A new study conducted by the Video Game History Foundation and the Software Preservation Network reveals that 87 percent of all games released before 2010 are no longer available through legal methods.
The study focused on the American market and assumed that these older games could be purchased on modern platforms. Many of the games that are no longer purchasable have received remastered versions, which have become the only available editions. The fact that several digital stores have shut down doesn’t help either.
So, if one wants these older games now, they must search for used copies, find them in a library, or resort to piracy. These options are not particularly ideal, and it means that many of these games are accessible only to dedicated collectors or pirates. The study also pointed out that libraries and archives can preserve physical copies of games, but the regulations do not allow these institutions to preserve games digitally.
This limitation hampers the possibility of a better selection for people to find older games through legal means.
