Embracer Group, the many-tentacled parent company of THQ Nordic, Deep Silver, Gearbox, and a half-dozen other publishing labels, has announced plans to open a video game archive in Karlstad, Sweden.
While lots of publishers are extremely thorough about preserving production assets, prototypes, and source code for the games they create, what Embracer is doing with their archive is fairly unique.
Using CEO Lars Wingefors’s personal game library as a starting point, Embracer has built a collection containing over 50,000 different games, consoles, and accessories. You can see the “secret” underground vault that houses the collection (and a portion of the games) in this new video featuring the archive’s Game Historian, Martin Lindell:
The archive’s collection currently stretches all the way back to the launch games for the Magnavox Odyssey, and Embracer’s goal is to obtain the European, American, and Japanese editions of every game ever made:
For us, games are more than just games. It is culture. It is something created by great people with creative ideas. By building a large games archive, we want to preserve and tribute the gaming culture for a long period of time.
The journey has already begun and it is time to take the next step. Our goal is clear – We want to archive and display as much of the video game industry as possible. Hopefully you will join us on our journey.
The Embracer Group Games Archive isn’t open to the public yet, but they hope to welcome researchers in the near future as the archive becomes more accessible.