Videogame museum to open in Nottingham

Among the cultural highlights on the calender for next year, one sticks out as a particular oddity: March 2015 will see the grand opening of The National Videogame Arcade in Nottingham. The £2.5 million project, which aims to become a draw for tourists visiting Nottingham, will be the first of its kind, aining to become a “hub for videogame culture”.

The Arcade, which will take up residence in a 33,000 sq foot building, will spread its permanent collection across five entire floors. A vast majority of the pieces in the gallery will come from the National Videogame Archive, a vast collectioon numbering 20,000 objects, currently held by the Science Museum, London.

This will be the first time that many pieces in the collection will have been exhibited to the public, a prospect that excites Ian Livingstone, a member of the museum’s advisory board; “for the millions of people who love them”, said Mr Livingstone, “it is only natural that videogames should have their own permanent, cultural home”.

The announcement comes at a time of heightened debate about whether exactly videogames can be called ‘art’, an issue that has increased in prominence over the last few years. Once thought of as only the preserve of snotty teenage boys, it has become increasingly apparent that videogames can present an exciting artistic medium, with games such as Flower (2009) and _Journey _(2012) showing how developers can transcend the traditional tropes that have formed the core of many videogames, and create something both beautiful and meaningful.

The argument is not just constrained to artistic theory either; economically, games represent a major force. The UK video game market is the largest in Europe, and Grand Theft Auto V (2013), the latest in the popular series, grossed more than $1 billion within three days of its release.

With games representing such a large presence in the UK, both culturally and economically, it seems that the National Videogame Archive is the logical next step, and should help the industry shake off the long-running stereotypes that have followed it around for the last three decades.