Speaking via a blog posting, the team claims that 80 per cent of players who submitted high scores for Tap Fu during the first week of sales obtained the game illegally. This figure apparently peaked at 90 per cent.

Smells Like Donkey says that it is, “very surprised and concerned at how easy it is” to pirate iPhone games. Having researched the process, it was found to be “MUCH easier than actually buying it on iTunes.”

In the case of Tap Fu, none of the players who pirated the game then went on to buy it.

The developer goes on to predict that, “developers will be taking it into their own hands to try and prevent” piracy, and believes that the new downloadable content structure is one major way to do so. Another is to require verification when accessing multiplayer content, locking out all but legitimate owners.

Ultimately, Smells Like Donkey concedes that, “there’s probably [only] a few of these people that would have bought our game in the first place so it’s not really a big deal,” but finds the trend of pirating simply because you can “depressing.”

Develop Online

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Available immediately, developers can now release free games and applications and make use of in-game purchases and micro-transactions. This apparently includes free and lite versions; allowing players to unlock the full game from within the free version, and reducing clutter on the App Store since devs will only have to release a single product.

Apple also pointed out – quite rightly – that this system will also help to reduce the massive amounts of piracy the iPhone is suffering, as the game’s owner will be able to verify the app’s authenticity during the micro-transaction.

Already ngmoco – which recently gave a talk on the depth of piracy its games are suffering – announced that its highly anticipated online shooter Eliminate will be free to play, sol clearly developers are excited about this turn of events.

It’s not without its complications as Jon explains over on PocketGamer.Biz (such as how those vital, gold-spinning free and paid charts will now work on the App Store), but once developers get a handle on this new revenue model, we’ll likely be seeing another shift in the iPhone’s fortunes.

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