Preservation: is the industry burning its own heritage?

The video game industry has more than 60 years of history. Yet the efforts to preserve this heritage remain dramatically insufficient, to the point where one may wonder whether the sector is not literally burning its own memory.

Alarming figures

A study by the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF), conducted with the Software Preservation Network, established that 87% of games released before 2010 are no longer commercially available, with only 13% still on the market. A few benchmarks:

• The Commodore 64 (1982), a major platform with some 10,000 titles, now sees only about 4.5% of its catalogue in commercial circulation.
• Fewer than 3% of the games released before 1985 are still available.

To play most of the classics, only three options remain: owning a collection yourself, turning to emulation (often in a legal grey area), or visiting one of the rare specialised libraries.

Digital distribution has not helped

One might think that digital distribution, after 2010, would make preservation easier. The opposite is true: titles disappear from stores at a steady pace, leaving no physical trace. Community projects such as Delisted Games or Old Games Download try to document these disappearances, but they are making up for a failure that ought to fall to the industry and to public authorities.

Institutional denial

Faced with this situation, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents American publishers, claims that the industry is doing enough, while regularly opposing the exceptions that would allow libraries to offer remote access to old games. The ESA points to occasional donations (more than 2,500 games entrusted to the Library of Congress), but that falls short: preservation cannot rest on the goodwill alone of those who have an interest in selling new products.

Preserving is not only about saving the best-sellers. It is about saving the diversity of a culture, including the minor, experimental and forgotten works that make up the richness of an art form.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz, "Video game preservation: is the industry torching its own legacy?"

Official references

• Video Game History Foundation, "87% of classic games are out of print"