GoKawiilEA finds 20,000 archival media assets in hidden Redwood Shores vault
EA producer Jim Vessella discovered a physical vault at the company's Redwood Shores campus in 2022 containing nearly 20,000 archival media assets on formats like Betacam, VHS, D1, film reels and CD-ROMs. He spent six months organizing the room, later joined by Greg Roensch of EA's preservation project, and by 2024 the team had digitized 6,000 assets and 2,500 hours of footage, including master tapes for Wing Commander and Road Rash.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The discovery has already fed directly into new products, including Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger: 30th Anniversary Edition and Privateer 2: The Darkening: 30th Anniversary Edition, built using original master tapes and community-developed patches. This suggests large publishers may hold substantial untapped archival material that could support further remasters, and highlights how external fan communities can play a direct role in restoring and modernizing old games.
- EA found nearly 20,000 archival media assets in a physical vault at its Redwood Shores HQ
- 6,000 assets and 2,500 hours of footage have been digitized since 2024, including Wing Commander and Road Rash master tapes
- The effort produced two remasters: Wing Commander III and Privateer 2, both involving original creators and fan community members
Command & Conquer Remastered Collection — This EA archival project directly echoes the work behind the Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, produced by the same team lead, Jim Vessella. If you love classic RTS history and restored cutscenes pulled from vault media, this remaster is a perfect way to experience that preservation effort firsthand.
See Command & Conquer Remastered Collection on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: tomshardware.com — Jowi Morales, 2026-11-07
Published there as: “EA producer found 20,000 archival media assets in secret physical vault at its HQ”
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