I think that counts as a sale still.
PCs would buy bulk licenses or report back sale #s and pay some $ for the games they bundled and tossed in “for free” with the different computer bundles. They still kinda do that too, sometimes graphics cards or individual components even have “free” games or software.
So it still counted as a sale from their side. You just got it “free” as a bonus.
My PCs came with some phenomenal free disks over the years.
Wing Commander 2, Strike Commander (F-16 combat), Syndicate Plus, Ultima VII on a single CD was a really good one.
I think that same PC also had Magic Carpet on CD as well. I treasure all those games.
I still have my OG Doom on like a stack of 4? 3.5 Floppy Disks from our 386 Windows 3.1 PC.
I think that counts as a sale still. PCs would buy bulk licenses or report back sale #s and pay some $ for the games they bundled and tossed in “for free” with the different computer bundles. They still kinda do that too, sometimes graphics cards or individual components even have “free” games or software.
So it still counted as a sale from their side. You just got it “free” as a bonus.
My PCs came with some phenomenal free disks over the years.
Wing Commander 2, Strike Commander (F-16 combat), Syndicate Plus, Ultima VII on a single CD was a really good one. I think that same PC also had Magic Carpet on CD as well. I treasure all those games.
I still have my OG Doom on like a stack of 4? 3.5 Floppy Disks from our 386 Windows 3.1 PC.