[game_preservation] Project idea; List of closed companies

[ommail at cox.net]

I agree with Stuart--a very long list indeed...
But not 'un-do-able'.

The tragedy here is something that Andrew only touched upon--the loss of the development information.

While the Internet Archive Wayback Machine captures the company web page (thanks, Henry), their data does not always survive...and there is currently not a lot that can be done about that--due to a number of reasons.

My experience with being part of 'Project Technosaur' (the Origin Archive) Team last summer at EA is a perfect example of this.
I've been a huge fan of Origin since the 80s, and started collecting/cataloging/archiving around 1999.  When Origin finally closed it's doors in Austin in 2004, one of my first thoughts was, "What's gonna happen to all of the stuff?!"--While friends at Origin were very generous in donating 15 boxes of info to the Museum, no data was included.  Origin (as most other companies) was folded into the fabric of a larger company.  As such, the data from that company is still the property of the parent (in this case, EA).  The data is incredibly valuable to the parent company, and the thought of giving it to anyone would be ludicrous in their eyes.  But companies that close don't seem to realize that data is not the gold when this happens--it's the *licenses* that hold that value.
Convincing a company like EA to make archival copes of any closing companies' data would be a hard thing indeed.  In the case of the Origin archive, I think that we just got lucky, and there really wasn't much code included.  Any that we find might not be approved for release (tho there is always hope).

Private companies that close also have this stigma--actually, it may be worse.  There is always the option of continuing a half-finished project with another company--and developers suddenly out of work dream of using their old data for a future venture.  Therefore it is hoarded as their bread-n-butter, and rightfully so.  

So I don't really envision a time that the closing of a game company would be a potential for immediate data preservation (although I wish it were).  there's always hope.
All of the above is just my opinion, of course.  The folks here that actually work in the gaming industry might want to chime in--they have a million-times-more insight than my theories.

Joe
---- Stuart Feldhamer <stuart.feldhamer at gmail.com> wrote: 

> I think this would be a very long list...

> 

> Stuart

> 

> > -----Original Message-----

> > From: game_preservation-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_preservation-

> > bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Armstrong

> > Sent: Monday, December 22, 2008 10:26 PM

> > To: IGDA Game Preservation SIG

> > Subject: [game_preservation] Project idea; List of closed companies

> > 

> > I was wondering, with Free Radical (who's UK based, thus I noticed it

> > more then other recent closures) suddenly, like many game development

> > studios, just shut shop:

> > http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/free-radical-design-latest-to-

> > face-financial-trouble

> > 

> > I think it might be worth, certainly for recent companies, to get a

> > list

> > of closed companies somehow - that is, which is why I am posting here,

> > to see if there is a good list already available :)

> > 

> > Certainly this would help anyone who was, really, on the edge of

> > getting

> > information - certainly I'd not mind getting the history of Free

> > Radical

> > (and if anything, any old stuff they had obviously could be moved to an

> > archive too! but that usually never happens :( ) now, rather then

> > whenever in the future when all the employee's have moved, things are

> > everywhere and anywhere, and so forth. It is rather a sad topic, of

> > course, and one historians seriously have trouble dealing with -

> > there's

> > not a great deal of information available about closed companies (at

> > least, information about their final days) out there unless a book/huge

> > site/whatever was done of them during their lifespan or just after it.

> > 

> > Once the new IGDA site goes live I'll also try and invest some time in

> > contacting the studio's people (somehow, given they are not working

> > there anymore this might be harder then expected) and request some

> > final

> > interviews, and whatnot, so some of the history of the company can be

> > caught before it disappears, since we all know memory isn't always very

> > reliable after a while.

> > 

> > Andrew

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> > game_preservation at igda.org

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