CodeWeavers cancels free giveaway program, honors existing registrations

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

CodeWeavers cancels free giveaway program, honors existing registrations

by Brad Linder Oct 31st 2008

It sure seemed like a good idea. CodeWeavers, the makers of CrossOver software that lets you run Windows applications like MS Outlook or games like Half Life on Mac andLinux machines, held a tongue-in-cheek promotion where the company promised to give away free copies of its software if one of a number of economic goals were met in the US. While it's likely that the US government had little to do with the recent dip in gas prices, this week CodeWeavers decided that $2.79 gas meant it was time to give away a copy of CrossOver to anyone who wanted it within a 24 hour period.

And then all heck broke loose. The story made the front page of Digg and was reported on countless tech blogs. The CodeWeavers website crashed, although the company quickly got the download links back online. When the smoke cleared, the company gave away about 750,000 copies of its software.

Let's let that sink in for a second here. A company that many people may not have even known existed, had its software downloaded three quarters of a million times in one day. CodeWeavers sent an email this week stating that the move expands the company's customer base by 400%. The value of the free software given away tops $45 million.

In other words, the whole thing might have backfired and ruined the company's bottom line. On the other hand, it could be awesome news in the long run for CodeWeavers. A whole lot of people who weren't aware of the software are now potential customers. Many of the people who downloaded free copies may not really wind up using it, but those who do may decide to upgrade when a new version is available or pay for another year of support when the 1 year of free support expires in a year.

Still, CodeWeavers has decided to cancel the promotion going forward. There had been plans to do another giveaway if housing prices fell, US job numbers went up, or Osama Bin Laden was captured. But that just doesn't seem like a good idea anymore.

Tags: codeweavers, crossover, wine

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

bioadam said 12:47PM on 10-31-2008

"Many of the people who downloaded free copies may not really wind up using it, but those who do may decide to upgrade when a new version is available or pay for another year of support when the 1 year of free support expires in a year."

Dang straight it will help CodeWeavers. I'm totally stoked to run Irfanview and play old PC games on my coming MacBook and I will definitely want to upgrade us more software is supported. My suggestion for CodeWeavers, create an upgrade really, really soon.

Thrush said 12:58PM on 10-31-2008

I still have not received a license key via email. Are those still being sent or are they only honoring the keys that were given out before their servers crashed?

Anderson said 1:08PM on 10-31-2008

I received my key and I clicked the request link after the server went down the first time. The article says they are not doing it going forward but existing requests for the free license should still be honored. Apparently they were backlogged so I did not get my key until 2 days after.

Jon Parshall said 2:44PM on 11-04-2008

All licenses have been sent out at this point. If you didn't receive yours yet, please contact our product support team.

Thanks,

-jon parshall-
COO
CodeWeavers

brad said 1:05PM on 10-31-2008

I signed up for mac crossover on my account early in the day in the morning, and I have yet to receive an email as well. What is going on?

Jon Parshall said 2:51PM on 11-04-2008

We had more than 400,000 emails to send out, which took us until about Sunday night to get out there. If you haven't received a code yet, please contact our product support team via our ticket system.

Cheers,

-jon parshall-
COO
CodeWeavers

feuerstarta said 3:31PM on 11-04-2008

I got the code late Saturday. Thank you. After I read how many request you guys had, figured it take a little more time.

Alex M said 1:20PM on 10-31-2008

For those who haven't gotten their key: Patience. They are probably backlogged.

And yes, I will definitely install CrossOver Games and give it a spin. And I'm seriously considering pledging some money to a couple of games.

The big potential downside for CodeWeavers, besides the crashed web servers, would be if even a third of the new costumers started requesting support services.

Rick Bungle said 2:36PM on 10-31-2008

Just think, if they had charged only $1 per license that day they would have made well over 1/2 million...

Wiserun said 2:57PM on 10-31-2008

That's assuming that 2/3 of the people that got it for free would have paid $1 for it. Do you by chance work for one of the RIAA/MPAA organizations?

Rick Bungle said 3:06PM on 10-31-2008

Ha! I was just saying that paying only $1 for $40 software would have been a great promotion!

James said 11:12AM on 11-01-2008

That's absolutely true. I for one can say that while it's not worth 40 bucks to me, I'd absolutely risk a dollar on a product I might not use. They could have at least covered their bandwidth costs...

kyleabaker said 4:29PM on 10-31-2008

I still haven't received my key either.

Jon Parshall said 2:51PM on 11-04-2008

We finished mailing codes on the 2nd. You should have it by now. If not, please contact our support team via our ticket system.

Best Wishes,

-jon parshall-
COO
CodeWeavers

Daniel Cheung said 9:35PM on 10-31-2008

How is that "cancelling" if they're just stopping when they said they would stop the giveaway?

Brad Linder said 9:37PM on 10-31-2008

Codeweavers had originally planned to hold similar giveaways if other economic benchmarks were met. Since this one was so successful, they decided it would be imprudent to do it again.

WolvenSpectre said 8:14AM on 11-01-2008

I went to get my key many hours before the 24 hr period was due to be up and they had already stopped giving out keys on the site.

In other words they are honouring their agreement so long as you got a key before they took their offer back prematurely. If you went for a free key after they closed the doors early tough!

If they didn't expect this, they should have.

(mumble-grumpy-snarl-rasm-fasm-disappointment)

Jon Parshall said 2:51PM on 11-04-2008

Hi Wolven,

We didn't take the promotion down until midnight Tuesday night CST, exactly at the time we said we'd taken it down. I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Best Wishes,

-jon parshall-
COO
CodeWeavers

andrewtheken said 5:37PM on 11-01-2008

I would actually like a way to pay, at least something, for the copy I received, it's worth $15 to me, but it's not worth $40 to me... These guys put themselves out there, and honored the giveaway, even though it might have killed short term sales... The thing is that I don't think that all 750,000 downloads were all by people that would/will use it , but grabbed it while it was free (this is not a dig on CrossOver, the product is great, just worth different amounts to different people).

whiskey said 7:31AM on 11-03-2008

We got our keys and registered them without a hitch.

Thanks CodeWeavers!

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