What's with the remake culture nowadays?

[Ondrashek06]

This game gets a remake. That game gets a remake. That one game everyone wants a sequel to? Why not a remake instead?

Even Nintendo frequently participates in this - see the "Mario 40th anniversary".

Is there a reason why most AAA studios just churn out remakes one after another nowadays? Bonus points if the remake's done in UE5.

 

[Deleted member 705600]

Is not a unique phenomenon

It has been happening with movies since the 2010s. It's just an easy way to guarantee money really, and videogames are starting to get old enough to justify it

 

[Earthshine]

Except there are also TONS of games and movies that are NOT remakes. Maybe just play or watch one of those?

 

[hippy dave]

 

[LoggerMan]

Every six or so years there's a whole new generation of target demographic who didn't play the game back then. And ever since the Gamecube era games have gotten good enough that new generation of players will still like them. Even Mario 64 got one remake on the DS and it's welllll overdue for a proper remake..

 

[Ligeia]

It's much cheaper to make a remake than a whole new game from scratch.

 

[IceBlazeWinters]

remakes and remasters happen when studios (game, movie, tv, etc) are completely out of ideas for anything new, want to make a quick buck off of people for "nostalgia", and because nothing is in the public domain

and you can blame walt disney for that last part, because he lobbied congress hard in the 1920s to prevent mickey mouse from going public domain.

so now it takes over 100 years for anything to go into the public domain.

 

[Latiodile]

anniversary re-releases are at least normal, they've been doing those for decades at this point, sonic genesis (gba) was supposed to be an anniversary re-release

 

[Robert Newbie]

There have been plenty of good posts in this topic.

All I can add is that game development has increased exponentially since the sixth gen. To fund AAA game development, the remaster/port trend started. I can name a bunch from the PS3 era off the top of my head: Jak & Daxter, Team ICO, Sly Cooper, Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders, and Silent Hill (lol). On top of that, reboots were popular because any series that made money in the past was a safer bet than spending millions on a new, unproven IP.

I don't watch the industry as much as I used to, but it seems like we're still in this modern AAA (AAAA, right Ubi?) space. The rise of indies has really taken over for all the A and AA projects that big companies used to work on.

 

[Lostbhoy]

Just with movie remakes and song "covers"... There is no originality left in this world so they rehash old shit people liked and ruin everything that was good about it in the first place.

Welcome to modern society. Now go buy that remake

 

[Earthshine]

Just with movie remakes and song "covers"... There is no originality left in this world so they rehash old shit people liked and ruin everything that was good about it in the first place.

Welcome to modern society. Now go buy that remake

As I already pointed out, there are TONS of movies, music, and games out there that are not remakes. Watch, listen, or play those instead because there is plenty of originality left.

 

[Kwyjor]

This game gets a remake. That game gets a remake. That one game everyone wants a sequel to? Why not a remake instead?

Even Nintendo frequently participates in this - see the "Mario 40th anniversary".

Is there a reason why most AAA studios just churn out remakes one after another nowadays? Bonus points if the remake's done in UE5.

Seems to me like every time a new device is released, people are clamoring for emulators so they can run the same old games that have been out for thirty years already.

It's what the people want.

 

[Earthshine]

As I already pointed out, there are TONS of movies, music, and games out there that are not remakes. Watch, listen, or play those instead because there is plenty of originality left.

Is something funny? Or do you have a condition that involves random bouts of laughter?

 

[TVL]

Can you think of any easier way to make bank? It's risky business to try something new... It's been that way for decades, before this the formula used to be to copy whatever is popular at the time. But this is almost a guarantee to make a profit. Games are so expensive to make nowadays that it can sink a studio to try something original. I get all that, what I really feel kind of sad about is that most indie games that make it big are a rip off of some old Nintendo game.

 

[JuanMena]

Demand and Supply.
Donkey Kong Returns has had 7 renditions if I recall correctly.
Super Mario Galaxy, I think 5?
CAPCOM has re-released Megaman I to IV more times than it's had new MegaMan games.

As long as "gamers" keeps buying the roms, companies will keep delivering low effort games.
Remember that time Nintendo sold Super Mario Bros that came from a Romsite? (which is in theory totally legal) but they could've totally had dumped their own Super Mario Bros (J).nes like the rest of us does?

 

[Kwyjor]

Remember that time Nintendo sold Super Mario Bros that came from a Romsite? (which is in theory totally legal) but they could've totally had dumped their own Super Mario Bros (J).nes like the rest of us does?

They used a SMB ROM with an iNES header, and if "the rest of us" did that, then the result would also probably have an iNES header.

 

[JuanMena]

They used a SMB ROM with an iNES header, and if "the rest of us" did that, then the result would also probably have an iNES header.

I keep forgetting sarcasm doesn't translate well over GBATEMP.

 

[Lumstar]

I never understood the fuss. Why should these games be denied to people new-to-gaming who don't own previous hardware?
Unless one has some fiscal stake in wanting to bar the games from current platforms...

 

[tech3475]

I never understood the fuss. Why should these games be denied to people new-to-gaming who don't own previous hardware?
Unless one has some fiscal stake in wanting to bar the games from current platforms...

Looking at OPs post, it may be that there's a feeling that it's being done at the cost of not making new games.

It also doesn't help when you have games like The Last of Us 1 which got a PS5 version despite the console being able to run the PS4 version.

Although of course there's a difference between a remake and a port.

I keep forgetting sarcasm doesn't translate well over GBATEMP.

Just use "/s" or UpPeR lower like everyone else.

Especially when there were actual accusations back in the day that Nintendo was just using pirated ROMs.

 

[Latiodile]

I never understood the fuss. Why should these games be denied to people new-to-gaming who don't own previous hardware?
Unless one has some fiscal stake in wanting to bar the games from current platforms...

there's some fuss i can understand, like why remake/remaster tlou like 4 different times when the first port is still playable on the current platform? or the horizon zero dawn and days gone, who asked for "remastered" versions of these?
i'm pro remake/remaster, but when the remake/remaster is more like a demake/demaster (either through censorship or "modern audience" tweaks), or is straight up unnecessary like remastering a game that's still available on the current platform/generation, i'm less for it