Do Not Buy Anything From Gameloft
I ran into a bit of trouble reinstalling one of the games I got from Gameloft. I contacted them about it and it turned out to be far worse than I ever expected. Here is the email I received from Gameloft.
“Hi!
About the handset, our policy is:
according to our refund policy, once the game is successfully installed, we cannot resend it for any reason, unless you buy it again. One purchase entitles you to one download of the game to one phone number and on one phone model only. If you delete or otherwise remove the game from your phone, or change your handset, you will have to buy it again.
About updates, I’m sorry, I have no information.
Please, visit our site and forum to get the latest info.
Best regards, and please let us know if you have any doubt.
——————————-
Roman Garmash
Customer Care Representative
http://www.gameloft.com/
——————————-”
I can not recommend buying any of their games. I was willing to except the crappy buy through their website idea but taking it to this extreme is ridiculous. This is way worse than any DRM I have seen on a PC game that get’s PC gamers up in arms. I ran out of space, as anyone with an Android phone would be well aware of. It will not let you reinstall it at a later date. It will tell you your copy is not original and Gameloft can only recommend you to buy it again. I have never experienced something so vile in my life. They have sullied my last name.
DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM GAMELOFT.
Dave Loft
Letters from Dave 
I aggree.. I was so looking forward to buying a gameloft game or all of them for my EVO as I had done on my Pre… Now on the Pre I was able to re-download the game after a memroy wipe or phone trade as long as the game / app was associated with my profile. But if Gameloft is going this route I am going to boycott… I’m going to start a thread on phandroid and include this blog as a referance (if thats ok) seeing that your blog is here as a warning to us Androidian’s Thanks for the heads up!
Yes definitely help me spread the word and help our fellow Android users from making the same mistake I have.
This only applies to games bought from Gameloft’s store. Games purchased from Gameloft through the Android Market work as they should. Too bad only one of these games is available on the market and it’s an older release than what they are delivering from their own website.
I asked this last week too and got the same response, from the same guy:
————-
Hi!
Here is our answer to your first question:
according to our refund policy, once the game is successfully installed, we cannot resend it for any reason, unless you buy it again. One purchase entitles you to one download of the game to one phone number and on one phone model only. If you delete or otherwise remove the game from your phone, or change your handset, you will have to buy it again.
————–
Then i wrote back:
————–
Hi,
Thanks for your response. However I was a little shocked at One purchase entitles you to one download of the game to one phone number and on one phone model only. That’s not a great model at all! I understand it’s probably a copyright protection measure, but I can think of 2 or 3 other copy protection methods that dont go against the basic fundamentals of most (if not all) other online digital product stores!
Let’s golf is brilliant, and there are a couple other games of yours i’ve been looking forward to getting, but im afraid I most definately won’t be spending €10 / €15 / €20 on a couple of things that i’m going to lose as soon as I update my phone or change the SD card!
I hope you work out an alternative soon. It’s a real shame that the best games on android are so inaccessible!
Thanks,
Richy
—————————-
and i got:
————————-
Hello !
We’re sorry to learn of your difficulties. In order for us to be able to assist you, please answer the following questions:
– Which game did you buy?
– What model of phone did you buy the game?
– What is your complete mobile phone number with the country code?
– What is your country and service operator?
– When did you order the game?
If you have a receipt, please send it to us.
——————
…! That doesn’t even make sense!
I’m actually convinced that their customer support are bots. Their responses seem to just pick up on the general jist of an email and send back a standardised response. Read this ridiculous back and forth i had with them:
http://androidforums.com/android-games/81066-gameloft-tech-support-funny-funny-stuff.html
Ok, so Show me some copy_protection methods that dont go against the basic fundamentals of most other online digital product stores !
Myself agree with “once the game is successfully installed” by Gameloft’s store. Ofcourse when U update firmware4phone or change the SDcard into other phone (same screen_size), that game able to play.
Others, you will have to buy it again -> That’s RIGHT ^_^
And about Android Marketplace’s “Sections 3 and 7 of the distribution agreement” that Jon Tseng’s mentoned; I think that imply washing Google’s hands of responsibility, by AndroidOS is based_Linux. So, ev’ry digiltal contents (from developers) must agree by consent from providers ~ Copyright (colloquial). Let’s lie down into developes, U will seize through.
Here’s an interesting one.
Asphalt 5 seems to have been pulled from Android Marketplace. I notice on my marketplace Downloads section it has also been removed i.e. I cannot reinstall it any longer.
Look at sections 3 and 7 of the distribution agreement (http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.html), users have right to unlimited reinstalls, even if a dev pulls an app from the market. So what Gameloft has done seems to be in break of the agreement…
And even if they pull an app from the market cos theres something dodgy about it (which isn’t the case here) users should be entitled to a refund.
Interesting…
I just checked the market and it still seems to be there. It’s just called Asphalt. Are you running Android 2.2 on your device. Any protected program will not be available currently with 2.2, but that should change.
hello….
Ok, so Show me some copy_protection methods that dont go against the basic fundamentals of most other online digital product stores !
Myself agree with DRM on Gameloft’s store. Ofcourse when U update firmware4phone or change the SDcard into other phone (same screen_size), that game able to play.
Others, you will have to buy it again -> That’s RIGHT ^_^
And about Android Marketplace’s “Sections 3 and 7 of the distribution agreement” that Jon Tseng’s mentoned; I think that imply washing Google’s hands of responsibility, by AndroidOS is based_Linux. So, ev’ry digiltal contents (from developers) must agree by consent from providers ~ Copyright (colloquial). Let’s lie down into developes, U will seize through.
No, that’s WRONG. NOBODY expects a software vendor to sell products this way. NOBODY ELSE DOES THIS. It is completely ridiculous, and indefensible.
Ridiculous indeed. Any updated from the gamesloft?
They said they are adding the ability to re download the game. But so far nothing. As soon as I hear anything I will post about it right away.
Maybe this is old policy. For All gameloft games in late 2010 and 2011, you can download game again any time as long as you purchased that game. One game is used on unique device without limited downloads.
Yeah this policy changed a few months after I wrote this article. They still don’t support the Android Market, but they made enough improvements to their service that I now have no issues buying their games.
In July I wrote a post about their new DRM which allows you to reinstall as often as you like.
Guys your always can askto customer care for a free link to re download your already purchased games, if you changed your device model, they will send only the old device available games for the new device.
It makes sense for me.