February 17, 2015 For Immediate Release

The Strong Launches

World Video Game Hall of Fame



Nominations for 2015 Induction Accepted Online through March 31

ROCHESTER, New York—The Strong (home of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games and the National Toy Hall of Fame) is pleased to announce that it has established the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The hall will recognize individual electronic games of all types—arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile—that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general.

“There is no other video game award and recognition program such as this, which focuses solely on individual game titles across platforms and their impact over time and across international borders,” says G. Rollie Adams, president and CEO of The Strong. “Our experience with the museum’s National Toy Hall of Fame—which receives widespread international attention each year—provides both a proven model for such a hall of fame and evidence that it can advance understanding and appreciation of the impact of video games on culture and society. Electronic games have changed how people play, learn, and connect with each other, including across boundaries of culture and geography.”

The World Video Game Hall of Fame recognizes electronic games that meet the following criteria: icon-status, the game is widely recognized and remembered; longevity, the game is more than a passing fad and has enjoyed popularity over time; geographical reach, the game meets the above criteria across international boundaries; and influence, the game has exerted significant influence on the design and development of other games, on other forms of entertainment, or on popular culture and society in general. (A game may be inducted on the basis of the last criterion without necessarily having met all of the first three.)

“Through The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG), the museum preserves and interprets a growing collection of more than 55,000 video games and related artifacts, plus an extensive array of personal papers and corporate records that document the history of video games,” says Jon-Paul Dyson, director of ICHEG. “These unparalleled resources uniquely qualify The Strong to create a World Video Game Hall of Fame that identifies and celebrates the most important games of all time.”

Anyone can nominate a game to the World Video Game Hall of Fame online at worldvideogamehallofame.org. Nominations for the inaugural class will be accepted through March 31, 2015. Finalists will be determined by an internal advisory committee and inductees to the hall will be made on the advice of an international selection committee made up of journalists, scholars, and other individuals familiar with the history of video games and their role in society.

Inductees will be announced in June during a special ceremony at The Strong in Rochester, New York. Initially the inductees will be displayed and interpreted in a section of the museum’s eGameRevolution exhibit.

About The Strong

The Strong is the only collections-based museum in the world devoted solely to play. It is home to the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, the National Toy Hall of Fame, the World Video Game Hall of Fame, the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, the Woodbury School, and the American Journal of Play and houses the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of historical materials related to play. Known widely as the nation’s museum of play, The Strong blends the best features of both history museums (extensive collections) and children’s museums (high interactivity) to explore the ways in which play encourages learning, creativity, and discovery and illuminates cultural history.

About The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games

The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games (ICHEG) collects, studies, and interprets video games, other electronic games, and related materials and the ways in which electronic games are changing how people play, learn, and connect with each other, including across boundaries of culture and geography. As a result of ICHEG’s efforts, The Strong’s collection of video games, other electronic games, and game-related historical materials is the largest and most comprehensive public assemblage in the United States and one of the largest in the world.