The issue of game piracy has been around as long as the industry itself, and positions on both sides of the debate are highly polarised.

What should be clear however is that piracy rates can vary massively depending on the platform, game and pricepoint in question.

With iPhone, developers tend not to talk too much about the subject for fear of annoying Apple, but the common consensus seems to be that while it's an issue, it's much less of an issue than it was with Java games.

How much is too much?

For every developer complaining about a 96 percent piracy rate (albeit based on a tiny sales base), others suggest 30 percent might be a better rule of thumb.

For example, Tapulous, which has had its Tap Tap Revenge games downloaded (paid and free) over 20 million times, claims around one million pirate players.

Although for reasons best known to itself, recent Wall Street Journal research took an overall iPhone piracy figure of 75 percent.

NaturalMotion, which published the BackBreaker Football game, which it announced has received 1.5 million paid and free downloads, has better news however.

It says its game, which costs 99c, only has a piracy rate of around 1 percent.

No doubt, the low price, compared with the availability of a free version, has a lot to do with that.