Games preservation suffers major setback as games industry lobbies US Copyright Office...

[killamch89]

The U.S. Copyright Office recently rejected a petition to allow libraries and archives to remotely share preserved video games for research purposes. This ruling, influenced by concerns from industry groups like the Entertainment Software Association, argues that making games accessible online could harm the market. The Video Game History Foundation, which advocated for the change, expressed disappointment, highlighting the preservation challenges for games no longer in print. They criticized the industry's stance, which they feel disregards the needs of historians and researchers. You can see the complete article here.

[The Blackangel]

Maybe they should get in touch with those of us who are classic gamers. As everyone knows, RDR2 is my favorite game, but I still spend more time playing NES, SNES, N64, PS1, Sega Genesis, Atari 2600, and Game Boy. With a small handful of exceptions, I don't play jack shit but classic systems and games.

[killamch89]

21 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

Maybe they should get in touch with those of us who are classic gamers. As everyone knows, RDR2 is my favorite game, but I still spend more time playing NES, SNES, N64, PS1, Sega Genesis, Atari 2600, and Game Boy. With a small handful of exceptions, I don't play jack shit but classic systems and games.

That could be a viable route but some may not want to sell their games either. To be fair, I'm not sure what kind of research is even done on classic games but that's why I've started to homebrew my 3DS. That way I have access to all of the 3DS titles that Nintendo has stopped offering on their platform.

[The Blackangel]

I’m not selling a damn thing unless the money offered is obscenely high. I’m talking no less than 7 digits. I have some games that I love, but are next to impossible to find. But no one is really looking for them either. So there aren’t a high number of authentic copies.

[Scorpion]

Disappointing for gaming historians, but understandable concerns from industry groups, still, digital preservation of classic games for research purposes seems a worthy compromise somehow.