The UK's first official National Videogame Archive (NVA) has received its first donations of historic videogaming peripherals from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) and Harmonix at this year's GameCity festival in Nottingham, UK. SCEE has given the NVA the very first EyeToy camera prototype and leading music game studio Harmonix has given a prototype drum kit and guitar from Rock Band.
The priceless pieces of equipment are all the more important as they represent particular innovations and revolutionary styles of videogaming – the EyeToy being arguably the first peripheral to create a new interface for videogame control via the camera; and Rock Band which has taken the music gaming phenomenon to greater heights.
"The amazing work that SCEE and Harmonix have both done to broaden audiences for videogaming make it especially appropriate that they should kick-off the NVA. Their work, perhaps more than any other developers has been not just about making great games - but pushing the boundaries of what games could be. We're incredibly excited that they have chosen to make these donations to the NVA", commented Iain Simons, Director of GameCity at Nottingham Trent University. "We are excited about the National Videogame Archive and are proud to be a part of it," said Mike Haigh, Development Director at Sony's London Studio. "We felt the first EyeToy camera prototype was the perfect donation choice because it represents not only a ground-breaking game interface, but a moment in gaming history when a whole new audience began to play video games for the first time. We hope it inspires other developers to explore new ways of opening up video games to everyone.Sean Baptiste, Manager of Community Development at Harmonix Music added, "Harmonix recognizes how important it is to document and preserve the history of this rapidly evolving industry. We're honored to be a donor to the National Videogame Archive and hope other companies will follow suit."
Visit www.savethevideogame.org to watch video clips of the SCEE and Harmonix donations.
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