Sega's dev kit raid gets interesting as the Video Game Preservation Museum chimes in with a GoFundMe

The Sega dev kit raid debacle heats up, as earlier, Sega tipped off the UK police to raid a collector's home. The Video Game Preservation Museum, or VGPM, has chimed in, launching a GoFundMe campaign to support legal costs and noting the incident as a major threat to game preservation and gaming history.

Considering the ripples created by the incident in the retro collecting niche, VGPM has initiated a GoFundMe titled “Community vs SEGA: Protect What They Tried To Erase,” and is organized by Damien Farnham, in an effort to fund the seller’s legal defense against the charges and ultimately, recover the seized dev kits and video games.

The campaign states that the items were not contraband and held immense value for the community, as they sought to preserve unreleased games, and that Sega turned a routine collector’s sale into a widespread police operation. 

The funds will be allocated for court and attorney fees, expert witnesses in intellectual property and auction law, as well as miscellaneous case expenses to clear the seller’s name and challenge what’s being viewed by the gaming community as corporate overreach.

The incident happened on July 14, 2025, when ten officers from the City of London police stormed the residence of a collector, arresting him on the spot on charges of money laundering and seizing dozens of rare development kits of the Nintendo Wii U and 3DS, including undumped games for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, DSi, and 3DS.

These games included prototypes for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Sonic Generations, Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics, Phantasy Star 0, Alien Infestation, Shinobi, and an unreleased Nintendo DS version of Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure, all of which were lawfully purchased by the seller for around £10,000 during a Sega office clearance in Brentford.

The VGPM, known for its efforts to rescue overlooked retro gaming artifacts, has launched a fundraiser to acquire this collection for public preservation. The raid has garnered backlash from collectors and the retro gaming community, as VGPM noted it as “nothing less than a preservation disaster and a dangerous precedent for collectors, archivists, and the gaming community.”

In an X thread, VGPM stated, “We urgently need the support of the wider community to keep this story alive and visible. Share it, talk about it, question it. When private companies can call in the police to raid homes over discarded hardware, the stakes are bigger than the publisher.”

VGPM further added that ‘this is only the beginning,’ and that ‘more information is coming, and the full extent of this scandal will soon be clear to everyone,’ while also publishing documents related to the case. 

Time Extension, who broke the news, confirmed ongoing contact with the seller and stated that Sega has not responded to the seized item’s whereabouts, despite multiple formal legal letters sent directly to Sega’s CEO for a confidential settlement.

The seller in question had been running an online resale business in used electronics for over a decade. He detailed the whole ordeal, stating that at 7:30 am, police raided his residence and detained him for eight hours at Bishopsgate Police Station, where his DNA, fingerprints, and photos were taken, and he was released under investigation without a formal release letter.

He stated that the police were quite inconsistent in their correspondence, as they asked for a request to sign away property rights, followed by a denial that he ever owned the items, which is baffling, to say the least.

The GoFundMe is slowly but steadily gaining traction, and VGPM continues to rally support online, stating that this fight is essential to safeguard gaming heritage from potential erasure by corporate entities now and in the future.