Video games weren't built to be looked at behind glass. They were built to be played.
At the Video Games Museum one question occupies me constantly: how can a museum dedicated to such a living, interactive art form stay relevant and appealing to its audience? The answer, I think, lies in the very nature of what we house: video games were not made to be looked at behind a display case. They were made to be played. A motionless Pac-Man behind glass is just a yellow plastic box; the same machine, alive and working, with a visitor fighting off the ghosts, is something entirely different.
The cultural transformation of gaming
Before I talk about how I imagine the future, it is worth pausing on something that has been changing around us for years: the shift from local multiplayer play to online services has radically changed the way we play and socialise around video games. Once, two friends sat on the same couch to play together; today they may be on different continents, connected through a screen, without ever having met in person. It is neither better nor worse; it is simply different, and a museum like ours has a duty to record that transition, not only the machines that made it possible.
At the same time, the risk of losing access to older titles, as they gradually lose the support of their creators, is a constant threat to preserving the field's historical memory. The social significance of video games is not static; it evolves along with the very forms of interaction that games offer. That is why we invest in innovative strategies of collaboration with game creators, aiming to archive server data and player interactions before they are lost for good, because at some point, however unlikely it sounds today, there will be an audience that wants to understand what it was like to live inside a digital world of 2020 or 2030.
Experience, not only exhibition
Interactive exhibitions, where visitors can actually play classic games, bridge generations and create connections that would not be possible through passive observation. I have watched parents stand in front of an old console and suddenly remember button combinations they had not thought about in decades, while their children watch with an expression somewhere between puzzlement and admiration. Families relive the history of gaming together, sharing stories and laughter around vintage consoles, an experience that goes well beyond simple nostalgia and becomes a bridge between parents and children, a common language they rarely find elsewhere.
Alongside that, our educational programmes explore the cultural significance of gaming, aiming to inspire future careers in game design and in curating collections. We don't simply want to show visitors where we have been; we want to show them where they can go, especially young people who might discover, inside an old and simple arcade game, the spark that will lead them to a career in game design or preservation.
Working with the creators
We place particular emphasis on collaborations with creative companies and game development studios. These partnerships make sure that both the objects and the stories behind them stay alive. Through exclusive access to original art, design documents and prototypes, the public gains a rare look into the process of making a game: it sees the first, imperfect sketches of a character who would later become globally recognisable, or the first test versions of a level that changed many times before reaching its final form.
Interactive exhibitions with playable demos and creator talks enrich the visitor experience further, while archiving older titles, through securing the relevant rights, lets us preserve and present important games that would otherwise risk being forgotten, buried in old storage media that nobody can read any more.
A mission beyond the objects
The mission of the Video Games Museum does not stop at safeguarding objects; we aspire to shape the way coming generations will understand the cultural influence of gaming on contemporary society. I believe video games reflect social change and artistic innovation in a way just as significant as any other art form that has already found its place in the world's museums; it simply took a little longer for us to recognise it collectively.
The way forward runs, in my view, through the active involvement of the community: working with game creators and educating the public about gaming heritage. It is work that never really ends; every year that passes, new games are born that will one day need their own preservation too, their own place in a display case or, better still, on a screen ready to be switched on by the next hand that picks up the controller.
Let us safeguard the magic of video games together for the generations to come. The Video Games Museum is located in the centre of Heraklion, Crete, and has operated as a non-profit organisation since 1 January 2025.
