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The PocketGamer.biz week that was: Android piracy, App Store clones and the TIGA Awards nominees profiled

The past 7 days in bite-sized portions

The PocketGamer.biz week that was: Android piracy, App Store clones and the TIGA Awards nominees profiled
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This week saw the ugly spectre of Android piracy rear its head once again, as Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson revealed that Football Manager 2012 currently suffers an 11:1 piracy rate.

Back in April 2012, he claimed that the game was enduring a 9:1 piracy rate. Clearly, this is a problem that isn't going away.

It's also an issue that neatly underlines the invidious position modern developers find themselves in. Sports Interactive has released a complex game with a premium price tag – something that many gamers profess to want. The result: rampant theft.

Meanwhile, PC developers have found their efforts to curb piracy with DRM vocally opposed, and the entire world of free-to-play gaming is still treated with suspicion by a substantial proportion of core gamers.

So how can a developer make everyone happy and still make money? I'm afraid I don't have an answer to that one. Perhaps the price you pay for making interactive entertainment is that – no matter what you do – someone in the world will be really annoyed with you.

Now, without further ado, let's move on to our bite-sized overview of the last seven days' worth of news.

Platform wars
Monetisation
  • In this week's edition of the PocketGamer.biz Charticle we examine copycat apps, and ask: just how successful are App Store clones anyway?
  • Zynga brings rewards-based advertising campaigns to its mobile games, in a promotion that sees Words With Friends and Scramble With Friends players gifted in-game currency for spelling Honda-related words.
  • Value exchange platform SponsorPay sees the number of monthly transactions across its mobile network double during Q3 2012.
  • Flurry bundles all four of its monetisation options into one easier-to-use platform: AppSpot.
  • TinyCo rolls out its own fully-fledged affiliate network, Tiny Partners, offering developers 50 percent of the lifetime value of anyone they get to download a TinyCo game.
Funding
  • Last week, PocketGamer.biz editor Keith Andrew surveyed UK indies on the subject of Kickstarter's British launch. He summed up their (generally pretty tepid) responses in one convenient article.
Industry voices
  • PocketGamer.biz editor at large Jon Jordan outlines eight key industry trends he picked up at GDC Online 2012. He also invents an idiom while he's at it.
  • Anna Marsh, design director at Lady Shotgun Games, explains how the industry's bedroom coder background is now stifling diversity.
  • As Apple sends out invites for a press event that's widely expected to host the unveiling of the iPad Mini, editor in chief Kristan Reed argues that Steve Jobs was just plain wrong about smallform tablets.
  • In the first part of a new PocketGamer.biz development diary, Kempt Games creative partner Alexander Lee explains how the studio hopes to democratically develop its latest game.
  • Supercell product lead Lasse Louhento gives PocketGamer.biz the inside story behind the making of Clash of Clans.
  • All being well, the UK games industry should have its own tax production credits system in six months time, but how will it work? UKIE CEO Dr Jo Twist explains the proposed scheme and how it could help mobile developers.
TIGA Awards 2012

This week saw the finalists unveiled for the first ever TIGA Awards, which will take place on 1 November at a gala dinner in Bath's historic Assembly Rooms.

To celebrate, PocketGamer.biz spoke to some of the studios in the running, including:

First Touch Games, Lucky Frame, Neon Play, Glitch Games, Denki, Fireproof Games, Yippee Entertainment, Totem Games, Hutch, Playerthree and Marmalade.

James Nouch
James Nouch
PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013