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Embracer Group establishes a games archive

Embracer Group establishes a games archive

Swedish games giant Embracer Group has founded the Embracer Games Archive, with the goal of preserving physical hardware, software and peripherals.

As spotted by PC Gamer, the venture is being headed up by CEO David Boström (pictured) and is based in Sweden, Karlstad. It was seemingly set up in August 2021 – when Boström was hried – and at the time of writing the Embracer Games Archive boasts 50,000 games, consoles and accessories. Currently it has five members of staff; CEO, archivist, archive assistant, technical engineer and supply manager.

The plan for 2022 is to build a database of the archive's contents and start cataloging it. In the coming years, the Embracer Games Archive is looking to work with educational initiatives and musuems, as well as give journalists and researchers access to what it has stored away. The "long-term ambition" is to show its wares at exhibitions, both locally and in "satellite exhibitions".

"Imagine a place where all physical video games, consoles and accessories are gathered at the same place," Boström wrote.

"And think about how much that could mean for games' culture and enabling video games research. This journey has just been started and we are at an early stage. But already now, we have a large collection to take care of at the Embracer Games Archive’s premises in Karlstad, Sweden. A team of experts has been recruited and will start building the foundation for the archive. At Embracer Games Archive, we believe that games carry a heritage worth celebrating and safeguarding for the future. Our goal is clear – We want to archive and save as much of the video games industry as possible."

The task of preserving video games has been a tricky circle to square for many years, not least due to robust copyright laws, as well as physical games often decaying as time goes on.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.