Atari games were discounted to $1 or $2 and they were stacked to the celling at major retailers. They sat around discount stores for a decade afterward. There's still warehouses full of them.[1] The company produced millions more games than the number of systems they sold, so who would they have given them too?

[1] http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2009/02/gamesetinterview_ataricl...