With the announcement of the new The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD Wii U bundle, the Roundtable turns its cannons onto an emerging trend within the gaming industry.
This week Gary, Ernesto, Lui, Reilly, and Stephanie discuss the pros and cons of the recent influx of HD Remakes/HD Re-releases of games that seem to be saturating the market.
On one hand, it is awesome to see fan favorite games popping up again. Whether the old system has become obsolete, developers have added new content, or gamers just want some good old-fashioned nostalgia, these games have made a solid and vocal niche in the market very happy.
This group of gamers are speaking with their wallets as well. Multiple Kickstarters have been launched and completely funded with the promise of seeing old favorites on the screen again. Many games have appeared on online market places which allow gamers to find and download these retro games with ease, and without needing a brand new emulator.
For example, Nintendo has been on the forefront re-releases, transferring many older games to newer systems, or their Wii U emulator which re-releases older games at very fair prices, ranging anywhere from 30 cents to ~$4-5 for other classic titles.
Unfortunately, all this good news comes at a price. A full title price, to be precise. Some games that are relatively new, are being re-released at the price of new release titles. Many with little to no discernible new content apart from updated graphics.
Gamers have been quick to call out these developers as either milking a franchise, or merely using it as an easy paycheck from devoted fan bases. Games that haven’t even broken 5 or 10 year anniversaries are seeing HD releases or bundles at outrageous prices.
Many feel that their passion and loyalty are being taken advantage through cheap re-releases of popular games. Others argue that these HD remakes offer something new, or bring old games back into popularity.
It is still a divisive topic, that has many gamers arguing with more than just their wallets. Chime in below in the comments. Do you think HD remakes are good or have they become a pain?
Thanks for watching! Next week we will talk about the cinematic masterpieces that are video game movies!
(This week’s write up brought to you by the lovely man in the thumbnail, Lui.)
