Question

Can I use RMI to thwart android game piracy?

Answer 1

In short, DRM is bad. If someone did pirate your app, what makes you think they would buy it? They’ll more probably just unninstall it and be done with it. DRM has plagued the PC games market already, no need to do it for Android.

A pirated copy does not mean a lost sale!

And yes, piracy will always happen. Let me tell you some examples:

• World of Warcraft, an MMO. Check.
• Assassin’s Creed 2, had a client/server structure that required you to be always online in order to play. Check.
• Every game on STEAM. Check.

In short, by implementing DRM all you are going to do is losing time that should be used improving your app. What I suggest is the following:

1. Focus your efforts on the experience the paying customers get from the game
2. Create a demo! Most people are not sure about buying a game they don’t know
3. Instead of charging full price, make the first levels free and sell the others via microtransactions

Does it feel bad having all your work robbed? Yes it does! But let me add a third possible outcome:

You decide to implement DRM and get lower sales and lower review scores complaining about your DRM.

So yeah, my suggestion? Raise your head, forget about it and think of the sales you made and how you can improve your app to sell more (hint: adding draconian DRM will not do that)