The European Federation of Game Archives, Museums and Preservation Projects (EFGAMP e.V.) has elected its new Board of Directors for the 2025–2027 term. The General Assembly confirmed Natalia Kovalainen (Embracer Games Archive, Sweden), Piotr Gnyp (GOG, Poland), and Willem Hilhorst (Sound & Vision, Netherlands).
Under EFGAMP’s statutes, the Board oversees the federation’s activities, represents the organisation externally and executes the decisions of the General Assembly.
Andreas Lange (COO of EFGAMP) congratulates the new board and adds “The new board takes office during a period of rapid growth for EFGAMP, which has gained nine new members this year alone. Natalia, Piotr, and Willem will play a key role in successfully managing the expansion of EFGAMP’s tasks and projects that comes with this growth in membership. EFGAMP’s successful development since its founding in 2012 is largely thanks to long-standing board members and EFGAMP co-founders Marco Accordi Rickards (Vigamus Foundation) and Jakob Moesgaard (National Library of Denmark), as well as Laura Schmidt (ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe), to whom all members express their sincere gratitude for their dedication and tireless commitment to achieving common goals.”
The new Board will divide responsibilities across three core areas. Willem Hilhorst (Sound & Vision, Netherlands) will lead EFGAMP’s work on technology and research, including Out-of-Commerce implementation and improving access to collections. Piotr Gnyp (GOG, Poland) will oversee public communication and external relations with developers, publishers, media and wider industry stakeholders, ensuring that preservation goals are translated into clear, consistent messaging. Natalia Kovalainen (Embracer Games Archive, Sweden) will coordinate internal organisation and guide the development of EFGAMP’s taxonomy, typology and ontology initiatives, including work toward alignment with platforms such as Wikidata.
More about board members:
Natalia Kovalainen – Embracer Games Archive (Sweden)
Natalia is an expert in archival science and digital preservation, focusing on safeguarding physical objects and developing metadata frameworks for sustainable access. With a strong background in cultural heritage and game history, she promotes collaboration between industry, research and institutions to ensure video games are preserved as a vital part of global culture.
The Embracer Games Archive is among the world’s largest initiatives dedicated to preserving the physical history of video games, housing over 80,000 commercial titles and related objects. In addition to her work at the Archive, Natalia serves on the board of the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums and Preservation Projects (EFGMAP), contributing to efforts that strengthen the preservation of gaming heritage across Europe and beyond.
Piotr Gnyp – GOG (Poland)
Active in the games industry for nearly 30 years, from early work in tabletop RPG publishing to running one of Poland’s most influential gaming websites. Later worked with multiple publishers in PR and business development. Now Senior PR Manager at GOG, focusing on game preservation, developer relations and public communication.
Willem Hilhorst – Sound & Vision (Netherlands)
Working at the Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision as Media Manager Games and Online, he focuses on preserving games and interactive media from the Netherlands. With a background in media and games studies, he’s been writing about games for over a decade and serves on the advisory board for Breda Games City. He has dedicated his career to celebrating the impact and longevity of games as carriers of culture.
With this newly elected Board, EFGAMP enters the next phase of its work to strengthen the preservation of video-game heritage across Europe. The federation intends to expand its public presence, build stronger relationships with peer organisations and increase its influence in the cultural sector. A key priority will be helping both the games industry and cultural institutions understand how to collaborate effectively with EFGAMP’s members to safeguard digital heritage more efficiently and sustainably.
about EFGAMP
EFGAMP is the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums and Preservation Projects. It represents more than 20 heritage institutions and other organisations, ranging from rather grassroots initiatives to national libraries, which collect and preserve digital gaming culture, on a European and global level. Founded in 2012 with no-profit purposes, its objectives are advancing the availability of digital interactive heritage, gathering and circulate knowledge about digital preservation, strengthening the European information society, networking with other digital preservation communities worldwide, lobbying to advance the conditions of digital preservation and the accessibility of digital interactive entertainment heritage.
More information: https://efgamp.eu
