This is a list of commercial video games released as freeware; games that, in their original license, were not considered

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

, but were re-released at a later date with a freeware license, sometimes as publicity for a forthcoming sequel or compilation release. Some of the following games are not

freely redistributable software Freely redistributable software (FRS) is software that anyone is free to redistribute. The term has been used to mean two types of free-to-redistribute software, distinguished by the legal modifiability and limitations on the purpose of use of the ...

, as they have only been made available as a free download as freeware, but may only be downloaded from certain websites and with the explicit permission of the copyright owner. Consult the

software license agreement An end-user license agreement or EULA () is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or End user, end-user. The practice of selling licenses to rather than copies of software predates the recognition of software copyright, w ...

. For games that were originally released as freeware, see

List of freeware video games This is a selected list of freeware video games implemented as traditional executable files that must be downloaded and installed. Freeware games are games that are released as freeware and can be downloaded and played, free of charge, for an unli ...

. For

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

games, and proprietary games re-released as FLOSS, see

List of open-source video games This is a list of notable open-source video games. Open-source video games are assembled from and are themselves open-source software, including public domain games with public domain source code. This list also includes games in which the engine ...

. For proprietary games with released source code (and proprietary or freeware content), see

List of commercial video games with available source code This is a list of commercial video games with available source code. The source code of these commercially developed and distributed video games is available to the public or the games' communities. In several of the cases listed here, the gam ...

Games

The following formerly commercial games have been made available as freeware and are still in that status:

Games no longer freely distributed

The following are commercial games that were once released as free downloads but were not

. * '' Airborne Ranger'' (1988), a stealth 2D game by

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

. It was released as freeware by Atari to promote ''Airborne Rangers''. A free registration was required to download the game. After ''Airborne Rangers'' wasn't released, the '' Airborne Ranger'' page and the download link were removed. The game is still mentioned as freeware and many forums and sites have the now dead link to the game page. The legal situation now is unclear because the installer has no disclaimer. * ''

Area 51 Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range in southern Nevada, north-northwest of Las Vegas. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force B ...

'' (2005), a first person shooter by

Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...

. Its free release was sponsored by the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

. It later changed hands and its freeware status was removed. * ''

B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ...

'' (1992), a

flight simulator A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they rea ...

. * ''

Battlefield 1942 ''Battlefield 1942'' is a 2002 first-person shooter game developed by Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game can be played in single-player mode against the video game AI or in multip ...

'' (2002), a first person shooter by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

, was available on

Origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

until it was removed, due to

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

shutting down. * ''

Betrayal at Krondor ''Betrayal at Krondor'' is an MS-DOS-based role-playing video game developed by Dynamix and released by Sierra Entertainment, Sierra On-Line in the summer of 1993 in video gaming, 1993. ''Betrayal at Krondor'' takes place largely in Midkemia, the ...

'' (1993), a

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

Dynamix Dynamix, Inc. was an American developer of video games from 1984 to 2001, best known for the flight simulator Red Baron (1990 video game), ''Red Baron'', the puzzle video game, puzzle game ''The Incredible Machine (video game), The Incredible Mach ...

. * ''

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...

'' (1992), a city-building game by Sierra. * ''

Dragonsphere ''Dragonsphere'' is a point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by MicroProse in 1994. It has graphics which were considered high-quality at the time it was published, considered a novelty. It is still a cult classic for many. ...

'' (1994), a point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by MicroProse. Released as freeware by

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...

in 2011 on GOG.com. The rights were brought by

Tommo Tommo Inc. is an American video game publisher based in City of Industry, California. Founded in 1990, Tommo started out as a small independent distributor of imported video games. Since 2006, Tommo also operates a publishing subsidiary, UFO In ...

in 2015 and, after the expiration of the deal with Atari, began to charge for it. * '' Gateway'' (1992), an adventure game by

Legend Entertainment Legend Entertainment Company was an American developer and publisher of computer games, best known for creating adventure titles throughout the 1990s. The company was founded by Bob Bates and Mike Verdu, both veterans of the interactive fic ...

. * ''

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is prima ...

'' (1997) * ''

Grand Theft Auto 2 ''Grand Theft Auto 2'' is a 1999 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sequel to 1997's ''Grand Theft Auto'', and the second main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series. Set within a retrofu ...

'' (1999) * ''

Red Baron 3D Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

'' (1998), a flight game by Sierra. * '' Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War'' (2006), a

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

Stainless Steel Studios Stainless Steel Studios (SSSI) was a video game developer, started in 1997 by Rick Goodman and Dara-Lynn Pelechatz. The company was based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and focused on the development of real-time strategy games. History Stainless ...

and

. Re-released as ad-supported freeware, sponsored by the

. * ''

The Sims 2 ''The Sims 2'' is a 2004 social simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to ''The Sims''. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on ...

'' (2004), a life simulation game by

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is ...

and

. It was released as freeware for a limited time on Origin on July 16, 2014, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of ''The Sims 2''. It was removed from Origin on July 31, 2014. * '' The Suffering'' (2004), a horror third/first person shooter developed by

Surreal Software Surreal Software was an American video game developer based in Kirkland, Washington, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, known for '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'', '' The Suffering'' and '' Drakan'' ...

and published by

. It was released free in September 2008 sponsored by the

, but is no longer available due to a new copyright holder. * ''

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon ''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon'' is a series of military tactical shooter video games published by Ubisoft. In the series, the player is in charge of a fictional, newly conceived squad of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers from Delta Company, 1st B ...

'' (2001), a

tactical shooter A tactical shooter is a Video game genre, sub-genre of First-person shooter, first- and third-person shooters, associated with using strategy, planning, and Military tactics, tactics in gameplay, as well as the realistic simulations of ballisti ...

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Anno'', '' Assassin's Creed'', ' ...

. Released in an ad-supported free download version in 2007 for a limited time; available to US residents only. *'' Wild Metal Country'' (1999), was released as freeware in 2004 but is no longer available on the download page. * ''

Zero Tolerance A zero-tolerance policy is one which imposes a punishment for every infraction of a stated rule.zero tolerance, n.' (under ''zero, n.''). The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. 1989. Retrieved 10 November 2009. Italy, Japan, Singapore China, I ...

'' (1994), a first person shooter developed by Technopop for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The ROMs of the game and its sequel were formerly offered by the owner Randel Reiss for free download. In 2021, however, the rights to both games were purchased by

Piko Interactive Piko Interactive LLC is an American video game publisher based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded in early 2013 by Eli Galindo, the company focuses on physical re-releases of games from older video game consoles and digitally released ports to newer ...

, leding the download links for the ROMs to disappear from Technopop's website, but they are still available for free download on Zophar's Domain. * ''

Zork I ''Zork'' is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and s ...

'', ''

Zork II ''Zork'' is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and s ...

'', ''

Zork III ''Zork'' is a text adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and s ...

'', text adventure games by

Infocom Infocom, Inc., was an American software company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that produced numerous works of interactive fiction. They also produced a business application, a relational database called ''Cornerstone (software), Cornerston ...

References

{{No cost computer games

Freeware games This is a selected list of freeware video games implemented as traditional executable files that must be downloaded and installed. Freeware games are games that are released as freeware and can be downloaded and played, free of charge, for an unli ...