Several Old Apogee Games Released as Freeware
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Galaxieretter
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StupidBunny
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Well, there are two ways of looking at it, each of which has reasonable logic behind it...
On the one hand, whether we retro types like it or not, there is only a fringe market for old games, and since old games tend to be cheap these days the profits made by a large gaming company on their vintage works would be marginal. Therefore, one could argue that they'd be doing the gaming world a service by releasing them for free, for all to enjoy. Continuing to sell a game as far past as, say, Commander Keen would be ineffective since the market for buyers is tiny and few people are willing to spend money on ancient games, whereas the game could get quite a lot more play if it were free.
On the other hand, just because they're old really doesn't mean they've lost any quality, and however marginal the profits may be, one could also argue that the gaming company should still be paid for the work they put into the game. It's difficult to say where the dividing line is between old games that sell versus ones that don't: if id Software continues selling Doom, should they also continue selling Wolf3D? And then continue selling Commander Keen, then? And will there come a time when the games are obsolete enough that they'll warrant free distribution? It's the gaming company's call entirely to set a point, if any even exists. Going further, with a company like 3DRealms which had always been on the edge (now over the edge it seems) of being broke, and where all their best releases were in the early to mid 90s, any money they could make on their old games would be useful to them.
And then another layer of complexity: since 3DRealms is going under, there are a few options for what to do with the rights to the games. Either they could make the games freeware, they could give/sell the rights to another company which could continue selling them, or they could just not do anything and leave the games to spend eternity in limbo, like with Keen 6, where there's no way at all to acquire them legally. Whether or not the games are old and technologically outdated will make no difference when the company that made them no longer exists.
On the one hand, whether we retro types like it or not, there is only a fringe market for old games, and since old games tend to be cheap these days the profits made by a large gaming company on their vintage works would be marginal. Therefore, one could argue that they'd be doing the gaming world a service by releasing them for free, for all to enjoy. Continuing to sell a game as far past as, say, Commander Keen would be ineffective since the market for buyers is tiny and few people are willing to spend money on ancient games, whereas the game could get quite a lot more play if it were free.
On the other hand, just because they're old really doesn't mean they've lost any quality, and however marginal the profits may be, one could also argue that the gaming company should still be paid for the work they put into the game. It's difficult to say where the dividing line is between old games that sell versus ones that don't: if id Software continues selling Doom, should they also continue selling Wolf3D? And then continue selling Commander Keen, then? And will there come a time when the games are obsolete enough that they'll warrant free distribution? It's the gaming company's call entirely to set a point, if any even exists. Going further, with a company like 3DRealms which had always been on the edge (now over the edge it seems) of being broke, and where all their best releases were in the early to mid 90s, any money they could make on their old games would be useful to them.
And then another layer of complexity: since 3DRealms is going under, there are a few options for what to do with the rights to the games. Either they could make the games freeware, they could give/sell the rights to another company which could continue selling them, or they could just not do anything and leave the games to spend eternity in limbo, like with Keen 6, where there's no way at all to acquire them legally. Whether or not the games are old and technologically outdated will make no difference when the company that made them no longer exists.
You crack me up little buddy!-
Bonevelous
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I might be wrong, but I think we'll have to wait till 2079...tulip wrote:Just out of curiosity, how long does it take 'till the copyright on computer software runs out? I know there's such a limit on literature and medicine for example.
I know this doesn't mean they couldn't sell it anymore, this just means that everyone could.
I'm not sure though... 
