Bath Spa University

Preserving Japanese Indie Games at BitSummit Drift 2024

This extended abstract, authored by Michael Pennington and James Newman of Bath Spa University, argues that Japan's contributions to videogame history are at serious risk of being lost, both because digital games are becoming unplayable and because English-language histories tend to privilege American and Eurocentric…

• Japan's videogame heritage is at serious risk of being lost, both because digital games are becoming unplayable and because English-language histories tend to privilege American and Eurocentric perspectives.
• A central finding is that many Japanese indie developers worry their games will become unplayable due to hardware breakage or financial constraints that prevent ongoing maintenance.
• The authors conclude that audiovisual documentation of gameplay and spectatorship is itself a meaningful form of preservation.