Remakes and remasters are a contentious topic in the gaming industry. The two prevailing points of view are ‘Why not remake or remaster a great old game so we can enjoy it once again, this time with new and better technology?’ and ‘Companies shouldn’t waste resources on games that are old and gone, they need to spend time and money making new games.’

Of course, neither school of thought is completely right or completely wrong. That’s why we want to hear what you have to say on the matter. Let us know in the comments, in our discord channel, or on any of our social media platforms. Do you think remakes are good for gaming? .

Now for my opinion on the matter.

First and foremost, the link between nostalgia and sales is undoubtedly a strong factor in the remake saga. Nostalgia is a strong sales technique and a studio’s primary job is to make games that sell.

Like it or not, the gaming industry is a business. If studios don’t make money, there is no gaming. Now that’s not to say that sales is the only factor that studios take into consideration when building a game, but it is a vital piece of the puzzle.

Remakes sell, it’s a fact. Good remakes have really good sales, but even bad remakes sell relatively well. They’re a safe bet and an easy opportunity for studios to make some extra money.

I enjoy remakes. I don’t love the idea of resources being pulled from a new and unique game and reallocated to a remake, but there’s no denying that I enjoy playing a good remake. That makes it hard for me to argue that they’re a bad thing for the industry, but there are two things about them that need to be kept in check.

First of all, a remake should not cost the same as a new game. Unless they rebuilt it from the ground up, it takes considerably less time and effort to make a remake than to make a new game. Titles need to be priced accordingly.

Second, remakes need to be produced sparingly. So far, studios have been relatively good about this. Modern Warfare and Crash Bandicoot were both good games that received excellent remakes/remasters. However, you can see how this could have a snowball effect, where developers might turn the whole thing into an even bigger money-grab by trying to slap some updated graphics on any old title and calling it a day. The market would become over saturated in no time and quality would go way down. More importantly, it would bring production of new ideas to a standstill.

And that brings me to my true feelings on the issue. So long as remakes don’t get in the way of producing new ideas, I’m all for them. However, innovation and new thinking is one of the things that make the gaming industry so great. The moment those things are lost is the moment the gaming industry begins to die.