Summary
- Remakes tend to lead to either nothing or a remake of the sequel.
- We need new ideas and creative direction back in games.
- Pretty soon there will be nothing left to remake.
Last year, when the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dead Space remake was well-received but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:ultimatelyꦕ led to the series being re-abandoned, I mused as to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:what exactly the point of these rema🔴kes was. To make money, sure, but then part of the problem is they don't make that much money because their audience seems mostly limited to people who played it the first time around. As I look ahead to the upcoming slate, the domination of remakes becomes more confusing and m꧅ore disillusioning.
I've never bought the belief that remakes allow studios to test the waters for making future games. You know how popular Dead Space is. You have the sales data from the first time around. It was a decent cult hit, you ruined it with 3, and then you killed it off. Reports at the time suggested ♒that if the Dead Space remake had been a suc♚cess (what level of sales that required is unclear), it would have been followed by a Dead Space 2 remake. Hardly exciting stuff.
Fans Deserve New Games, Not Old Ones Reskinned
I complained about all of this at the time, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:as did my colleague Jade King. We've been there and done that. Remakes just lead to more remakes and it's hard to get excited for that. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dead Rising is back! Except, is it? Or are they just 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:maki💫ng its corpse dance around for money? Is anything worthwhile going to come of this, or will its success just lead to Dead Rising 2 being remade? Wow, they're gonna make a game I already own and charge me again for it, it's like G⛎amer Christmas!
I'm just as big a sucker for this as the rest of you. When it's a game I like, I'm curious to see the changes. I'm also a little insulated from the whole 'being charged twice' deal as I often review these games or otherwise get sent codes, and even when these codes go elsewhere at TheGamer, the fact I can write about these remakes justifies the purchase. I understand the impulse to go '168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Lollipop Chainsaw! I liked that game! Can't wai🎀t to play it again!', but I can't help but feel 🌄we need to move on.
Yes, the prospect of playing an updated Lollipop Chainsaw with the irritants and foibles (many of which have dissolved in 🦹my nostalgia) is enticing, but wouldn't a totally new game be bet🃏ter all around? Sure, sometimes sequels suck. But sometimes remakes suck! You ever played Silent Hill HD Collection, which is neither a complete collection nor particularly HD? Ever seen the Nicolas Cage Wicker Man? The safety of remakes is what holds them back, and new entries should always take priority, despite the greater risk of going wrong.
2024 Is Full Of Remakes
As you can see above, this year has been crammed with remakes already, and several more are on the way. That's not even all of them. Occasionally remakes can transform themselves into new games (like the three-game retelling of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil's restructuring of its past hits, most successfully with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Resident Evil 4), but mostly they're just spinning their wheels, making just enough of their money back from fans who already played the game years ago to justify their own existence, then heading back into hibওernation.
It's clear studios don't really know what to do with their old games. Jet Set and Crazy Taxi are both set fo🏅r true remakes, as well 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:as online MMO reimaginings. Why not just make a proper game? Both of these ideas scream insecurity - Sega is clearly unsure how profitable these titles can be, so is milking nostalgia with a remake and Hail Marying the game into the cash generator genre in the hopes it stays spinnin💞g long enough to make a quick buck. Fans might get excited for a remake and be prepared to hold their nose to try an MMO, but no one really wants this. All they want is a new game. Make one.
This is not rocket science. If you ask the fans of any series what they want, they'll say 'a new game'. They might flock to buy remakes (though as the Dead Space sales figures seem to prove, that flocking may be below projections), but every fan sees a remake as a consolation prize. It's nice that the series is still getting games, and that old classics will look - and maybe play - better than ever. But no one's𒅌 wishlist includes their favourite game from childhood, now in Unreal Engine 5 and yours for just $70! ($120 for the Collector's Edition).
Remakes are fine but there are too many and we're running out of things to remake. Games are also getting too big to be reliably remade in the future, so leaning on remakes is a short-term strategy. We need new games, whether that's sequels or completely new ideas. Remakes don't sell as well as you hope the𒆙y would and we don't like them as much as we thought we would. Let's all move on.
