I bet if you’re reading this post right now, you’ve played a remake or a remaster of an old video game at some point in the last 12 months. According to a new survey of 1,500 other players, you’re not alone. A whopping 90 percent of respondents said they’d also played a modern revival of a classic game at some point in the last year. And how could you not? More and more keep coming out all of the time.
The new data point comes from strategy and insights consultancy firm MTM, which this week published its “Remake vs Innovate: Is the past the future of gaming?” report (via Gamesindustry.biz). It interviewed 750 players in the U.S. and 750 in the UK and found the overwhelming majority not only played remakes and remasters, but also often hadn’t played the games they were based on. About 67 percent said it was their preferred way to discover older games, and 85 percent said they’d never played the originals before.
Some other results from the survey:
- Only 26 percent of players thought remakes or remasters could be priced the same as other games or the original versions, with the rest expecting them to be cheaper.
- About 60 percent thought 5-8 years is the ideal amount of time between versions. Only 11 percent thought 10 years or more was preferable.
- Only 31 percent found remasters or remakes “very appealing.”
Trying to layer logic onto the gamer psyche is often a fool’s errand, but the takeaway from this one report at least appears to be that most people are actually okay with updating old games as long as they are 1) not too old and 2) sold for less. Apparently, the Last of Us Part II remaster that most of us mocked is actually exactly what some not insignificant cohort of players really want.
Why we’re about to get more remakes and remasters than ever
While MTM’s report suggests that many players aren’t outraged at the idea of getting spoon-fed old games like they’re new again, the sales success of releases like the Silent Hill 2 remake, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, and Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta: Snake Eater speak for themselves. And it’s easy to see why companies would want to glom onto this opening in the market.
Remakes and remasters can be outsourced (Virtuos handled both Oblivion and Snake Eater), they help plug holes in ever-elongating release schedules (Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 are still nowhere in sight), and they offer newer studio teams a chance to familiarize themselves with a game’s design and development pipeline before jumping onto a new entry from scratch. Pulling the best-selling blockbusters of the past into the present is also one way to avoid the risks of taking a chance on a sequel or new IP.
The results aren’t always cynical, either. Nightdive’s 2023 System Shock remake was a faithful restoration of and update to an immersive sim classic that also made it playable for the first time on consoles. Few had a chance of rediscovering Persona 3 on PS2 or PSP, but last year’s remake showed a whole new generation of players why some fans love it even more than Persona 4 and 5. Remakes and remasters have given no shortage of classic RPGs that might otherwise feel borderline-archaic by today’s standards a second chance thanks to quality-of-life features that let you turn off random encounters or speed up combat.
There are already way too many new games to keep up with. Giving me more reasons to check out an old one feels increasingly like a good thing.
