I've never understood why any game company would continue to hold copyright on a game they're not distributing anymore. You can't make money off something you're not selling, so how can you lose a profit you're not making? To quote Cary Grant in Charade: "A third of nothing is nothing."
Holding copyright on abandonware is counterproductive for a veritable rainbow of reasons. First off, as mentioned, it doesn't benefit the company in any way, and makes them look selfish, greedy and irrational in the process. But more than that, free online distribution of their vintage game libraries would make an excellent word-of-mouth marketing strategy. Every marketer knows that giving out free samples is one of the most sure-fire ways to stir up interest in your product (hence the logic of game demos), and this presents an even better method for doing that. It's the ultimate free sample strategy: It stirs up interest in your company, makes you look generous, and doesn't cut into your profits at all.
Now, I'm not saying the game companies should set up free downloads for all their abandoned games on their own company websites. That would hurt them, since gamers would think "Well, why don't I just wait for the free version to come out in a couple of years?" among any gamer who has a PC capable of running the ROM, or who will have a PC capable of running it by the time the ROM comes out. Just don't stamp down on sites like Home of the Underdogs.
Holding copyright on abandonware is counterproductive for a veritable rainbow of reasons. First off, as mentioned, it doesn't benefit the company in any way, and makes them look selfish, greedy and irrational in the process. But more than that, free online distribution of their vintage game libraries would make an excellent word-of-mouth marketing strategy. Every marketer knows that giving out free samples is one of the most sure-fire ways to stir up interest in your product (hence the logic of game demos), and this presents an even better method for doing that. It's the ultimate free sample strategy: It stirs up interest in your company, makes you look generous, and doesn't cut into your profits at all.
Now, I'm not saying the game companies should set up free downloads for all their abandoned games on their own company websites. That would hurt them, since gamers would think "Well, why don't I just wait for the free version to come out in a couple of years?" among any gamer who has a PC capable of running the ROM, or who will have a PC capable of running it by the time the ROM comes out. Just don't stamp down on sites like Home of the Underdogs.