Embracer Has Quietly Built an Archive of More Than 90,000 Pieces of Gaming History

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Embracer Group is usually associated with acquisitions, restructuring and studio closures these days, but one much quieter project has spent the last five years doing something completely different: preserving physical gaming history.

The Embracer Games Archive is celebrating its fifth anniversary after cataloguing more than 90,000 items, including games, consoles, accessories and other hardware. Based in Karlstad, Sweden, the project originally grew out of Embracer founder Lars Wingefors’ personal collection before being turned into a dedicated preservation initiative.

What makes the archive particularly interesting is that the collection is not supposed to simply sit untouched on shelves. Its philosophy is based around “preservation through use,” meaning the games and hardware can be made available for research, exhibitions, schools and even publishers working on remasters or re-releases.

Every item is entered into an internal database and photographed, while the team continues to acquire additional collections and fill gaps across platforms that are still underrepresented. The archive itself is not currently a traditional public museum. Visits are arranged when there is a research, educational, preservation or industry-related reason for accessing the collection.

Physical game preservation is becoming increasingly important as digital storefronts disappear, hardware ages and complete physical releases become harder to find. An archive containing more than 90,000 pieces of gaming history cannot solve that entire problem, but having original hardware and software preserved somewhere rather than scattered across private collections certainly feels like a useful place to start.