The future of video game preservation is increasingly precarious, particularly as console manufacturers move towards digital-only distribution. Frank Cifaldi, director of the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF), has stated that piracy is currently the only effective method for preserving games in a discless future.
Cifaldi's comments, made in response to discussions on social media, assert that his organization has attempted to collaborate with industry trade groups to establish legal preservation pathways. However, he claims these efforts have been met with a refusal to provide meaningful alternatives. "We have attempted to work with the industry's trade organization to find a legal path forward, but they refuse to offer a meaningful alternative," Cifaldi wrote.
The VGHF has long advocated for greater access to historical game data for archival and research purposes. Cifaldi criticized the industry's stance, noting that while institutions like museums and archives are adapting to the decline of physical media, the path forward for digital preservation remains obstructed. "What continues to baffle us is what the industry expects institutions like ours to do about it," he stated. "If platform owners are deciding to eliminate physical media and older digital storefronts, then we'd also like to see trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association offer meaningful solutions for archives and museums to legally preserve digital-only content and make it accessible for research."
This situation is compounded by the planned discontinuation of PS5 disc production in 2028 and the earlier closure of PlayStation 3 and Vita digital storefronts. Unlike the PC platform, which has historically offered greater backwards compatibility and more robust preservation efforts, both official and unofficial, console ecosystems are often more closed. Cifaldi pointed out that there is no equivalent to PC game storefronts like GOG for PlayStation, nor a formal plan from Sony to manage its future digital abandonware.
Historically, the transition to digital-only distribution on PC was mitigated by existing preservation work. However, with consoles increasingly abandoning physical formats and their own digital archives, the responsibility for ensuring these games survive for future generations appears to fall, as it often has, to unofficial channels. The VGHF's efforts highlight a growing concern within the preservation community about the long-term accessibility of digital-only game libraries.