Who's the remaster?
The beginning of this generation was a tumultuous time of new hardware, lofty expectations, and growing pains. While we received fresh entries into beloved franchises such Infamous, Assassins Creed, and Call of Duty, we’ve also been graced with original titles like Destiny and Sunset Overdrive. New games have emerged physically as well as downloadable through the multiple services that have finally come into their own. But a trend that first reared its head a generation ago has come back just as strong to aid in maintaining our collective attention spans as AAA development carries on undisturbed. The remaster.
So why the resistance and dislike from the gaming community?
To properly address this question, we must first understand the subject. A remaster is when a developer rereleases a title with improved visuals and performance for a new console. Last generation, these came in the form of HD collections for Shadow of the Colossus & ICO, God of War, and quite a few others. These collections featured improved resolutions, HD assets, solid frame rates, etc. Imagine a GOTY/complete edition with better image quality.
These rereleases serve a few purposes:
1) People who missed out on certain titles get a chance to experience them for the first time
2) Developers can get some added revenue with a smaller investment of time and effort
3) Developers obtain experience with new hardware that can benefit future titles
I made the poor decision of skipping not only Tomb Raider on PS3, but also The Last of Us. I moved on to PS4 and I was content with maybe never playing these two titles at all. Or so I thought. Luckily for me as well as others within the community, both titles were remastered for current generation hardware and I couldn’t be more thankful. The Last of Us is easily one of my all time favorite games (Along with the likes of Infamous, Fallout, Dark Souls) while Tomb Raider was an absolute gem that makes the exclusivity of the following entry to the One a bitter sweet feeling. A common critique to counter this is that developers are spending time as well as resources to redo these games instead of making new titles and IPs, some of which were put out no more than a year or so after their first releases. I find myself agreeing with this sentiment more often than not because I’m of a practical mind. You got a PS4 or an Xbox One? You want PS4 and Xbox One games. You don’t want PS3 and 360 games that you’ve already played or skipped for some reason or another. Hey, man. I get it, but reasons 2 & 3 make it easy for me to give remasters a pass in most cases.
Purchasing these two titles, like so many others, gets the developer some cheap income that they can funnel to new projects while also getting a better read on the popularity of a franchise. Despite the insane sales expectations Square-Enix had for Tomb Raider, the title still performed better than certain games people wouldn’t flinch at. The remaster only adds to that success and was likely a good indicator of demand for a sequel while the current install bases are growing. Don’t get me wrong. Tomb Raider warranted a sequel on its own merits of high production values and excellent action, but sales figures for the remaster can help to show the size of the current generation target audience, which can justify a follow up coming out so soon. Hopefully it doesn’t become an annual thing, but that’s another post entirely. The cheaper revenue is something that the industry hasn’t overlooked. While the most notable remasters have been of notable titles, we’re beginning to see remasters for games that maybe we shouldn’t such as Sleeping Dogs and DmC.
Whatever floats your boat, but really? The negative angle of this aspect is that the community views these releases as a “cash grab”. Instead of taking a risk with something new or making a desired sequel, developers are rehashing old games and milking us and stealing our bikes and making faces at us while teacher isn’t watching [/Sarcasm]. Whatever the case, these remasters are helping to ease future development costs in addition to keeping the doors open. These companies are businesses. They have to pay people, pay their bills, and make future projects. If you want a small glimpse into how complicated those processes can be, buy a copy of Game Dev Tycoon. When I hear that another remaster has been announced, I wince a little then I look around and remember no one is at my head with a gun forcing me to buy it. Sure, it may add a little development time to that next must have title, but ultimately it’s all for the best.
At the beginning of the PS3/360 generation, the widely known Naughty Dog took on the arduous task of creating a brand new game engine that would run the likes of Uncharted and The Last of Us. Games that are now household names held to the highest regard in the minds of gamers. While the payoff was big, the developer wasn’t exactly having the time of their life. Quite the contrary, they were going through hell. This generation, they have altered their approach to the new hardware by using their existing engine and making changes according to their development needs. This is where the remaster of The Last of Us comes in. What better way to assess your needs than by bringing your hit new IP to new consoles with enhanced performance to take of advantage of the new hardware capabilities (Especially when 1/3 of your potential customers came from non-Sony platforms)? The Last of Us boasts a few noticeable differences from its PS3 counterpart. The character models from the cutscenes are used in the game, it is full 1080p, 60fps with a locked 30fps option, and also features better lighting. It was as magnificent to play as it was gaze upon while taking advantage of the PS4’s share button along with a built in photo mode. Having gone through the work of redoing this title, the developer now has a much better idea of what they are working with hardware wise, what they are capable of doing with it, and what they can possibly do with it. I have no doubt in my mind that Uncharted: A Thief’s End will greatly benefit from that knowledge and experience. The same holds for Rise of the Tomb Raider and whatever Rockstar is slowly brewing (C’mon Agent!). There isn’t much of a counter argument against this benefit of the remaster or at least I haven’t heard one yet. A major issue for developers last generation was having to create HD asset libraries from scratch in addition to crafting new engines to run them. With the release of the WiiU, Nintendo also stumbled over this hurdle as their titles were delayed in order to meet the level of polish they expect to produce.
Making video games is serious business. Yesterday’s missteps lend greater agility for developers to handle today’s obstacles. Remasters are an excellent means by which developers can reduce the steep climb of working with new hardware into more of a gentle grade they can ease into. I’d rather see new, risky IPs, but my desire for well polished releases that take the greatest advantage of this beefy new hardware outweigh what is otherwise a minor gripe. Of all the ways developers have tried to earn some extra loot (Project $10, laughable DLC, preorder incentives), the remaster is by far the least harmful and the most beneficial.
That's just my opinion, of course.
A-Dub