87 percent of classic video games released before 2010 in the United States have failed to be preserved in any real capacity, according to the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF).
In a new study on classic video games and their "commercial availability," the VGHF found that these older titles are "critically endangered," revealing that video games released between 1975 and 1979 have an availability rate of .89 percent , while the early '90s (1990-1994) has 19.33 percent. Coming in behind the '90s are 2005-2009 (17.89 percent). Less than 3 percent of games released before 1985 remain in print today.
Read more over at Game Developer.
at first i was surprised because of the "failed to be preserved in any real capacity" sentence but then i read the beginning of the actual study. This is just focused on games that you can still buy officially. It does kinda say that in the game developer post but it's not super clear.
From the study:
"... whether they have been reissued or are otherwise still available through their rightsholders."
so all those games that are still available as ROMs or where the rightsholder is just out of business or whatever are counted as the 87 percent. (unless im misunderstanding something).
I'd be curious what the more raw availability is. Like a sampling of given 30 minutes can i find and emulate a game from before 2000s on a PC.
but i think the point the study makes is very valid. you can't trust the market to preserve game history.
