Museums in the Future as Depicted in Popular Videogames - Looking Forward to Visit or Better Run-run Away?

Aug 20, 2026

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This article examines how museums are imagined in popular videogames and uses that representation as an indicator of how museums may—or may not—function in future settings. Data are drawn from the “The Museums in Popular Videogames” research project at the Museology Lab, Ionian University. Using science fiction genres to classify museum portrayals, the study identifies 29 videogames with 42 museum settings and analyses them through four museum-oriented aspects: location, building and institution, exhibits and preservation, and potential visitor encounters. It finds diverse speculative visions ranging from fully functional spaces to ruined environments.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Preliminaries and Related Work

Game studies, videogames and museums

Futures Studies

Science Fiction and the Future

Article Museums in the Future as Depicted in Popular Videogames: Looking Forward to Visit or Better Run-run Away? Aristoteles Georgios Sakellariou1, Georgios Papaioannou2 1 Researcher / PhD Candidate, Museology Lab, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece 2 Associate Professor, Director Museology Lab, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece Abstract This article relates to the envisioning of museums in popular videogames as a possible indicator of how museums may or may not function in the future. In terms ofpopular videogames, data were collected from the ‘The Museums in Popular Videogames’research project at the Museology Lab, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece. Taking into consideration that science fiction literature is strongly linked with visualising aspects of the future, we use its genres to classify the museums in videogames. Twenty-nine videogames with forty-two museum settings were identified and discussed. Museums were grouped and analysed by four museum-oriented aspects to further understand their nature in future settings: location; the museum as a building and as an institution; the museum exhibits, their nature and their state of care or preservation; museum visitors that the game character may encounter. This research has indicated that the speculative creativity of videogame developers concerning museums in the future is likely to be diverse, within cityscapes, into the ocean or in the sky, fully functional with different interiors, preserving objects of the past and offering shelter to humans, or destroyed because of natural disasters, external attacks and/or human actions. Keywords Museums, Science Fiction, Future, Videogames Introduction This article relates to the role of museums in popular videogames as a possible indicator of how museums will be (or not) in the future. It aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the future of museums in the physical and the digital world. We focus on how the future of museum is represented in popular videogames. The spark of inspiration for this article was a presentation done by the authors for the “The Future Museum in the Future City”(authors, 2021) in Qatar, 2021. It is part ofan ongoing research project on museums in popular videogames (MPVG), run by the Museology Research Laboratory of the Ionian University, Corfu, Greece. Preliminaries and Related Work Game studies, videogames and museums Game studies comprise an interdisciplinary scientific field focusing on learning, art, playing, mass production and related phenomena (Mayra, 2008, p. 11, Sukhov, 2015; Chen & Hoffman, 2017) . Games are based upon wellthought out scenarios with specific aims and objectives (Dannenberg & Fischer, 2017) and are recognised today as forms of learning tools. As videogames challenge players by putting them into a solution finding situation, players themselves take responsibility and build up experience: “games are not designed to teach players; they are designed for players to learn”(Stapleton, 2004, pp. 1-2) . As a non-formal learning tool, games and videogames have gained credit and recognition as an academic field of study and research since the 1980s and 1990s (Aarseth, 2014, p. 185) . Mayra offers a comprehensive study on research and videogames: videogames have existed since 1940, that they gained commercial success in the 1970s, and received academic research interest in the 1980s (2014, p. 331) . In the 21st century, Vieira DaSilva highlighted the existence of museums in videogames (2010) . In 2019, only 38 universities in the USA have introduced PhD programmes in Game Studies (Ruberg, 2019) . In museum exhibitions, visitors encounter games as museographical contributions to visitors’ experience, enhancing exhibition narratives and fighting museum fatigue (Hooper-Greenhill, 1994, pp. 7-8;Black, 2005, p. 285) . In videogames, museums add to the game plot and enhance players’ experience. The MRVP project initiated the first database on the topic (the authors

FAQs

What is the main purpose of the article?

The article investigates the role of museums in popular videogames as an indicator of how museums may be represented or function in the future, in both physical and digital contexts.

How were videogames and museum settings selected and analyzed?

The study collects data from the “The Museums in Popular Videogames” project, identifying 29 videogames with 42 museum settings. It then classifies them using science fiction genres and analyses them through four museum-oriented aspects.

What four aspects does the article use to group museums in videogames?

Museums are grouped by location; the museum as a building and institution; the museum exhibits, including their nature and state of care or preservation; and the museum visitors the game character may encounter.

Aug 20, 2026

Upload by Mia