Extra Credits

A Generation of Remasters - Welcome Updates or Troubling Omens (2015x30)

Air date: Aug 05, 2015

Making new content is expensive, time-consuming, and risky. Many publishers have fallen back on remastering their previous games, where they only need to upscale the graphics and can rely on an existing fanbase to buy the game again. This risk averse approach to publishing has led the current generation of consoles to be dominated by remasters instead of new AAA titles. Remasters can make old games more accessible, but recently they've been focused on simply updating last gen games that many people could still easily play. But truly old titles have become so out-of-date that any remaster would require the game to be built from the ground up, as we're seeing right now with the Final Fantasy VIII remake, and cost just as much as a brand new game. Despite the trend of games being remastered, then, many classic games are actually being ignored.