If you’ve been in the gaming social media atmosphere in the past month, you may have seen a cultural clash between Japanese social media users and the rest of the world over the ethics of piracy, specifically video game piracy. They claimed that this piracy was unethical because the companies behind these video games weren’t actively selling them. Some claimed that these pirated games would negatively affect sales of their most recent releases because people would just play the old ones instead. The rest of the world argued that since these companies do not actively sell their games, it is acceptable to pirate them due to the lack of modern purchasing options. Some games are not supported in English or other countries, so some potential players have never had a chance to legally purchase these games.
I am with the rest of the world, as there’s a multitude of factors preventing every game in existence from selling on modern platforms. Licensing is a big one; contracts expire, and a game can only be sold with a license for so long. Games are designed to run on specific consoles, and today we create emulators that replicate a virtual version of those consoles, allowing the games to run on them. We can’t just natively run any game on a modern platform. Companies don’t sell their consoles forever; once a new console in their lineup comes out, they stop producing the old one, so if you want a Wii, you have to buy a used Wii or one of the rare unopened Wii’s, which might go for a collector’s price.
Emulators exist because fans want to preserve their favorite games, ensuring that people can play these games in the future. Companies resell these games, like with Nintendo’s NSO service, where you can emulate select older titles with their online subscription service. Other companies often resell modern ports of select titles as well, but outside of a basic port, it’s up to the publisher as to what people can play. That means only handpicked games get brought into the future officially. Remakes of games can feel different from the originals, which some players may not like. Take Persona 3 Reload, for instance; it’s a large point of contention over the aesthetic and grungy 2000s game feel of the original title, over the modern remake that takes inspiration from later titles.
Every game should be available to play in some form; just because a game has some kind of complication for re-releasing it doesn’t mean it should become lost media. Often times official attempts at porting over a game aren’t as good as unofficial emulation since that offers various customization and optimization options. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess is a famous example of emulators working better than modern ports, as the HD Wii U port of the game breaks the in-game fog while classic GameCube emulators preserve the intended aesthetic throughout the game. I think this preservation effort goes beyond what companies can legally do, and old games not being sold anymore means they gain nothing by opposing this effort. Preservation is essential for keeping all generations of the gaming industry accessible to the public and people in countries where these games aren’t sold.
