After revealing he was ordered to destroy his copy of Fallout’s source code, OG lead Tim Cain says we’re losing game history because companies “take authority but not responsibility” for preservation: “They need to step up and take that responsibility more seriously if they’re claiming authority”

15 Comments

  1. Purple_Ganache_3087

    There is absolutely no way he destroyed every copy of the source code. I would keep it hidden in a drive under my floorboards.

  2. You’d think after preservation being a big problem for just about every form of media we have invented as humans, it would be a priority to start new media with preservation as a key point.

    Oh well, we’ll learn eventually. Always after some good stuff ends up in the garbage and lost for a bit.

    Still blows my mind to think about the BBC just erasing tapes with the best copies of some of their most important shows. It’s crazy that the originals of Monty Python were almost just deleted. Pure luck saved that show for future generations.

  3. calvinwho

    I’d normally say this is what the Library of Congress (As far as stateside games anyway) is for, but good luck getting funding for that right now.

  4. ChiefLeef22

    Excerpts:

    **”People say, ‘why didn’t you keep a copy of it?’ When you’re being threatened with a lawsuit, you delete it,” Cain says.**

    “If you take the authority to keep these things and tell other people not to, and they have no right to, then you also have to take the responsibility to keep them,” Cain says. “It just kind of makes me mad when repeatedly companies, and especially people high up at companies, take authority but not responsibility.”

  5. Fantastic-Deal4148

    too bad he didn’t toss a copy on thepiratebay or something….

  6. Angela5782

    I would also like to remind everyone of petition of stop killing games , everyone who is in EU countries pls sign petition since old and online games are at big risk of just being pulled out and forgotten in history ,here is the link for everyone Interested in signing petition:
    https://www.stopkillinggames.com/
    We need one million people to sign it and we are currently sitting in 67% with isn’t enough especially since we have very little time until petition is over

  7. hypnomancy

    Tim Cain literally speaking like 1997 was yesterday. I don’t think most companies do this anymore since they know they can make money with a remaster in the future

  8. Until shareholders are individually held responsible for the acts the corporations commit to maximize shareholders’ profits, this and many other things will keep happening.

  9. Naive_OrangeGuy

    Hmm, if only there were some initiative happening that would make companies stop killing games. Hmm. If only. They could call it Stop Killing Games, and it would address exactly this issue.

  10. FishHammer

    He probably just renamed the file “peruvian midget porn” to avoid suspicion

  11. chris14020

    Art is a product, creation’s merit has a dollar value. 

  12. 1heavyarms3

    This is why I am not buying a switch 2, you do not own the games. You pay full price to borrow them. Until Nintendo decides, they don’t want to support it anymore, then it disappears.

  13. Fire_is_beauty

    We need a law that says “losing the source code means losing the copyright”.

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