Well Zogma has been out for just over a week now we can say the launch has been quite successful. With over 80,000 games played to date, millions of zombies with holes in their heads and thousands of registered survivors on Plus+, we can attest that Zogma is quite popular.
With the pro’s however, come the cons.
Zogma has been beset by a horde of “zombie pirates”, I.e. those who appropriate Zogma illegally. Whilst piracy is nothing new to anyone (with a number of industries being devastated by it daily), it’s a bit of a blow for an Indie company to be pirated so quickly and so extensively over something which, at the end of the day, cost less then a cup of coffee. Some interesting stats:
- Had 4,500 unique players for Zogma within the first 24 hours, of those less then 5% were legit copies. 95% piracy rate in <24hrs! That’s better then MW2 and Crysis!
- On average these pirates are playing 3 – 5 games a day (good to see they’re enjoying it!)
- Most of these pirates are still very active participants in our Plus+ community. With almost none converting over to legit.
I’ll elaborate more on the statistics in a following post.
In a perverted fashion the above is nothing short of a complement. To see the illegal underground pick something up so enthusiastically is a testament to the strength of our product. Disappointing that after the “try before you buy” (cheaper then coffee, you don’t try that first) argument a number use, they haven’t actually purchased it. For a small Indie house that’s spent the last 6 months in Dev these sales are quite crucial and this is the type of thing that can send people out backwards.
To our faithful followers and legitimate consumers, our many thanks for your continued support. Keep loving the game and we’ll keep the updates coming!
To our cohort of pirate followers (you know who you are!), for shame my good man, for shame.
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
