SEGA hopes to make its entire library of 4,500 games “fully playable”

Video game preservation is becoming an increasingly important topic. As the industry ages, so too does its hardware, with many older titles potentially being lost to time (only being saved by the likes of emulation). In an official capacity, SEGA has revealed that the publisher is currently undergoing an ambitious project to make its entire library of 4,500 games “fully playable.”

Taking part in an interview with the Japanese publication Famitsu, SEGA’s Yosuke Okunari – a 30-year veteran at the studio – revealed that he has been working on a rather ambitious project, stating (as translated by TheGamer):

“For the past few years, I've been working on creating an in-house game database. I still have a long way to go to complete it, but a search of the current version reveals that, excluding ports and remakes, there are about 2,800 Sega game titles. Including all of them, there are about 4,500 titles.”

Explaining the long-term goal of this project, Okunari continued, “Once this database is complete, I'd like to make it fully playable. But I'll probably retire before then, so I'll likely have to hand over the work to someone else.”

Long-term game preservation is a tough nut, due to the evolution of technology over time but perhaps even more so as a result of all the legalese surrounding different game developers; publishers; IP holders and any other bits of red tape getting in the way.

Regardless, hopefully more publishers try to make an active effort to preserve their history and legacy for current and future generations.

KitGuru says: What do you think of the current state of game preservation? Is emulation a good enough solution? Let us know your thoughts down below.

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