John Romero, a co-founder of id Software, has shared an unconventional strategy from the early days of Doom's distribution: the company worked with Taiwanese pirates to help spread the game. This approach stemmed from the Shareware business model prevalent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, where the initial part of a game was offered for free, with the option to purchase the full version.
During this era, games using the Shareware model were susceptible to unauthorized copying and resale. Romero recounted seeing numerous boxes containing the Shareware version of Doom available in stores. Rather than viewing this as a threat, id Software embraced it as a form of distribution, especially in regions where they had limited reach, like Taiwan. "We knew in Taiwan that they were copying it, 100 percent," Romero said. "That was the market back then."
Instead of combating piracy, id Software reached out to prominent pirates in Taiwan, offering them boxes of the game at a very low cost. The directive was simple: "Please do it. Don't give us any money. Just get it out there." This symbiotic relationship benefited id Software by expanding the game's reach, which was crucial for generating revenue when players purchased the full game. "For us it was: distribution is king," Romero explained.
This contrasts sharply with the industry's later struggles against piracy, which often involved robust copy protection systems. Romero noted that id Software eschewed copy protection, recognizing the futility of fighting widespread copying. "If people want to copy it, they're going to copy it. They might buy it sometime later, but we knew we didn't have money for everything that we were playing, so we're like, 'Let's not copy protect it.' If people want to play it, they'll figure out how to play it. We only needed enough to make the next game."