Nintendo Opens New Job Role to Preserve and Organize its Old Games

Nintendo of America has opened up a new job position to help preserve and archive the older games in its vast library.

Nintendo has released around 11,000 games in its lifetime. Now, it’s looking to organize those games — at least, the older ones — with a specialized role at its Redmond, WA location.

As per the official job description, Nintendo of America’s future Digital Archivist, Historical Systems will support the “preservation, organization, and accessibility of historical hardware and software information” by designing and implementing a “structured framework for organizing technical records, engineering documentation, source materials, and institutional knowledge related to legacy systems and platforms.”

Essentially, the digital archivist is a librarian of sorts, whose job is to create a means of organizing and documenting all of Nintendo’s older games, systems, and platforms, as well as any documentation or materials related to them. It definitely sounds like a fun role for video game history buffs, especially if they like organizing data.

The job listing describes its ideal candidate as someone with “expertise in archives, metadata management, information architecture, and research” who will work “closely with subject matter experts across engineering, product development, legal, and business teams” to “establish standards and processes that ensure historical information remains discoverable, usable, and preserved for future generations.”

The position is a 12-month contract role with a salary of $35-$55 per hour. A Bachelor’s degree in library & information science, Archives, Museum Studies, Information Management, History, Technical Communication, or a related field is preferred, although equivalent professional experience may be considered.

This is a major step forward for video game preservation, something that activists and enthusiasts in the space have been calling for for some time now. For example, the Video Game History Foundation was founded in 2016 with the intent of preserving and teaching the history of video games. Since then, it has worked toward creating the United States’ first dedicated library for the study of video game history, as well as preserving games’ source code.

Given Nintendo’s relevance in the games industry and its role in the history of the medium, it makes sense that the company would seek to archive its works. Perhaps this could result in some unexpected discoveries; for example, one collector came across 97 copies of an unreleased version of Super Mario Bros. Duck Hunt earlier this year, five of which were graded perfect 10s by PSA.