Romero: Doom's 20 million shareware players 'were not pirates'

John Romero pushed back against Sandy Petersen’s claim that piracy destroyed studios. Petersen argued that "70-90% of Doom's players pirated it," suggesting lost sales meant the team would have had "so much more for our workspace and upcoming projects" and that "Quake may not have gutted id Software." Romero reminded readers the original Doom used shareware: its first chapter was distributed for free and players could register to unlock the rest.

He wrote, "By the mid-90s, DOOM had something like 20 million shareware installs and more than 2 million paid copies sold," and added, "Those 20 million people were not 'pirates' by default. A huge number of them were playing the free episode exactly as intended." He continued that he doesn't think piracy "gutted" id — "id is still around and still making games" — and that while "Piracy may have cost money, it wasn’t the reason Quake was hard or why people eventually went different ways." Romero urged people to "pay developers.

Buy the games you love.

john romero, sandy petersen, doom, quake, id software, shareware, piracy, 20 million, 2 million, pay developers