US Copyright Office Shoots Down Video Game Preservation Effort

The US Copyright Office has determined that it will not alter existing DMCA rules to allow for the preservation of video games in repositories and archives across the country. This news comes following a three-year battle by the Video Game History Foundation to desperately find a path to preservation for games that are in danger of being lost forever.

Previously, the organisation revealed that around 87% of all games released before 2010 are ‘virtually inaccessible’ owing to changes in technology, consumer habits, retail operating models, and the simple passing of time.

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Remember Them

Many gamers appreciate a blast from the past – it’s why some games do so well when they are remade, or when modern variants introduce elements from past releases.

Fortnite OG, I’m looking at you.

If we go beyond that and look at true nostalgia – retro gaming – we enter a vast world filled with consoles, games, and peripherals from yesteryear, all of which are steadily falling into an abyss due to a lack of official preservation practices. While books, movies, music, and the like are all preserved under DMCA law, video games have never fallen into a legitimate category.

In the retort published by the US Copyright Office, which leant on comments made by the Entertainment Software Association, it was said that the petition from the VGHF was kicked because they:

… did not propose a clear requirement to know who the users are or why they want to access a game.

Earlier, the ESA said:

Enabling widespread remote access to preserved games with minimal supervision would present a serious risk to an important market.

The Video Game History Foundation insists it’s not finished with its crusade, but the rules are relatively black and white right now. In an ideal world, a digital repository of archived games would exist for users to check them out and access their contents through emulation platforms, but it admittedly becomes quite hard to police who is accessing them, and when, and where.

Do you think video games need to be preserved in this way, or should the retro collector market be enough to suffice? Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum.

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