Embracer Group building huge archive of every video game ever made

Embracer Group has announced its plan to build an archive to “embrace the history of games.” The Swedish holding is now working on collecting and cataloging titles from different consoles, countries, and ages.

Martin Lindell, game historian and senior adviser at Embracer Group

The group shared the news on its official website last week. “The collection is a work in progress with the goal of building an archive of every video game ever made,” Embracer said about its ambitions.

The archive is based in a “secret vault” outside of Karlstad. It already contains over 50,000 games, consoles, and accessories. According to Embracer Group, it started this project after the holding’s CEO Lars Wingefors decided to donate parts of his huge collection to the archive.

Games from the Magnavox Odyssey console (released in 1972) are the oldest titles in the collection. As the archive is still under construction, people can’t visit it. However, Embracer plans to make parts of the collection publicly available in the future, so everyone could visit it or touch the video games history through digital channels.

The Swedish holding is now interested in buying or receiving video games from private collections. Embracer also listed new positions for people who want to work on the archive, including game archivist, COO, and warehouse and logistics manager.