National Film and Sound Archive of Australia to start archiving Australian video games

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia to start archiving Australian video games has announced that in addition to films and music they will now start archiving games made in Australia to be preserved for the future. The games along with storyboards, artwork, soundtracks and more will be preserved. 

The Initial eight games include titles as new as Hollow Knight and Florence, all the way back to The Hobbit from 1982. 

Here’s the initial list; 

• The Hobbit (Beam Software, 1982)
• Halloween Harry (Interactive Binary Illusions / Sub Zero Software, 1985/1993)
• Shadowrun (Beam Software, 1993)
• L.A. Noire (Team Bondi, 2011)
• Submerged (Uppercut Games, 2015)
• Hollow Knight (Team Cherry, 2017)
• Florence (Mountains, 2018)
• Espire 1: VR Operative (Digital Lode, 2019)

Today we welcome video games into our collection of more than 3 million items. The collection represents the cultural diversity and breadth of experience of all Australians, and it is constantly evolving just like our creative industries.

“We aim to be the national leader in collecting multimedia and new media content, and it would be impossible to accurately represent modern life without games. It is essential that games be collected alongside other audiovisual media, to ensure their continued preservation and access.”

Jan Müller, CEO of the NFSA

More Australian games will be to the collection as time goes on.