How big a problem are pirated mobile games?

It's a fact that anyone with an internet connection and a working knowledge of Google can find free, commercial mobile games to download. Seriously, it's not hard.

One online forum even has a thread specifically devoted to a particular publisher's 2007 releases, with game files popping up within a few days of the games being released commercially. Obviously, we're not going to put the link here – but it didn't take us long to find it.

Piracy has been a huge problem for the music industry, it's growing as an issue for Hollywood, and it's an ongoing challenge for traditional console game publishers – albeit hitherto less online, and more in a 'dodgy discs down the Boot Sale' way in that case.

But how big a problem is piracy for mobile games? We asked three publishers for their views. Read on to find out what Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins, THQ Wireless' Michael Laubscher and The Mighty Troglodytes' Hugues Wanner had to say.

How big an issue is piracy in the mobile games industry, and is it a growing problem? Trip Hawkins: It is definitely a serious problem with formats like Java. I believe it is holding back growth potential. It also hurts mobile gaming in the long run, because with less revenue, developers and publishers have fewer resources to reinvest in making new and better games.

Michael Laubscher: Handset fragmentation is still immense, around 100-150 device versions per game title. This will require a lot of maintenance and know-how to come up with a consistent piracy site. There is also not a great deal of fame to be won, as mobile games are not mass market and are relatively low-priced. This all makes non-commercial piracy rather unattractive – Windows Vista is probably a better target for them. Of course, by Googling you'll find loads of game builds but mostly random collections. In our core markets of the US and Europe, we don't find piracy much of an issue.

Hugues Wanner: Nowadays, it is not a big issue, since the builds you can find are generally only compatible with a few devices. In my opinion, it concerns just a few people who Google and browse sites to find the games they want. Most of the market is still concentrating on the operator WAP portals, where people prefer to browse and see what's new. Except for two big brands [publishers], it is technically difficult to install pirated games. Those two firms represent a big part of the market, but there are brakes for the other part to download games. Also, pirates enable new consumers to find and try mobile games. If those consumers enjoy the experience, they may finally buy mobile games. So pirates also help the market to grow globally. Is there a solution to piracy in the near-to-mid future? Do mobile games need stricter 'DRM' copyright protection, say, or will new pricing models help persuade gamers not to download pirated copies? Trip: We're big believers in some degree of free trial, because we would like mobile to have the viral discovery and free trial features of the Internet. We're working on this in several ways. Frankly, given the low price of mobile games, and the fact that you get what you pay for, customers taking the time and trouble to find a shortcut would be better off if they bought the best products from the official sources. Beyond that, yes it would be great to see better DRM solutions for Java as are now in place for BREW games. Eventually there will be client-server games where the customer will lose access to servers and their account information if they are not legitimate customers. Michael: The current challenges of the mobile game industry concern new business and pricing models, good and consistent user experience of the game purchasing process, quality of games, content discovery, and new distribution channels. There you can win more than by fighting piracy, which is silly anyway as you will never succeed. Just look at it as another marketing channel and learn from it. Of course, you can try to tackle piracy with DRM solutions, which will surely be done and improved over time, but the crack usually awaits you around the corner. Nowadays, DRM offers new models (for example, time or count-based demos, super-distribution) and is less about piracy protection. Hugues: In my opinion, there isn't any solution to pirated games. Even with DRM, there will always be pirates to break codes and copyright protection. DRM and other solutions will be expensive to develop to fight against piracy, so it could be more expensive to fight against pirates than to let them do it. Also, since most of the games are cheap – near five euros – there is little motivation for players to download pirated games. For a 60-euro PC game you can spend time to find the pirated version, but for a five euro game, is anyone really interested? Are you as publishers doing anything to stop mobile game piracy – do you actively try to shut down sites offering free commercial games? Trip: Yes, we are active. We identify infringers and pursue them. It's a struggle to get ahead in this industry and we cannot afford this kind of unfair activity. Michael: We do take legal action when we find out about commercial piracy. We got some sites shut down or content withdrawn, and we will continue. There is nothing we currently do to stop non-commercial piracy, it would be a useless fight anyway. Some studies show huge numbers of lost revenues due to piracy, but usually, they take into account that ten non-commercial piracy downloads would result in ten billed legal downloads if those sites had been shut down, which is simply not true. Hugues: We are looking regularly for websites offering our games freely, without contract. Then our lawyer tries to make them shut down. This fight is not really active though. We spend two or three hours each month fighting against piracy, since we know that it is not easy to shut Russian or Chinese websites down. Finally, are there other reasons why mobile gamers should avoid pirated games? Is there a danger they're not what they seem, for example, or won't work right? Trip: Pirated games often create usability issues or just don't work correctly, which does even more damage by giving a falsely bad impression of a product. Consumers should consider the source – a pirate supplier cares for neither the game developer nor the consumer, and is fundamentally unworthy of trust. If you are a consumer saving a few bucks by transacting with an illegal pirate, are you taking additional risks such as spam and identity theft? Including the fact that it is more work for the consumer and involves a cloud hanging over your head, it's not worth all the trouble and risk. Michael: Of course, there is always the risk of getting a buggy, incomplete or mal-wared version. It's all about trusting the source like with every piece of software you download from the internet and run on your PC. Nevertheless, if you manage to transfer a piracy mobile game to your device and run it successfully against all the odds of platform compatibility, then you should apply for a job in the mobile games industry. Firstly, you'll be earning more money than you're saving by piracy downloads. Secondly, you'll get all games for free anyway! Hugues: Firstly, games downloaded from pirate sites may be unstable or bugged. It might work, but many of the ones I have tested don't work perfectly, and are sometimes not complete. Secondly, there is always a risk that they will crash your device, even if it's very low. We have heard about devices which are not usable any more after downloading pirated games. Sometimes you can ask your operator or a specialist to repair it, but sometimes not. Thanks guys! What do you readers think? Let us know below.