Germany's Largest Video Game Archive Faces Closure Due to Funding Shortfall

The International Centre for the Preservation of Electronic Games (ICS) in Germany, which aimed to be the world's largest publicly accessible archive of video games, is now facing a shutdown. Approximately 1.5 million euros in public funding expired at the end of April, and the German federal government has declined to extend it. The decision to close the facility was unanimously approved by its shareholders.

Established in 2012, the ICS collected over 60,000 games across various media, including cartridges, floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. The collection also encompassed game manuals, original packaging, and hardware. The project was a collaboration involving Germany's game rating agency (USK), the Berlin Game Museum, the German game industry association (Game), and the University of Potsdam. An online public catalog of the collection was launched in April 2019.

While the physical game collection remains with the participating institutions, the fate of the shared database and its associated systems is uncertain. Legal and technical evaluations are underway to determine if they can be preserved. Despite exploring a new funding model, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research concluded it was not economically viable due to the extensive workload involved in maintaining the archive.

The closure of ICS comes as the challenges of digital preservation continue to mount globally. Research indicates that a significant percentage of classic American video games are no longer commercially available. Delays and denials in obtaining necessary copyright exemptions for archiving further complicate efforts to preserve digital cultural heritage. Sony's announcement to cease production of physical PlayStation discs by 2028 exacerbates these challenges, making future game archiving more difficult.