[game_preservation] XBLA, Wiiware, and maybe the future of releasing all games + intro

[Devin Monnens]

Steven,

Thanks for the info! We'll be glad to help you out.

There was some discussion of XBLA, etc in the White Paper, but I only
glanced at it. There may be some collecting work done by certain archives
with 360s and Wii's who have downloaded all (or most of) the games. As such,
the only effective way to store them would be to save the games on a hard
drive. You MIGHT be able to get around the one copy per user for XBLA by
purchasing multiple hard drives and keeping one as a backup. Permanently
archiving community games might be easier as we can solicit a copy. And of
course there are demos and interviews and all the other stuff Microsoft puts
up.

I'm beginning to think we should have a copyright system where published
games need to be submitted to the LOC or government library or something.
This is already done with books, but again there is no organization whose
job it is to preserve games, and this would mandate that a copy be made
available for the future (you get copyright protection; in exchange the
government gets a copy for its library in order to benefit society). There's
every reason to suspect that many VC and XBLA games will become unavailable
10 years into the future, and it's ridiculous to suspect the company will be
interested in preserving these titles. One would have to look at the
contract agreements to see just who owns the games.

Fortunately, we DO already have a case study: The Nintendo BS Satellite.
These games were transmitted Nintendo's satellite internet in Japan only for
the Super NES. The hardware is very expensive because so few were made, and
working games are even rarer. I am not sure how the games that we have
became available, but I suspect if it came down to it, something similar
MIGHT be what happens with VC games where the games are stored on somebody's
hard drive or become available through the hardcore collector's market. I'd
say any research you can do in that area would be a great start.

-Devin Monnens

On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 1:15 PM, Steven van Stelten <sa.vanstelten at gmail.com

> wrote:



> Hello SIG mailinglist members,

> Firstly, I would like to introduce myself and than throw in a bone. I am

> Steven van Stelten, Dutch student Reinwardt Acadamy of Cultural Heritage.

> And currently very busy with a paper about preservation of the world of

> video games. This mailinglist and its archive have been very helpful. So

> thank you for that.

>

> And now for the bone:

> It probably is not the biggest issue out there right now. And I do not know

> very much about the future of releasing games. However I have come across

> some speculation here and there that games will be released (downloads)

> and/or played solely via internet. So nothing tangible will be put out on

> the market anymore. Now MMOs and the sorts fit in to this, and there are

> XBOX 360's XBLA and Wii's Wiiware. For MMOs and such there are other

> problems. But nowadays XBLA releases games exclusively, see:

> This title is only available to Xbox 360® owners with an Xbox LIVE® Silver

> or Gold membership, through download from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

> From:http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/b/bngxboxlivearcade/default.htm

>

> A hit game like Braid is also available as a PC game. But some XBLA games

> are, I think, only available as a download for the XBOX 360, where it hides

> somewhere on that platform/console. If a game is brought on the market on

> disc, and there are several tens of thousands  or more made there is a

> bigger chance that something will live (I think). I do not how those

> downloadable games are stored by the publisher, however I can imagine that

> collecting these downloadable games will be something quite different in the

> future. Acquiring a game from someone who still has that game on a certain

> hard disk will be different. And I reckon that quality control can be

> something that will be more important, because these games are more prone to

> be (accidentally) fiddled with. And they need to be migrated and without

> viruses and such.

> Especially the XBLA games are fragile, I think. Because they are harder to

> access for making copies, and are more likely to turn obsolete at some time.

>

> Sorry for the long text. In short I am interested in your thoughts (maybe

> more broad than mentioned above) on this as brought on the market intangible

> stuff. And if you agree that these intangible artifacts are more susceptible

> to loss than the games on let's say, discs. And maybe someone knows some

> interesting resources or could direct me to a earlier post, because I

> remember something about delistings a while back.

>

> Many thanks en best regards,

>

> Steven

>

>

>

>

>

>

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>

>



-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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