In October 2024, the US Copyright Office issued a ruling on video game preservation. A coalition of librarians, archivists, and historians had spent years petitioning for the right to let researchers remotely access out-of-print games in library collections, the same way you can remotely access a scanned book or a digitized film.
The Copyright Office denied the petition. Their reasoning: there was “a significant risk that preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes.”
Read that again. The federal government denied a preservation exemption for an art form because someone might enjoy the preserved work.
Meanwhile, 87% of classic games released in the US before 2010 are out of print. Not because companies are actively selling them and you just can’t find a copy. Because they’ve stopped existing commercially. You can’t buy them. You can’t legally stream them. In most cases, you can’t legally access them at all.
This is an ongoing cultural catastrophe that the gaming industry has spent decades either ignoring or actively making worse. And most people who care about games don’t know it’s happening.
The 87% Is a Real Number
The Video Game History Foundation published a study in July 2023 that surveyed over 4,000 games randomly selected from MobyGames, covering all US releases before 2010. They asked a simple yes-or-no question: can you buy this game today?
The result: only 13.27% of classic games are still commercially available.
The platform-by-platform breakdown is even grimmer. Game Boy games: 5.87% available. Commodore 64: 4.5%. PS2: 12%. No platform, no five-year period in gaming history cracked 20% availability.
Kelsey Lewin, the VGHF’s co-director, put it this way: “Imagine if the only way to watch Titanic was to find a used VHS tape, and maintain your own vintage equipment so that you could still watch it.”
The comparison to other art forms is striking. Classic game availability is roughly comparable to pre-World War II audio recordings (10% survive) and just below American silent films (14% survive). We already think of silent film loss as a cultural tragedy. The numbers for video games are nearly identical, and we’re watching it happen in real time.
When Games Just Disappear
The 87% figure covers games that were never digitally available. The delisting problem is separate and, in some ways, more alarming, because these are games that existed digitally, that people bought and owned, and that were then removed.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game
Released August 2010 as a digital-only title for PS3 and Xbox 360. A side-scrolling beat-em-up developed by Ubisoft Montreal, tie-in to the Bryan Lee O’Malley comic and Edgar Wright film.
On December 30, 2014, Ubisoft quietly delisted it from both platforms. The licensing deal with Universal Music Group, which provided the chiptune soundtrack by Anamanaguchi, had expired. The game was gone.
For six years, it didn’t exist commercially. Fans organized campaigns. Bryan Lee O’Malley publicly lobbied for its return. On January 14, 2021, it came back as the Complete Edition on modern platforms. The ending is happy in this case.
But six years. A game people loved and purchased simply stopped existing for six years because of an expired music licensing agreement.
P.T.
This one still hurts.
On August 12, 2014, a mysterious horror demo appeared on the PlayStation Store. “P.T.”, short for “Playable Teaser.” It was a psychological horror game set in an infinitely repeating hallway, with increasingly disturbing events. At the end, it revealed itself as a teaser for Silent Hills, a new game from Hideo Kojima, Guillermo del Toro, and Norman Reedus.
Over one million people downloaded it. It became the most talked-about horror game of 2014.
On April 27, 2015, Silent Hills was cancelled. Konami and Kojima parted ways catastrophically. Two days later, P.T. was removed from the PlayStation Store.
Then Konami went further. They blocked users from re-downloading it even if they’d downloaded it before. They disabled backward compatibility for the demo on PS5. They shut down fan recreations with DMCA notices.
P.T. was not just delisted. It was actively erased by its publisher.
PS4 consoles with P.T. still installed sold for four-figure prices on eBay because that was the only way to access it. There is no official way to play P.T. today. A game that over a million people experienced has been functionally destroyed.
The Crew and Always-Online
The Crew (2014, Ubisoft) was a racing game built on always-online infrastructure. On March 31, 2024, Ubisoft shut down the servers. The game became completely unplayable. Not just no multiplayer, completely unplayable. The always-online requirement meant the game couldn’t function without connecting to servers that no longer existed.
People who had paid $60 for this game couldn’t play it. People who had bought it on disc couldn’t play it. The physical object was now a coaster.
This became the catalyst for the Stop Killing Games initiative, a European Citizens’ Initiative demanding that publishers leave games in a “functional (playable) state” after commercial discontinuation. The petition hit one million signatures in July 2025. As of April 2026, it’s in the verification stage, with the European Commission required to formally respond once verified.
Marvel Games and License Expiry
Disney’s 2009 acquisition of Marvel created immediate complications for games with Marvel licenses. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (2000) was delisted from PSN and Xbox Live Arcade between December 17-26, 2013. Physical copies hit $300+ on the secondary market.
It didn’t return until September 2024, in the Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics. Eleven years.
The same pattern affects dozens of games. Licensed music, licensed characters, licensed athletes, every license has an expiration date, and when it expires, the game often goes with it.
Marvel’s Avengers Lasted Three Years
Marvel’s Avengers (Square Enix, 2020) was delisted from all platforms on September 30, 2023. Three years after launch. Not because it was obscure, it had massive marketing, high profile IP, millions of players. Delisted because the live service model failed and Square couldn’t justify maintaining it.
People who bought this game three years ago can no longer download it.
The Legal System Is Designed Against Preservation
The structural barrier to video game preservation is DMCA Section 1201, which makes it illegal to circumvent technological protection measures, including the DRM and authentication servers that modern games use.
Libraries can preserve books. They can digitize them, lend them, archive them. The Video Game History Foundation has been fighting for years to get libraries the same rights for games. The triennial rulemaking process that governs DMCA exemptions is the formal path.
In the 2021 rulemaking, the VGHF won a partial exemption: libraries can circumvent authentication servers for single-player games on their premises. That’s meaningful but limited, you have to physically visit the library to access the preserved game.
In 2024, they asked for remote access, the ability for researchers to access preserved games online, the way they can access any other digitized archival material. The Copyright Office denied it, citing the recreational use concern.
The Entertainment Software Association, the industry lobbying group, stated they would “never support remote game access for research purposes under any conditions.”
That position is indefensible. The film industry supports film preservation. The music industry supports music preservation. The book industry supports library access. Only gaming has its industry association actively fighting against preservation of its own medium.
The next DMCA triennial rulemaking is expected to begin June 2026. The outcome will shape what’s possible for game preservation through the end of the decade.
The People Actually Fighting For This
The situation isn’t hopeless. There are organizations doing real work.
The Video Game History Foundation is the most important. Founded in 2017 by Frank Cifaldi, they’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that preserves gaming history and advocates for legal reform. Their Digital Library (launched January 2025) includes over 30,000 files, 1,500+ out-of-print gaming magazines, development materials, press kits. They published the 87% study. They lead the DMCA exemption fight.
They can’t legally share game ROMs, which is a direct result of the legal framework they’re trying to change. But they’re building the record and making the case.
GOG’s Preservation Program is doing commercial work from a different angle. Since 2024-2025, GOG has worked to bring back and maintain classic games that would otherwise be inaccessible, 267 games with documented fixes for modern systems, committed to indefinite maintenance. DRM-free ownership. If the platform closes, you keep the installer. That’s real preservation thinking from a commercial entity.
The Internet Archive hosts tens of thousands of playable games through browser-based emulators, nearly 15,000 PC games and 6,900+ MS-DOS games. The Hachette v. Internet Archive ruling went against IA for book lending in 2024, setting a chilling precedent. But the game archive specifically continues operating.
Stop Killing Games is building political pressure in Europe. 1.4 million signatures is real. If the EU adopts requirements that publishers maintain game functionality after commercial discontinuation, it would reshape how live-service games are built.
What You Can Actually Do
This isn’t a “share on social media” moment. There are concrete things that matter:
Buy physical when you have the option. A disc or cartridge survives a server shutdown. You own it regardless of what happens to the digital storefront.
Buy DRM-free when you buy digital. GOG is the only major PC gaming platform that sells games without DRM. If you buy a game on GOG and the platform closes, you have a standalone installer. Steam, Epic, and others don’t offer that. Vote with your purchases.
Support the VGHF. They’re a nonprofit doing the legal and archival work that matters. gamehistory.org. Membership starts at $5/month. If you care about this, this is the most direct way to help.
Participate in the DMCA rulemaking process (if you’re US-based). When the Copyright Office opens comment periods for the June 2026 triennial review, public comments are part of the official record. The VGHF will have guidance on how to submit when the time comes.
Sign Stop Killing Games if you’re in the EU. It’s verified, it counts, and 1.4 million signatures has already forced it onto the European Commission’s agenda.
Why This Should Matter to You Specifically
You played games that formed a real part of who you are. Those games represented creative work by developers who spent years of their lives on them. The medium produced Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear Solid, Shadow of the Colossus, P.T., works with genuine artistic merit that deserve to be preserved the way we preserve films and books and music.
When the US Copyright Office says it can’t grant preservation exemptions because people might enjoy the preserved work, it’s treating games as uniquely less than other art forms. When the ESA says it will never support research access “under any conditions,” it’s an industry actively working against its own history.
The 87% of classic games that have already disappeared can’t be brought back. But the games being made and sold today don’t have to follow the same path.
That’s worth caring about.
What’s a game you loved that you can no longer legally access anywhere? Drop it in the comments. The list matters.
About the Author: Fred is one half of Two Average Gamers, a community-focused gaming site dedicated to helping regular folks enjoy gaming without the toxicity. He has thought about P.T. more times than is probably healthy for a demo he played for 45 minutes in 2014.
More from the Retro Gaming Guide
This article is part of our Retro Gaming Guide, the complete guide to playing classic games legally in 2026.
- Are Emulators Legal? Everything You Need to Know in 2026
- 25 ’90s Games That Hold Up Perfectly Today
- The Games That Defined Our Childhood
- Game Preservation Matters: Why Classic Games Are Disappearing
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