Jump to content

Why just remakes instead of new titles these days?


Lava_Yuki

Recommended Posts

Previously new titles would be released quite often for popular series, but these days I feel like it's just remakes. There hasn't been a new FF, Disgaea, Tales, Harvest Moon/Rune Factory etc in what feels life way longer than it used to be.

 

Disgaea have just decided to remake Disgaea 1, FF seem to be set on remastering almost all their titles (3, 4, 7, 10/10-2, 12, 9 now with trophies on PS4, Type 0....), Tales of Vesperia remake with no new title in site for 2 years, etc... Persona and Pokemon seem to keep going with new games instead of just remakes, but haven't been seeing much besides remakes from the rest in terms of the old big name RPGs and other popular series since 2016, without even so much as an announcement in sight. Pity FF Tactics has pretty died, I really liked those games. 

 

I wonder why this is, a financial issue or have they run out of ideas?

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably easier to focus on a remake than to come up with something completely new. Plus most people will still buy the remakes. With Pokemon, people are still asking for a Diamond/Pearl remake, so obviously people want it. 

 

I'd definitely like to see a new Harvest Moon (Story of Seasons) game though. Trio of Towns came out and it was a lot of fun, but no announcements for anything new in sight. :( 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Humanity doesn't like pushing forward to greater grounds. Also not enough people demand it I suppose. Demand is a great issue. All it took was a couple companies starting remakes and remasters and that caught on because well the sales help determine the future of a company and next we know every fking one is doing it and good easy sales help back up that choice. Not a lot like to risk or we be space travellers now, fighting aliens far far away, or looking for the next golden world. Yet we are here fighting wars with each other, wasting funds and not progressing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I could make a testament of 10 lines but I will be as direct as possible: because it is the easiest and quickest way to make money.


Making a new game requires time and a lot of work. there are companies that dont want to make a lot of effort, there are others that prefer that their brands be transferred to "panchinkos"

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Remakes are easy to do and are a good way to occupy their fan base while they are working on new entries. As a Final Fantasy fan I'm glad to see remakes of old titles because it's always a pleasure to play them again/for the first time and with a trophy list on top of that because it keeps me busy until they release Final Fantasy XVI and it allows them a longer development time which can only be a good thing to have a polish title at release. 

I'm a patient gamer so I don't really mind waiting a lot of years for a title as long as it delivers so remakes/remasters are just the icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned.

 

Pokemon is far from being a good example though, each and every time they release remakes/remasters of titles that were released the year before (emerald, platinum, black and white 2, ultra sun and moon) AND remakes of older generation so if there is a series that is really abusing their fans with the remakes, its probably Pokemon. (And I say that as a Pokemon fan...)

Edited by itachi-destroyer
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Final Fantasy remake was due to the fanbase they all wanted it.
Tales of Vesperia was also a massive push from the fanbase as this version never made it to Wesrern PlayStation devices.
Rune Factory devs cease operations and file for bankruptcy , Marvelous AQL hired the staff but it was more like a one off so slim chances there.


Square are working on Kingdom Hearts III, we just had Ni no Kuni II, Valkyria Chronicles and Dragon Quest are out soon and there have been many more released or coming soon.
Oh also at the Tales of Festival Bandai Namco came out and said they are working on a new title in the series and not just Vesperia.

How many games would you like to have because new RPG's are released every month these days?

Edited by fisty123
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Previously new titles would be released quite often for popular series, but these days I feel like it's just remakes. There hasn't been a new FF, Disgaea, Tales, Harvest Moon/Rune Factory etc in what feels life way longer than it used to be.

 

All those series have had fairly recent new entries.

In their case it's a matter of being able to do both new games and re-purpose older titles.

 

Putting out old titles is great for those that want to play them again and those that didn't have a chance back in the day. My first FF was FFXIII, I'll now give any older FF a chance. I played Disgaea and TOV but would love to play the "complete" version of TOV and a mechanically updated Disgaea. 

 

Doing both doesn't hurt. You can always skip the games you don't want to buy.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder how much of it has to do with the speculation that PlayStation 5 will be released soon? Or perhaps that technology of the PS4 is harder to develop games on?
For the Tales series, there was a 3 year gap between Xillia 2 (2012) and Zestiria (2015), which coincided with the release of the PS4 (late 2013). There actually has been an announcement about a new Tales title... just not a lot has been said about it yet.

The case isn't as strong for FF as they released Lightning Returns right around the same time as the PS4, with XV coming a bit later (2016).

Disgaea D2 was also at the end of the PS3 life, with D5 in 2015.

 

The Atelier series seems to be going strong, though, with new games every year since 2005 in addition to remaking some of the titles. Everyone should play that series if they want fresh games :awesome:

Neptunia also seems to do a good job of releasing new content (though I haven't played much from that series)

 

Additionally, perhaps there is more of a focus on creating new games to see if anything "fresh" sticks-- like Blue Reflection, Ni No Kuni, Code Vein, Little Dragons Cafe ( @Jelloycat, this is made by the Harvest Moon creators!) , Little Witch Academia, Octopath Traveler (travesty that it isn't on PS)....

Edited by eigen-space
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are loads of new games coming out all the time so I don't really know what you're talking about. Even the examples you gave with Final Fantasy, Tales, and Disgaea have all had new entries in the series within the last three years or so which is pretty damn recent in the games industry. Only Square have been going overboard with the whole remaster thing, but it's not like they can pump out new Final Fantasy games like they could in the PS1 days. Just think about how long FFXV took to develop in comparison to something like FFVII.

 

Also, Bandai Namco recently confirmed that they were working on a new Tales game. Many people including myself and thankful for the remaster of Tales of Vesperia due to the only version in English being on Xbox 360, and even then it didn't have all the content that was added in the Japanese PS3 release. Definitely not something worth complaining about.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's plenty of newer titles, but I'm just as disgusted that more companies have resorted to releasing crappy remakes and remasters instead of actually coming up with a product that is original.

 

Take for example Assassins Creed Rogue Remastered. Did that need a remaster? Probably not, the game runs just like Black Flag does on the Playstation 3. And if it's anything like the Ezio Auditore collection on the PS4 and the Prince of Persia collection on the PS3, it's probably locked to the same frames per second with only minor improvements to the graphics.

 

There is the upcoming Spider-Man game next month. But looking at your profile and your list of Japanese games that doesn't look like your kind of thing.

 

Tons of great games out there if you look around. But I'm tired of seeing remasters and remakes of games that we already got on the Playstation 3, simply because a lot of people have dropped and sold their PS3s and only play on their PS4s now.

 

Really would be nice if the PS4 was backwards compatible, but one can dream can't they?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not all of these remasters really needed to be remastered in the first place. I get some like the original Yakuza games and Shenmue but with others like Burnout Paradise? No. I'd rather have new games to try out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Zofia said:

Not all of these remasters really needed to be remastered in the first place. I get some like the original Yakuza games and Shenmue but with others like Burnout Paradise? No. I'd rather have new games to try out. 

 

The only remasters I would really care for would be Fallout 3 and New Vegas. If they ever came to be remastered and fixed the glaring bugs and glitches in both, and improved the graphics a bit and increased the frame rate I would definitely consider getting them both.

 

But as it stands I'm not getting them. Already played them on the Xbox 360 and the bugs were annoying as fuck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pretty much what everyone else said. I don't think there's any one right answer, though. Money is usually the reason, but sometimes you have internal changes, such as what happened with Natsume. Light of Hope was supposed to "evolve" the series, but it's just a mockery (from what I've seen). Still, as a longtime fan of the franchise, it got me wondering, "Do I really want a NEW Harvest Moon game, or do I want a remaster of the old ones?"

 

If "new" means changing the things that made me fond of a series, and "remaster" means improving upon them...well, it's not hard to see why it sells.

 

So, I encourage you not to see this as a bad thing. "Original" does not always mean good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Cassylvania said:

So, I encourage you not to see this as a bad thing. "Original" does not always mean good.

 

Original does not always mean bad either. Not everything has to be retouched just so they can reach a younger audience. 

 

The only true way of playing PlayStation 3 games while only having one console to work with is the PlayStation Now service. Lots of good Playstation 3 games such as the God of War trilogy, inFamous games and the like. 

 

But since the PlayStation 3 was hard to code for, the Now service you have to stream those games. Which is completely fine if you’re already live-streaming Youtube, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix and Twitch. A lot of people don’t like the service, so they only have remakes and remasters. 

 

Nobody is saying here that all remasters are bad. But a good number of them are a way to cash in on older games that have already seen success and profits. Plus they are aimed at those gamers who were not around to play those games in the previous console generation. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1) Time: It requires a lot less time to create a remake or a remaster, meaning they can get it out the door quicker and make money.

2) Cost: It's a lot cheaper to create a remake or remaster, meaning more profit for less cost. This is because the game is already done for you. You don't have to spend months drawing up concept art and toying with new ideas. Even though the Crash Bandicoot remake was remade from the ground up, the game already existed. They didn't have to experiment or design anything new, even though they didn't have the original source code to work from. In remasters like Dark Souls, they just have to fix a few textures and maybe fix some bugs that perhaps by now the community has fixed for you for free.

3) Guaranteed Profit: There is guaranteed profit in these games. Old fans of the series who are led by nostalgia, and new fans of the series who haven't experienced it before.

4) Less Risk: Leading from the previous point, people openly ask for these remakes/remasters. People obviously want them, which ties into point 3 again. It is better financially to invest in something you know will sell, rather than take the risk of investing in a new IP and have it flop. This is also the reason games have become pretty homogeneous. They spent the 90s and the 00s figuring out what systems work and now only employ those systems. Ubisoft is a great example of this. Seems people love climbing to high things and looking at the distance. Back in the years I mentioned, you had all kinds of crazy nonsense that came out. What you see now is what sold best. And even now, they only remake what's 'safe'. I am yet to see a remake of Kingsley's Adventure or Kurushi Final. For obvious, financial reasons.

5) 'Suits': Games are typically funded by 'suits'. These are men in suits, sitting in a boardroom, discussing what games their kids or grandkids like to play and their monetization. They've probably not played a game before, or certainly not many. They don't know anything about games or how to make them, they do however, know how to make money.  These are the people with the funding but not the passion. This means they're not interested in risks or consumer support, only profit. A lot of the studios that published the stuff in the previous years have been bought out by these suits. The passion has gone in the corporate studios and they make what they're told to. Most of the passion now comes from small indie companies that don't currently pose a threat to the larger ones, the moment they do you can bet the suits will buy them out. This is why the indie scene is growing. These are the people with the passion but not the funding.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Asvinia said:

4) Less Risk: Leading from the previous point, people openly ask for these remakes/remasters. People obviously want them, which ties into point 3 again. It is better financially to invest in something you know will sell, rather than take the risk of investing in a new IP and have it flop. This is also the reason games have become pretty homogeneous. They spent the 90s and the 00s figuring out what systems work and now only employ those systems. Ubisoft is a great example of this. Seems people love climbing to high things and looking at the distance. Back in the years I mentioned, you had all kinds of crazy nonsense that came out. What you see now is what sold best. And even now, they only remake what's 'safe'. I am yet to see a remake of Kingsley's Adventure or Kurushi Final. For obvious, financial reasons.

 

This is a bad thing. 

 

This isn’t necessarily covering remasters, but new IPs and games in general.

 

DOOM is single handedly one of the most important games in the history of gaming. It brought first person shooters to the forefront, shown gore and limbs flying off back at a time when ESRB ratings were just around the corner, and amazingly showcased one of the earliest multiplayer sessions through a primitive, unreliable LAN system. 

 

Two guys, John Romero and John Carmack made DOOM. 

 

Giant risk they took, along with all the controversy surrounding violent video games. You will never see companies like Ubisoft or EA do anything like this.

 

Nintendo took a very big risk with Super Mario 64, the very first 3-D platformer with Mario himself. Turned out to be a huge success, and the rest is history. 

 

The N64 generation to the PS3/Xbox 360 generation were a lot more innovative, weren’t afraid to take occasional risks, and brought a big variety to the table. These days what I mostly see is games not taking risks, but taking the safe path because originality isn’t a big thing anymore. 

 

1 hour ago, Asvinia said:

5) 'Suits': Games are typically funded by 'suits'. These are men in suits, sitting in a boardroom, discussing what games their kids or grandkids like to play and their monetization. They've probably not played a game before, or certainly not many. They don't know anything about games or how to make them, they do however, know how to make money.  These are the people with the funding but not the passion. This means they're not interested in risks or consumer support, only profit. A lot of the studios that published the stuff in the previous years have been bought out by these suits. The passion has gone in the corporate studios and they make what they're told to. Most of the passion now comes from small indie companies that don't currently pose a threat to the larger ones, the moment they do you can bet the suits will buy them out. This is why the indie scene is growing. These are the people with the passion but not the funding.

 

It takes less effort to find mediocrity than it is to create something compelling and original. 

 

This applies to the music industry as well. That’s why I’ve gone after underground rappers and indie rock bands who show more talent and compassion for their music. People like Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez are very big market sellers, and the corporate people who work in the marketing field know this. With the right looks and image, you can showcase the next generation of mediocre pop stars who serve to generate money for the record companies. 

 

Ubisoft, EA and Activision will never go for anything that is far out there, because chances are it won’t be as profitable. Ubisoft knows they can pocket some extra cash with these remasters. Their top executives probably couldn’t give a shit about gaming, as long as they see profit margins and their pockets are lined with cash.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...