To date Embracer has spent $2m on its retro game archive
gamesindustry.bizJeffrey Rousseau
Staff Writer
Friday 15th July 2022
Embracer
Recently gaming firm Embrace Group announced its new retro video game archive initiative and to date it's spent $2 million in the effort.
As reported by Waypoint, the company is also building a database, while hinting that in the future the archive could be used by journalists, loaned to museums, and seen by the public.
Embracer's website says that it currently has 50,000 games, consoles, and accessories located in Sweden.
Waypoint notes that the company's initiative has drawn some criticism.
"Where do all the videogames they've acquired (many through donations from people who expected their wares to serve a 'greater good') go when they shift their focus?" National Videogame Museum director Sean Kelly told Waypoint.
"Being a for-profit company, they can literally do whatever they want with them."
Earlier in the month GamesIndustry.Biz spoke with preservationists about the challenge of safeguarding and documenting the industry's history.
One of the noted difficulties for video game preservation was regarding modern complications.
"Nowadays physical copies -- as great as it is they exist -- they either don't have a complete copy of the game, they have an old copy of the game, or they just serve as a license key to download a copy of the game," said digital games curator at The Strong National Museum of Play Andrew Borman.
"So physical copies are not going to be the magical preservation tool for much longer as time goes on."
Video game preservation has also become a point of attention for other companies such as Sony.
During April PlayStation setup a game preservation team as it hired former EA and Kabam engineer Garrett Fredley as its senior build engineer.
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