Welcome to the Written Worlds of Gaming

The Video Game Library is the world’s most comprehensive catalog of video game books. It is a celebration of the literature that fuels and inspires our understanding of gaming’s past, present, and future.

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Our Mission: Preserve, Promote, Educate

Founded in 2022, The Video Game Library bridges the gap in gaming research by offering a free, ever-growing catalog of video game literature. With 10,000+ titles in 25+ languages, our mission is to preserve every narrative thread by cataloguing works, to promote access by linking to scans where possible, and to educate by spotlighting global voices that enrich the collective memory of gaming.

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We believe every story deserves a stage. From Japan, France, Brazil, Spain, Korea, Germany, the U.S., and beyond, our catalog highlights publications from across the globe. Supporting international works is critical because game history is world history. Every region contributes unique stories, aesthetics, and scholarship to the medium.

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At its core, The Video Game Library is about amplifying authors, researchers, and creators worldwide. This is not just about maintaining a record. It is about building a community that values and shares the written legacies of gaming culture.

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Why This Matters

Games Are Disappearing Fast: A staggering 87% of pre-2010 video games are “critically endangered”, no longer available through normal channels. The books, essays, and guides that contextualize those games face a similar fate: hard to find, often out of print, and scattered across languages and regions. Without a unified record, much of this knowledge risks being forgotten.

Cultural Artifacts in Words: Video games are not just software. They are culture. Developer memoirs, art books, strategy guides, and critical essays are cognitive artifacts. They capture how games were made, how they were played, and how they were understood. By cataloguing this literature, we shine a light on voices that would otherwise remain buried in obscurity.

Books vs. Screens: Unlike short-form content, books provide depth and permanence. They offer detailed development stories, design philosophies, and cultural critiques that give players, students, and researchers richer, longer-lasting insight. They also serve as entry points for those hoping to join the industry, inspiring the next generation of developers, artists, and storytellers.

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What You'll Find: 

Extensive Library: Browse categories like Game Dev, Game Studies, Biographies, Art & Reference, Novelizations, Cookbooks, and more.

Global Reach: Discover titles in over 25 languages, from common staples to rare gems.

Smart Search and Tagging: Explore by author, theme, game, or company.

Constant Growth: Updated daily with new voices, formats, and discoveries.

Linked Resources: While we do not scan books, we link to public scans and archives wherever possible.​​

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The Fine Print 

Book Descriptions: Book descriptions are often drawn from ecommerce listings and other publicly available sources. Not all descriptions have been vetted directly with publishers, though we make every effort to ensure accuracy, particularly when back-of-book copy is unavailable.

Book Cover Images: Book cover images are sourced from official publisher materials whenever possible. In cases where titles are not readily found online, images may be sourced from other publicly available locations. We cannot verify whether all images have been altered, either manually or through AI-assisted tools, and encourage readers to keep this in mind.

Controversial Books: The Video Game Library catalogues video game books from around the world. We include a wide range of viewpoints, and inclusion does not mean we endorse an author or their views. Our focus is discovery and documentation, not filtering based on disagreement or controversy.

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