The Video Game History Foundation will launch its digital library to the public

The archive includes over 1,500 out of print gaming magazines, as well as development documents, flyers, and more.
video game history foundation library

The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) has announced the launch of its digital library system on 30 January 2025, with this set to be available to the public, no matter where you’re located. While details are currently being kept under wraps, the VGHF has confirmed its collection will allow digital access to over 1,500 out-of-print video game magazines, as well as “never before seen game development materials … artwork, press kits and promo materials from iconic video games.” (Via VGC.)

“After years of collecting, cataloguing, and digitising video game history materials, the VGHF is finally opening the virtual doors to its library – wherever you are,” the VGHF said. Keen historians, researchers, and the general public, will be able to dive into the organisation’s digitised collection and browse a variety of materials to learn more about the history of the games industry, individual games, studios, journalists, and more.

It’s a mammoth release for the VGHF, which has worked since 2017 to preserve and document the history of video games, despite the many challenges that accompany this task. The reality is the games industry has been notoriously lax with preserving its own history, and so much documentation is discarded. It’s only thanks to independent organisations, and a range of museums around the world, that this history is slowly starting to be preserved.

Read: US Copyright Office denies exemption for remote video games research

One of the biggest obstacles to preserving this history is that many of these museums aren’t well-funded, and rely on donations from the public and other interested parties. The VGHF is one such museum, and it relies solely on public donations to help build its archives. In a statement, it’s thanked those who’ve supported its endeavours so far, and declared its library to be a product of this support.

Those who are keen to jump in to see everything this collection has to off are, of course, encouraged to help support the expansion of the VGHF’s collection, and its continued work to collate and preserve video game history.

As a teaser for the upcoming release of the museum’s collection, founder Frank Cifaldi has revealed a first look at the digital archive’s interface, confirming issues of Official US PlayStation Magazine, Game Informer, PlayStation: The Official Magazine, and PSM will be available to browse, with text-based searching allowing viewers to easily and quickly find the stories they’re after.

Given these magazines contain a history that is largely unpreserved online, due to their print format and/or website closures, the Video Game History Foundation’s collection will be an absolutely essential archive of history that may have otherwise been lost to time.

You can keep up with news of the VGHF’s digital archive launch on Bluesky.

Leah J. Williams is a gaming and entertainment journalist who's spent years writing about the games industry, her love for The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS and every piece of weird history she knows. You can find her tweeting @legenette most days.