Why are So Many Games Getting Remastered?

If you look at the current line-up of video games, you’ll see a lot of remasters and re-releases. From old games like Resident Evil 1 getting remade, PS2 classics like Kingdom Hearts getting released in a bundle, PS3 games like God of War 3 getting released on the PS4 with small changes, it is quite clear that a multitude of games from all eras and using different platforms are being remastered for the new consoles – what are the reasons behind this, could we expect the trends to continue? 

Nostalgia and an Old Generation Growing Up

Nostalgia is an undeniable part of human nature – most people have a rosy retrospection when they are looking back on their past, and especially their childhood. Another entertainment sector that’s seeing a lot of rereleases is the movie sector, and it is also because of the same reasons. 

A generation of kids grew up with some movies 20 to 30 years ago – these movies were a cultural phenomenon that touched these kids in a very real way, and now, when these kids are all grown up and rich enough to be customers worth targetting, it makes sense for companies to exploit their nostalgia. 

Games were a bit late to the game, they became a cultural phenomenon 10 years or so later, and the people who had strong nostalgia for old games became affluent members of society around a few years ago, and that’s why remasters and rereleases are getting popular just now. 

One thing you need to keep in mind is that we shouldn’t expect them to slow down in the future. Because the kids that are growing up right now are growing up having some video games that influence them and are dear to them, and in ten to twenty years, they grow up and start working and being nostalgic for these games, and you’ll see a new wave of rereleases and remasters catering to their tastes. 

Technological Advances

The one thing that we can definitely say about all the new gaming consoles, the new smartphones, and the new computers is that they are converging technologically. Just a decade ago, when a new console got released, the CPU would use a completely unique architecture. The same was true for phones – Nokia phones had wildly different CPUs and GPUs from Samsung. Now, as these markets are maturing and our tech capacity is improving, we are seeing clear winners emerge and we’ve largely agreed on certain standards. That’s what characterized the PS4 and the Xbox One, and that’s what’s characterizing android phones. 

But, what does it mean for remasters and rereleases? How would this affect them? Well, it does, in two very real way: 

When you remaster a game for the current generation of consoles, it means that you have access to a much bigger market than you had before. As the tech used in consoles and computers is virtually identical, you need not spend a ton of money to port it from one console to another, but, rather, with minimal investment, you can ensure your presence in every market. This access to such a big market is very attractive for companies and incentivizes them to release more games. 

Porting from older generations of consoles to the new ones are getting easier as well. The PS5 is using an identical architecture to the PS4, so it would be a matter of a few weeks to remaster a game for the new console. This decreased costs of production would mean that it is likely we’ll see more games.