Hollow Knight, L.A. Noire And More Australian-Made Games To Be Archived By National Film And Sound Archive Of Australia

The National Film And Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) has announced plans to begin adding Australian made videogames to its vast archive of Australia-made media, from beloved indie titles to bigger blockbuster hits.

This move provides a much needed boost towards ongoing preservation efforts for videogames and related content. The NFSA will not only be preserving the games themselves, but also “promotional materials, soundtracks, artwork, storyboards and pre-production art.”

So far, the following eight games have been successfully preserved:

1. The Hobbit (Beam Software, 1982)
2. Halloween Harry (Interactive Binary Illusions / Sub Zero Software, 1985/1993)
3. Shadowrun (Beam Software, 1993)
4. L.A. Noire (Team Bondi, 2011)
5. Submerged (Uppercut Games, 2015)
6. Hollow Knight (Team Cherry, 2017)
7. Florence (Mountains, 2018)
8. Espire 1: V Operative (Digital Lode, 2019)

The NFSA has also confirmed that they will be expanding the archive beyond these eight games on an “ongoing basis”. Regarding their decision to add videogames to their archives, NFSA’s Chief Executive Jan Müller had this to say:

“We aim to be the national leader in collecting multimedia and new media content, and it would be impossible to accurately represent modern life without games. It is essential that games be collected alongside other audiovisual media, to ensure their continued preservation and access.”

“We look forward to working with them [Australian Games] as we develop solutions for long-term preservation of their work, for the benefit of future generations,” Müller said.

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