The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) in Canberra has partnered with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum to purchase the international smash hit multiplatform videogame Untitled Goose Game.
Chief Executive of NFSA, Patrick McIntyre said the acquisition shone a light on the creativity and success of Australian games developers and was a testament to the importance of the Games industry in Australia’s audio-visual landscape.
“As Australia’s only national archive for AV culture, it’s our priority to collect, preserve and share gaming content that represents the local industry’s complexity and diversity,” Mr McIntyre said.
“The partnership between ACMI, Powerhouse and NFSA plays an important part in our ambition to build and maintain a games and interactive media collection of historical, social and cultural significance that we can conserve for all Australians.”
In a statement, Powerhouse said the purchased ensured that Untitled Goose Game was preserved for decades to come using the specialist skills and approaches of each collecting institution.
“It joins ACMI, NFSA and the Powerhouse’s growing collection of videogames and commitment to the research and preservation of games as an important artistic and design medium in contemporary culture,” Powerhouse said.
“The acquisition includes the game’s creative development materials, documentation and earlier versions to illustrate how ideas for the game formed,” it said.
“Backed by the collective expertise of ACMI, NFSA and the Powerhouse across exhibition, collection, design and innovation, the acquisition ensures that as technologies, curatorial practices, and preservation methods change, Untitled Goose Game will remain a key part of Australia’s creative history.”
Powerhouse said that with curators and digital conservators from ACMI, NFSA and the Powerhouse implementing a collective strategic approach to acquisition, collection, preservation, storage and accessibility of Australian video games, the institutions would avoid duplication and help to build a distributed national collection that told the evolving story of Australian videogames.
