Many games are about to be lost forever: GOG has a program to preserve them (and it already includes more than 100 titles)

A study by the Video Game History Foundation points out that 87% of classic games released in the United States face the possibility of disappearing. This is a reality that transcends the North American nation. Many of the games we played years ago are no longer accessible, and others seem to follow the same fate.

GOG, a video game distribution platform that competes with Steam and Epic Games Store, has launched an initiative that aims to address this situation. This is a classic title preservation program that promises that hundreds of titles will remain compatible with modern systems, even when their developers decide to forget them.

GOG and its initiative to preserve classic video games

The company ensures that if a game is part of its Program, they will use their own resources to ensure compatibility over time. This initiative is now available with 100 titles among which we can find ‘Devil: Hellfire‘, ‘Heroes of Might and Magic‘ and a ‘Resident Evil’ bundle. Prices for these titles range between $4.99 and $12.49.

So how can we find the games from the program that promises to preserve them? We basically have two alternatives. The first is to explore the program page itself. The second is to use the “Good old games” filter in the right panel to filter the results on the main store page. The included games will have the label “Good old games” as we can see in the screenshot.

One of the games included in the GOG preservation catalog

GOG states that it will work to include more games to its program in the future and that once a game has been added it should not disappear. It should be noted that compatibility is currently limited for Windows PC users. There are still no plans to expand it to macOS and Linux, so users of these platforms will not be able to enjoy this service.

Other players in this industry are also working to preserve video games. Microsoft, for example, wants to continue betting on the backward compatibility of its Xbox consoles. We also find initiatives such as that of the National Library of Spain, which is helping to preserve thousands of jewels.

Images | GOG

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