Why is the gaming industry obsessed with Remakes and Remasters?

3 mins read

For the past decade and a half, remakes and remasters have dominated the gaming landscape. This begs the question: what happened to originality and why is this obsession so prevalent?

When tackling the idea of originality when it comes to any form of media, it’s important to note that originality doesn’t immediately equate to something being good. Take games like Redfall or Starfield as examples. They both had these very interesting ideas, but their poor execution led to their almost dead-on-arrival status.

Remakes and remasters have been used frequently by multiple companies recently. The most egregious is Naughty Dog’s remake and remasters of The Last of Us. The original release of The Last of Us was in 2013. A remaster was released a year later for the PS4. Then, eight years later a full-scale remake was released for the PS5. The game is largely the same between all releases, the only changes being slight bug fixes, added cosmetics, and updated visuals. The issue is that nothing major has changed and the only reason the remakes exist is to be ported to follow-up consoles.

The issue is fans of the original products will always come back to buy the new versions. Whenever a re-release of The Last of Us or Resident Evil comes out, I will always get it, without fail. So, maybe the consumer is the one incentivizing these companies to keep pumping out the same ideas repeatedly.

It seems that companies have found the easiest way to make money is to repackage a game they already created, sell it for the same price as they did upon release, and rake in the money. Selling the same thing again is far easier as there is less risk, and it will take less time to make. I’d argue Bethesda is the worst company when it comes to remasters. Currently, you can play Skyrim on eight separate platforms and Amazon Alexa. The only changes between these releases and their re-packaged special editions are updated visuals and bundled DLC.

The only way that we can get these companies to stop repacking the same things over and over again is to stop buying into them. You don’t need slightly better-looking water for Skyrim. Celebrating originality and smaller studios will force bigger studios to start thinking a bit more creatively.

Featured image credit: Naughty Dog

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Fourth year Film and Journalism student
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Contact - deputyeditor@brignews.com

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