Most Games Will be Gone Forever

Most games before the 2010's will be lost forever. This news came in July of this year but that doesn't mean that the gaming community should stop talking about it. It is regarding on the lack of preservation of older games. This is quite an important topic for me because I have been playing games since the PlayStation 1.

(My PS1 console that I still use.)

There are plenty of games that I have saved since my childhood and some have been lost to time, but I am just one person, how about the industry at large? In the site Video Game History Foundation has stated that 87% of games will be lost forever. They have mentioned that the copyright laws on preservation are outdated and further worsen saving gaming history. Regarding copyright, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) will have a rule making decision next year. So this foundation hopes that people working for the copyright offices take notice of their research. In contrast, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has been allegedly going against these efforts preventing people from creating libraries of old games and having copyright permissions to do so. They are more keen to rerelease very few of classic games but that still leaves the majority of old games to be abandoned.

(games from my library)

From my perspective, there should be leniency on the side of copyright laws to help with gaming history. Right now I could go watch movies from the 1920's or hear music from the 1960's that can not be said of games. Since this industry is relatively new compared to movies and music there are still a long way to go when it comes to respecting the legacy of games.

References:

Lewin, K. (2023, July 19). 87% missing: The disappearance of classic video games. Video Game History Foundation. https://gamehistory.org/87percent/

Winslow, L. (2023, July 10). An alarming 87 percent of retro games are being lost to Time. Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/classic-games-history-foundation-preservation-yakuza-1850623857

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Cristina Torres Velez

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