A huge problem is being faced by the gaming industry. According to a recent survey, almost 87 percent of games cannot be played without the use of illegal means like downloading pirated copies, participating in scavenger hunts, or visiting an archive. The urgent need for game preservation is highlighted by this troubling trend.
The Struggle for Preservation
It is essential for maintaining the rich history of the gaming industry to be able to access and replay older games. The bulk of these games, as the survey indicates, are, however, in danger of vanishing over time, mostly because of outmoded technology and a lack of preservation measures. There are substantial ramifications associated with the probable loss of a sizable chunk of gaming history. It runs the risk of wiping out decades of cultural advancement, invention, and storytelling, denying succeeding generations the chance to see the development of the game industry.
An Essential but Challenging Task
The study highlights the growing contribution of game piracy to game preservation. Even though it has moral and legal repercussions, piracy is frequently the only way to access and keep a great deal of older games alive. The study emphasizes the need of correctly archiving video games. It takes a lot of money, legal knowledge, and technical know-how to convert older games into formats that work with new hardware, so archiving is no easy task.
For the gaming industry, the study’s findings constitute a call to action. For the purpose of game preservation, more work needs to be put into developing methods that are licit, thorough, and available to all. Sustainable solutions might be possible through cooperation between game designers, archivists, and legal authorities. As a result, the gaming industry is gravely concerned about the possibility of losing 87 percent of its games to the passage of time. In order to prevent future generations from losing knowledge of the rich history of gaming, it underlines the critical need for stronger preservation strategies.
