Kongregate partners with The Strong to preserve Flash games

With the discontinuation of Flash Player coming this December, the near endless amount of content utilizing the player will cease to run in modern browsers. In an attempt to archive over 100,000 games, Kongregate emailed its developers about their new partnership with The Strong National Museum of Play.

The museum, located in Rochester, New York, is devoted to the history and exploration of play. By partnering with The Strong, Kongregate is granting the museum a license to download and preserve the Flash games that have been uploaded to Kongregate over the past 14 years. The license allows The Strong to use the games only for educational, research, museum, archival, and non-commercial purposes.

Developers who wish to opt-out from their games being used by the museum can send an email to StrongOptOut@kongregate.com with the subject "OPT-OUT FROM THE STRONG". The Strong will begin its efforts on Monday February 10th, 2020. If developers with opt-out after that point, they will need to email kongregate@museumofplay.org instead.

The original Kongregate Developer News email:

With major web browsers continuing their depreciation of support for the Flash plug-in, it will become increasingly difficult for Flash games to remain accessible to the public. As one of the leading Flash game portals of the 2000s to the present, Kongregate is in a unique position to preserve all of the Flash games that you've made and that thousands of players have enjoyed over the years.

That is why Kongregate is announcing a collaboration with The Strong National Museum of Play! For background, The Strong is a highly interactive, collections-based museum devoted to the history and exploration of play in Rochester, New York. The Strong is actively working to preserve the history of video games through its programs and initiatives such as the World Video Game Hall of Fame and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games," which collects, studies, and interprets video and other electronic games

The collaboration entails Kongregate providing a "license" to The Strong to download and preserve the Flash games you have uploaded to Kongregate. To be upfront, when you uploaded your game to the Kongregate platform, you agreed to a version of the User Agreement that licensed your game only to a site, online service, platform or app that is owned or operated by Kongregate. Clearly, The Strong is NOT owned or operated by Kongregate.

HOWEVER, given that:

A. The Flash games could be copied by The Strong (or anyone else, for that matter) from Kongregate's platform;

B. The Strong intends to use your Flash games only for educational, research, museum, archival, and non-commercial purposes; and

C. We thought you, as developers, would actually think this opportunity for The Strong to preserve your game would be pretty cool,

We agreed to help, and we extended a license of the Flash games on our site to The Strong but only for non-commercial purposes, including archiving these games for educational and research purposes and, generally, to ensure these games are preserved.

Due to the nature of our agreement with you as well as with The Strong, we wanted to not only notify the developers that we are granting The Strong a license to download and store these games, but also provide you with an opportunity to "opt-out" of this collaboration. If you opt-out, we will remove any games you still have current rights for from the archives that we are providing to The Strong. If you would prefer to opt-out, please let us know via email at StrongOptOut@kongregate.com no later than February 10th, 2020 with the subject line "OPT-OUT FROM THE STRONG."

We're sure that there are many questions regarding this collaboration, so we've attached an FAQ regarding our agreement with The Strong. If you have any specific questions for us, please e-mail us at StrongOptOut@kongregate.com.

FAQ

Why is Kongregate collaborating with The Strong?

Kongregate is in a position to ensure that Flash games will remain playable in some way, shape, or form. We empathize with The Strong's mission and feel this is one of the best ways to preserve this part of internet and Flash gaming history. Wouldn't it be kind of cool to know that a game YOU developed is in a museum?!?!

Is this the extent of Kongregate's efforts to preserve Flash games?

Not necessarily. We are still researching other methods to ensure Flash games remain available to our player base on our site and other platforms, even after major web browsers will remove their support for the Flash plug-in in 2020. Once we have an update, we will be sure to announce it.

Did Kongregate or The Strong receive compensation for this collaboration?

No. Neither Kongregate nor The Strong is receiving any sort of cash consideration or compensation for this collaboration.

Will developers receive compensation for allowing their games to be part of the archive?

No. Given that these Flash games will be licensed and preserved only for educational, research, and other non-commercial purposes, none of the developers will receive any sort of cash consideration or compensation for this collaboration.

How does this affect my intellectual property rights?

You developed the game, so you continue to retain all applicable rights for your games. By NOT opting-out, you are ultimately agreeing to allow The Strong to upload and copy your games under the license for non-commercial purposes.

I don't want my game to be part of this collaboration. What are my options?

You have every right to opt-out as it is YOUR game. If you would prefer to opt-out, please let us know via email at StrongOptOut@kongregate.com no later than February 10, 2020 with the subject line "OPT-OUT FROM THE STRONG." Please include the title or URL of your game(s), and preferably from the email address associated with the developer account or the game studio. We will ensure that the games that you have the rights to are excluded from the collection of games that we provide a license to for The Strong.

Furthermore, because it is YOUR game, if you change your mind at a date after February 10, 2020, you can still opt-out. But you will then have to email kongregate@museumofplay.org, and The Strong will remove your game from their collection. Please include the title of the game and the creator as seen on Kongregate.

BUT WE HOPE that you want to preserve your Flash games and the history of Flash games and will agree to this opportunity to have your game licensed to and preserved at The Strong.