John Romero Pushes Back Against Piracy Claims, Saying It Didn’t Destroy the Gaming Industry of the 1990s

Gaming legend John Romero, co-creator of DOOM and Quake, has publicly challenged comments made by fellow id Software veteran Sandy Petersen, arguing that video game piracy alone did not destroy the game industry during the 1990s. While Romero agrees that developers deserve to be paid for their work, he believes the history of PC gaming is far more complicated than simply blaming piracy for the downfall of iconic studios.

The debate began after Petersen claimed that 70–90% of DOOM players pirated the game, suggesting that lost revenue hurt id Software and contributed to the struggles of companies such as Atari, Cinemaware, and 3D Realms. Romero responded by pointing out that the original DOOM was built around a shareware distribution model, meaning the first episode was intentionally released for free and designed to be copied and shared legally. According to Romero, by the mid-1990s DOOM had around 20 million shareware installs and more than 2 million paid sales, making it misleading to classify every unpaid copy as piracy.

Romero acknowledged that piracy certainly reduced sales and that players should support developers by purchasing games whenever possible. However, he argued that piracy was only one factor among many that shaped the industry. Business decisions, technological shifts, changing markets, and evolving development costs all played major roles in the successes and failures of game studios during that era. In his view, the free distribution of DOOM's shareware episode actually helped turn the game into a global phenomenon by exposing millions of players to the franchise.

The exchange has sparked renewed discussion about one of the gaming industry's oldest debates. Romero's comments don't defend software piracy—instead, they emphasize that the history of the 1990s PC gaming boom cannot be reduced to a single cause. While both Romero and Petersen agree that developers should be fairly compensated, Romero believes the rise and fall of legendary studios was driven by a combination of creative, technical, and business factors rather than piracy alone.