I'm not saying that they missed out on 90% of their revenue (though it's fair to say they lost out on some revenue). Rather, they did everything right: a fun game that anyone can play, great press, broad distribution through multiple channels, and no DRM. And yet a huge audience still saw it fit to pirate their game.
It'll be interesting to watch the evolution of game distribution. Xbox and iOS are massively growing platforms that also bring built-in DRM that's significantly harder to circumvent.
Your point is valid, but it is still worth noting that a huge audience also did buy their game. They just sold their millionth game on the App Store alone.
http://2dboy.com/2012/01/09/one-million-downloads/
Yes, and the price is dramatically lower as well: $2.99. I paid $19.99 on Steam three years ago. I'd be curious if they could do it all over again today, if they would do iOS first.
I think any game is still going to have the issue of kids not having access to the means to pay for it. Do they wait for heir parents and hope they decide to buy it for them or do they get it for free right now?
It'll be interesting to watch the evolution of game distribution. Xbox and iOS are massively growing platforms that also bring built-in DRM that's significantly harder to circumvent.