Entertainment Software Association Won’t Support Game Preservation

While what we consider old games were born barely 20-30 years ago, it’s already hard to access many of them. According to the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) and the Software Preservation Network (SPN) report, only 13% of classic video games published in the United States are currently in release. The organizations together with other companies have been trying to come up with a plan to save retro games, and last week, a hearing took place between their side and the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) along with the Advanced Access Content System (AACS), held by the United States Library of Congress Copyright Office.

To put it simply, the issue is in the copyright, and the SPN wants to find a way for researchers to be exempt from DMCA and access games in libraries and archives. However, as reported by Game Developer, the ESA’s legal representative Steve Englund said there’s “[no] combination of limitations [ESA members] would support to provide remote access.”