87% Unavailable: the Grim Reality About Classic Games
A new study from The Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network reveals just how bad availability is for classic video games.
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What you need to know:
- Just 13% of classic video games released in the US are represented in the current marketplace
- Availability is low across every platform and time period tracked in the study -- no period of video game history even cracks 20% representation
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Why does this matter?
It's probably not shocking to hear that classic video games are largely out of release, and that your options for accessing them are often limited to piracy or purchasing and maintaining vintage hardware, but this has big implications for video game preservation and copyright reform.
The video game industry has, until now, successfully argued that the commercial market already does enough to preserve its history. They've opposed new copyright exemptions that would make game preservation easier, or even reasonable, for libraries and archives. As a result, video games don't get the same kind of treatment that books, movies, or music do -- so they're at a much higher risk of becoming lost.
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Our goal is to change the legal landscape for game preservation.
Video games shouldn't be the exception to the rule. We need better tools for libraries and archives to preserve and share our history.
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Want to learn more?
For an even more in-depth look at this new study, VGHF's Library Director Phil Salvador dives into the weeds, revealing how we did it, what we found, and why it matters.
See our blog post The Game Availability Study, Explained!
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