The last few years have seen a fair share of remasters and rereleases of games. To name just a few, Demon Souls (the launch title for PS5), neo-Persona trilogy (3, 4 and 5) or even Quake 2 have all re-entered the market and are (for the most part) available for a wide variety of gaming systems. Some more niche franchises also get remasters or even remakes, like in the case of Live-A-Live or Shining Resonance Refrain (we won’t talk about this one anymore). I currently play Nier: Automata on my Switch. So, why is this the case and why do companies really love pumping out older titles? Let’s find out in this article.
The blueprint’s already here
While ports often have additional features, new game modes, additional content and such, most of the time there’s already a tremendous amount of work done beforehand. By this, I mean that:
- The story.
- Characters.
- Mechanics.
- Original graphic and music assets.
- And all else that is to be reworked and revamped such as the UI.
They are all already there. They can either be used as they existed, could be reworked or serve the role of reference material. This helps with speeding up the entire process of remastering or reworking a game. So, we can get an up-to-date title that already has proven its market viability a while ago using a fraction of the finances, time and available workforce necessary for creating a new game, let alone a new IP.
The next big thing about already existing material is the availability of both critics’ and community feedback. Games aren’t perfect and won’t cater to everyone. Some flaws are more glaring than others, though. I’m well aware that Quake 2, despite being a great title I’ve beaten a plethora of times, isn’t a perfect game. The current devs and rightsholders had not only their documentation and backlog but also a vast majority of reviews and analyses of player feedback and sentiment. These resources can be used to make the game not only up to the current industry standards but also to make it better than it used to be. And, as people tend to look at the past with rose-tinted glasses, it’s important to iron out what wasn’t perfect during the original release.
Some studios even tend to use controversial measures to deliver the remaster quicker and cheaper. Atlus, for example, AI-upscaled the original graphic assets from Persona 3 Portable. While smart and cost-effective, such methods can be met with community backlash, as was the case at that time.
Players are ready to buy
Square Enix, an industry giant, has been struggling with providing physical copies of their Final Fantasy I-VI Collection for the Switch. The reason’s pretty simple. People loved, or at the very least were interested in these games and want to have the ability to experience them on modern devices. This can be especially observed in the case of long-running IPs such as Final Fantasy and Star Ocean.
However, most people don’t use physical copies nowadays and, aside from creating an interesting market of collectibles and second-hand games, companies tend to focus on digital sales. And pushing a remastered game there isn’t a very hard task. Players appreciate the fact that they don’t have to face any shortages when trying to buy a copy of a game they used to enjoy as kids.
Persona 3 Portable I mentioned earlier was able to sell at least a few hundred thousand copies, if not considerably more, as estimated data for the Switch isn’t available.
Players are able to buy
The older one is, the less time they have to play video games. This is the sad reality of all the gamers around the world. Making time count, players often focus on different activities, like tending to their families, earning or trying a different hobby than gaming. What is undeniable, though, is the fact that older people have more money to spend. This pertains to many facets of the gaming industry, such as designing the monetization models of mobile games while considering the target audience. In this case, though, there is a perfect storm. A person who used to play the game an awful lot as a kid suddenly is granted the opportunity to rediscover something that meant the world to them.
A similar, albeit slightly different thing occurs when we talk about games that some have missed due to not owning proper hardware, but always have wanted to try. It felt odd to play Shin Megami Tensei 3 HD legally after all those years of emulation, but it also felt right. People have also bought many copies of the game, as it had a cult status on the PS2 and wasn’t rereleased until 2021. As we live in the age of crossplatform gameplay and people owning multiple gaming devices at once, this is an opportunity to earn money on titles that were limited in their first run due to the platform (as in the case of SMT3, or the upcoming remasters of Baten Kaitos games, currently only available on Gamecube).
Remastering is a great way of getting money from people who either already love your product or have always wanted to give it a shot. A sensible pricing policy and making it accessible on multiple platforms are the key to realising the new-found market potential.
It’s a great opportunity to train your devs
Remasters are often made to explore new technology or to develop your staff’s skills. It’s a great way to confront the staff with old industry standards. As these projects are often post mortem’ed countless times, there’s certainly a lot the staff can learn from them. Starting from seeing how methods and technologies were employed at a point in the past, going through assessing management and marketing measures, to figuring out intriguing ways of using what’s at their disposal (SMT3 used a tex-to-speech Mac synth to provide vocals for its soundtrack). This can be counted as an intriguing exercise and expanding one’s understanding of how games and the industry work.
What happens, when a game runs in an obsolete engine and can’t easily be remastered, let alone ported to newer devices? It needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Most companies tend to use either Unity or Unreal Engine for their games. However, both these engines excel at different things. A remaster could be a great way to learn the ins and outs of the new tech which may be leveraged in future projects. An example of that is, once again, SMT3 – Atlus decided to make it in Unity. Whether it was a good or a bad call, is not up to me. The important part is that they acquired the knowledge to create and remaster games with the use of the technology and this is always a good thing for the business.
Flexing the portfolio
An established studio always opts to use its product portfolio to maximise profits and secure funding. Aside from the obvious part that is sales, there are also other ways to secure funding. One of them is by investors and their investments. Delivering a successful remaster to the market can show the possible investors a number of great things to expect from the studio:
- Their IPs are strong and remain engaging for the audiences years after the instalments got released.
- They are able to deliver successful products with only a fraction of the otherwise needed resources.
- Their games have the potential to become long-sellers – a type of product that doesn’t exactly fly off the shelves but maintains a long and pretty steady interest.
- Their games can sell over and over again, given enough time’s passed.
Who wouldn’t want to invest in a company that’s able to do that?
Conclusion
The last point that I’m about to make isn’t necessarily the most original, but it has to be stated. It’s an amalgamation of the previous ones. Remastering games that used to be successful is a safe and viable way of running a gaming studio. And it’s been like that for quite a long time. Ports aren’t just a thing of the recent past, present and future. Companies have been remastering their older titles since the early stages of the industry’s development. Doom was released in 1993, Street Fighter 2 in 1991 and you could play these titles as new releases during most if not all of the console generations, not to mention PCs.
Sure, new IPs and new instalments are the biggest hits on the market. It’s not only the hits that can sell well. And the risk of failure while making a remaster of a cult classic is exponentially slimmer than when giving a new thing a shot. I’d like to see more new games on the market, but I can see why things are how they are and don’t expect it to ever change. Let’s hope that we won’t run out of new games anytime soon haha.
And, if there’s even a sliver of chance anyone from Epic Games reads this – remaster Jazz Jackrabbit 2, please.
I hope you liked this article. It felt fun researching it. What is your point of view on remasters as a whole? Let me know in the comments? Also, if you’re looking for someone to work on your games’ marketing, let me know here – jakub@heapsagency.com
Heaps Agency 