game.
TheRandyNinja on 31 Jan '12 said:
The only thing really being effected by there anti pirate messures are the rental services and the paying customers.
vitorfernandes83 on 31 Jan '12 said:
They'd have to pay me to pirate Angry Birds, it's that bad. I honestly don't understand the appeal, the birds sounds are funny, maybe thats it.