Opinion Piece- Is it alright to re-release Video Games?
There's something that's become far too big of a trend in gaming and that's the re-releasing of old video games at the price of new ones. To those of you who aren't familiar, this probably sounds like a massive scam, and to be honest, it kind of is.
Part of the problem with games being re-released is that people buy them. If there's one thing that big companies love, it's things that make money. If things make money, more of them will be made. It's a simple rule. So even if you are against games being re-released, there is not a whole lot you can do. And because these games are making so much money, they're making up about half of the big games released every year. It's killing creativity to a degree that is far above sequels and reboot; at least they try and put in new content.
Now, I'm not against old games being re-released to a new generation. Re-releases have given me the chance to play games I'd otherwise have missed out on like Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64. These are some of the greatest games ever made and because they're getting brought out again, I have the chance to enjoy them. That's what a re-release is for. Unfortunately, most re-releases are now games from the last generation.
In previous console generations, we had backwards compatibility. This meant we could just put discs containing the old games into our new consoles and play them fine. What companies have now done is found a way to charge us for this backwards compatibility. I'm happy to pay for a game from the nineties which has had it's graphics touched up and soundtrack re-recorded. What I'm not happy to do is pay for a game from the year before that has barely been touched before it was rushed out the door in a new dress. Hell, until recently, the highest rated game on PS4 was The Last of Us: Remastered. It came out one year after it's first release. Even if you don't know anything about the gaming industry, you can't ignore how bad that is. It would be like if this year, Guardians of the Galaxy was put back in cinemas with one extra second of Groot talking.
I think that re-releasing games is important. As gamers, we have to know where the games we love today have come from and we should embrace their legacy by playing the classics. What we should not be doing is buying games that we played last year and still own, just because there's a new skin for one side character. That's called daylight robbery.
Part of the problem with games being re-released is that people buy them. If there's one thing that big companies love, it's things that make money. If things make money, more of them will be made. It's a simple rule. So even if you are against games being re-released, there is not a whole lot you can do. And because these games are making so much money, they're making up about half of the big games released every year. It's killing creativity to a degree that is far above sequels and reboot; at least they try and put in new content.
Now, I'm not against old games being re-released to a new generation. Re-releases have given me the chance to play games I'd otherwise have missed out on like Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64. These are some of the greatest games ever made and because they're getting brought out again, I have the chance to enjoy them. That's what a re-release is for. Unfortunately, most re-releases are now games from the last generation.
In previous console generations, we had backwards compatibility. This meant we could just put discs containing the old games into our new consoles and play them fine. What companies have now done is found a way to charge us for this backwards compatibility. I'm happy to pay for a game from the nineties which has had it's graphics touched up and soundtrack re-recorded. What I'm not happy to do is pay for a game from the year before that has barely been touched before it was rushed out the door in a new dress. Hell, until recently, the highest rated game on PS4 was The Last of Us: Remastered. It came out one year after it's first release. Even if you don't know anything about the gaming industry, you can't ignore how bad that is. It would be like if this year, Guardians of the Galaxy was put back in cinemas with one extra second of Groot talking.
I think that re-releasing games is important. As gamers, we have to know where the games we love today have come from and we should embrace their legacy by playing the classics. What we should not be doing is buying games that we played last year and still own, just because there's a new skin for one side character. That's called daylight robbery.
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