Swedish video game and media holding company Embracer Group announced that it is building an archive dedicated to preserving a copy of every physical video game title and console ever made.
According to GameSpot, the massive project fell into the hands of David Boström, who will be heading Embracer Games Archive as its CEO. "Imagine a place where all physical video games, consoles and accessories are gathered at the same place," said Boström. "And think about how much that could mean for games' culture and enabling video games research." Boström further explained that the project was still in its early stages but assured the archive was already in possession of a substantial collection of titles. He also revealed a team of experts was brought in to continue building the foundation of the collection. "Our goal is clear, we want to archive and save as much of the video games industry as possible," Boström concluded.
The Embracer Games Archive shares its headquarters with its parent company in Karlstad, Sweden. At the time of writing, Embracer Games Archive claimed to have 50,000 games, consoles and accessories. The company revealed its plans to start cataloging and constructing a database by sometime this year, alongside future plans to collaborate with museums and institutions with the aim of providing assistance to researchers and journalists. Though the archive is currently unable to welcome visitors, Embracer Games Archive declared it would eventually exhibit sections of the archive locally and through satellite exhibitions at undisclosed locations.
Embracer Games Archive also advertised it was seeking to expand its collection of video games through the purchase of software and hardware collections from willing sellers. The company couldn't name which titles it was in the market for but assured interested parties that it would announce whichever game or platform it was interested in acquiring in the future. It also has an email address available for parties to reach out to them if they have a collection they're interested in selling to the archive.
Founded in 2011, the Embracer Group is now one of the largest holding companies in the video game industry, with control over several well-known development studios and IPs. Its library of franchises even recently added the beloved Tomb Raider series, which Square Enix transferred to the Embracer Group in May 2022 as part of its sale of developer Crystal Dynamics and several other studios. Embracer Group also previously acquired Dark Horse Media, the parent company of Dark Horse Comics, in December 2021. Dark Horse Media's founder and CEO Mike Richardson called the buyout a "new chapter in our history," claiming Embracer's network of subsidiaries will provide new opportunities for Dark Horse Media and its creators.
Source: GameSpot
