Petteri Pyyny
8 Jul 2026 15:10
The enormous cultural significance of video games only began to be fully understood sometime in the early 2010s, even though the monetary value of video games has long since surpassed art forms considered 'traditional culture,' such as music and movies.
But preserving, archiving, and curating games for future generations has become almost impossible in the last twenty years, states one of the largest foundations saving video games for posterity, Video Game History Foundation.
Many players perceive the problem to be that games are no longer sold as physical copies - and recently, for example, Sony announced it would completely cease the production of physical PlayStation game discs.
But the problem is actually more complex.
According to the foundation's statement, the biggest problem is that almost all games nowadays require a connection to the game publisher's servers. Often, the game doesn't even work without an internet connection, but even more common is that updates are released for the game over the network, which are required for the game to function.
The foundation describes the problem by saying that they cannot possibly rely on simply buying a physical copy of GTA VI and stashing it in a corner of a warehouse for the preservation of game history. In fifty years, the game will very likely not launch at all, as the servers it requires will have been decommissioned and shut down decades earlier.
Furthermore, a game purchased as a physical disc does not reflect the true, preservable game, because it lacks the updates released for the game - meaning that from the perspective of preserving history, even a physical copy of the game does not correspond to past reality.
The harsh summary is that the organization currently has no legal ways to save games released today for future generations to admire; instead, piracy is becoming the best friend of museums and archives preserving history in this regard.
Apologies, we for got the alt text! Here it is.
-- Video Game History Foundation (@gamehistoryorg.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 9:52 PM
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The foundation particularly blames the lobbying organization for American game companies, the Entertainment Software Association, for not even agreeing to discuss with museums and archives to find a sustainable and legal archiving method.
A citizen initiative driven in the European Union was also strongly connected to the same topic. However, the European Union rejected the Stop Killing Games citizen initiative, which would have demanded that games remain playable forever, at least in some form.