Study shows 87% of classic video games are now inaccessible

Game preservation has become a hot topic in recent years. Now, a study from the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network has found that 87% of classic games are unavailable to play anywhere.

The Video Game History Foundation is a non-profit organisation that’s dedicated to preserving and teaching about the history of games. The goal of this particular study is to get “expanded exemptions for libraries and organizations preserving video games.” Compared to books, film, audio files and other historical documents, video game preservation is far more limited.

Going backwards

The “classic” games involved in this study are titles that released before 2010, the year that digital game distribution took off. Its worth noting that the study is based on 1,500 classic games that were randomly generated by the MobyGames database. Although the sample size is extremely small compared to the sheer number of games that were released before 2010, the study does paint an unsettling picture.

According to The Video Game History Foundation, “the video game industry’s main lobbying group has successfully argued to the US Copyright Office that the industry already does enough to preserve its own history commercially, and that additional protections for preservation institutions would hurt their bottom line. We proved them wrong: the industry has actually only managed to make 13% of its history available, and it’s unlikely to get better.”

There are various factors that make game preservation difficult such as copyright laws, studios no longer supporting certain titles, the release of new hardware and more. As a result, “for accessing nearly 9 in 10 classic games, there are few options: seek out and maintain vintage collectible games and hardware, travel across the country to visit a library, or… piracy.” Of course, none of these methods are ideal, making it a challenge for the masses to experience these games.