Lost source code is holding up Square Enix's preservation plans
Square Enix have been digging deep into their vaults the past few years, including several more restored gems announced at E3. They aim to make their whole back catalogue available digitally, but there’s one big obstacle. As CEO Yosuke Matsuda admitted when talking to Game Informer “I’m embarrassed to admit it, but in some cases, we don’t know where the code is anymore”. It’s a common story in the games industry, and one of the biggest obstacles to properly preserving games. When recovery efforts fail, some studios have had to cleverly work around their missing code.