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by beloch 406 days ago
Embracer group has been around for a while but, in recent years, they acquired far more companies than they could realistically do anything with because they thought they could flip them for a profit. They failed and had to take a hatchet to much of what they acquired, pissing off fans of companies that were either completely obliterated or hollowed out and outsourced.

>* Our mission is to have an archive of physical games as extensive as possible. With the purpose of contributing to the joint preservation of video game culture and history.

Now they're looking for donations to a private collection that will not be open to the public. They likely plan to sell the collection the highest bidder at some point. If they can't find a buyer, they'll bin the lot of it rather than continue to pay storage costs. The employees working for them may believe in what they're doing, but Embracer group now has a history of pulling the rug out from under such people.

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Edit: The archive is based in Sweden, which has a really hopping museum scene. They could make a for-profit museum with these materials and a few talented museologists and it would likely do well. They mention no such plans and that's very odd.
1 comments
moogly 406 days ago
> Sweden, which has a really hopping museum scene

Citation needed. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/25/s...

https://swedenherald.com/article/tough-economic-situation-fo...

For-profit museums aren't really a thing in Sweden either, because you won't be making a profit, unless you're the Vasa Museum, but even that is struggling.

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beloch 406 days ago
Museums are sort of like farms in that you can lose money every year for entire lifetimes and still have a tremendously valuable farm. Like land, the past is an appreciating asset. That's big, traditional museums. I suppose it should be no surprise that the smaller museums are still struggling in the post-covid era. I based my opinion on visits prior to the pandemic, so I'm out of date. Hopefully the popularity of museums in Sweden will rebound.
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