How to Make Game Development a Successful Business

The game app market is entering an unprecedented golden age. According to survey data, as of Q1 2015, the game app market had reached a size of nearly 10 billion. As games increasingly cross over into literature, film and television, animation and comics, and as the game app ecosystem and industry standards gradually mature, this market will continue to grow. By 2017, the number of game app users is projected to exceed 500 million, with penetration reaching 70%. Companies of any size have an opportunity to secure a place in this fiercely competitive market.

However, behind the thriving games market lies an illicit industry whose business is to “steal your successful business”. Life in the world of apps is exciting and changes rapidly, so game app development also demands speed and continuous improvement. Creating a game app requires a good idea, but piracy could wipe out all the effort you and your team have invested. Player experience is one of the key factors in a game app’s success, yet cheats can seriously undermine game rules and expose users to various security threats. Payment models are the main source of revenue in game app development, while cheating and similar activities can cause heavy losses for both developers and players.

1: Piracy infringes intellectual property rights

Piracy is more serious than you might imagine. Those interested can use an online “Find Pirated Copies” service to quickly check the extent of piracy affecting today’s popular game apps. The results may come as a surprise.

2: Fair play disappears and the player experience suffers

Various cheating tools undermine the fairness of promotional activities, among other things. In addition, most cheating tools carry numerous potential risks, including advertising, hidden charges, mobile data consumption, and disclosure of location and personal information.

3: Players and developers suffer heavy losses

The disruption of paid experiences and revenue models is the biggest problem facing game apps today. Decompilation is a typical attack method. After decompilation, user payments can be dynamically hijacked, with transaction requests submitted to the server modified dynamically before the data is encrypted. Such attacks may alter the recipient’s account number, name, transfer amount and other details.

4: Information theft costs developers both players and revenue

A data breach can lead to the theft of personal information and financial losses. In more serious cases, it may cause a game app to lose loyal players and suffer declining revenue. Various attack methods can lead to information leaks.

Countering different cheating tools and protecting game app security is an evolving, marathon-like battle. Game app development therefore requires more than one-off “security”: it needs “security throughout the game app’s entire lifecycle”. Game app protection can provide developers with security protection and services before, during and after incidents, covering every stage of game app development. These comprehensive services include advice on secure development practices, establishing secure development standards, security assessments, security hardening, security risk monitoring and security incident response, helping turn a game app into a truly successful business.

Source: http://www.finet.hk/mainsite/newscenter/PRNEWSBJ/0/55cb040de4b089e4b4098a95-%E6%A2%86%E6%A2%86%E6%94%AF%E6%8B%9B%EF%BC%9A%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E8%AE%93%E6%89%8B%E6%B8%B8%E9%96%8B%E7%99%BC%E6%88%90%E7%82%BA%E4%B8%80%E9%96%80%E5%A5%BD%E7%94%9F%E6%84%8F.html