Android piracy rate "the worst" SI has ever seen

Sports Interactive has said that the piracy levels it has experienced with the Android version of Football Manager Handheld are the worst” it’s ever seen.

The Android version was released two weeks ago and has so far suffered a piracy rate of 9:1. The game typically suffers a 5:1 piracy rate.

"There’s no working copy protection on the platform currently, so it’s pretty easy for someone to get it working," Sports Interactive boss Miles Jacobson told Eurogamer.

"The platform is also very popular in some countries where there’s a larger piracy problem than in others."

Furthermore, the extent of the problem means that the studio is having to be very particular about assessing the ongoing potential of Android as a publishing platform.

"It hasn’t hit the targets we require as yet," he added. "I’m still confident it will do over time, but it’s really disappointing that there are so many people out there who love our work, and spend countless hours being entertained by it, but don’t think we deserve to get paid for that entertainment.

"If it doesn’t hit targets, then we won’t be doing another one for the platform – that’s a simple business decision though for a couple of months’ time.

"We certainly hope to continue to support it – there are still lots of honest people out there who want games on their platform of choice, and we want to be able to provide that to them. So hopefully we still can!"