Contest winner gets Modern Combat iOS game early, cracks and distributes it online
Holding a contest to give a few fans a chance to play a hotly anticipated game early is a great way to drum up some hype -- at least that's what Gameloft thought when it allowed a handful of contest winners the opportunity to play Modern Combat 5 before anyone else. What the company didn't expect was one of the winners to take the app, crack it, and upload it to torrent sites.
"As you can imagine I am really pissed off," reads a Facebook post by Gameloft community manager Florian Weber. Posting on the Modern Combat 4 hub page, Weber expresses his further dismay, adding "To anybody who got MC5 already, shame on you! We are making games for you and all you can do is pirate them?"
Unlike a lot of the higher-profile games on the App Store, Modern Combat games don't use the free-to-play model. The games are priced up front and while there are in-app purchases, they aren't required to progress through the game. With most of the games in the franchise carrying a launch price of $6.99, that's a big chunk of money to miss out on for the developers, especially considering this is the first brand new Modern Combat game since 2012.
A quick check of a few torrent sites reveals that the game -- or at least a game labeled as Modern Combat 5 -- is indeed available for download. While the game will be available for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, the iOS version seems to be the only one that has leaked, which may be a small comfort for Gameloft in an otherwise frustrating time.
[via Polygon]
