Madfinger Games, makers of Shadowgun, have made their impressive smartphone FPS free to download on Android from the Google Play store, citing rampant piracy frustrations. In a statement the developer posted on Facebook, they explain why even at $0.99 a download, the piracy rate was still "unbelievably high," writing,
"At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible – that's why it was for as little as buck. – It was much less than 8$ for SHADOWGUN but on the other hand we didn't dare to provide it for free, since we hadn't got XP with free-to-play format so far. – However, even for one buck, the piracy rate is soooo giant, that we finally decided to provide DEAD TRIGGER for free."
However, they write, Dead Trigger is not a freemium title now: the team assures players that the game will be fully playable without any in-app purchases.
Dead Trigger is still available on iOS for $0.99.