#Make 👏 AAA Games 👏 Worse

[shinobicyrus]

The existence of demakes fascinate me. So far I’ve encountered demakes of two major games. The first is for Bloodborne, a hugely popular 8-year-old PS4 exclusive constantly surrounded by rumors of a PC port that has yet to materialize.

The other is Dead Space, a fifteen-year-old game that kickstarted a beloved horror franchise that was ultimately destroyed by Electronic Arts‘s mismanaging of it. A game that has also just recently gotten a modern remake.

The two extremes are just so compelling. Remakes of acclaimed games from one or two generations ago are becoming increasingly common in a AAA video game industry that seems more unwilling than ever to commit resources to anything new. Preferring instead to renovate, repackage, and resell titles that have already proven themselves to be successful.

Demakes are similarly based on nostalgia, but instead of modernizing a game, they - by some people’s estimates - make the game visually and technically worse. Rather than modernization, beautification, Demakes are a forced regression to PS1-era graphics, sound design, and controls...but the games are still recognizable.

Though both exist on this nostalgia spectrum, I have a greater admiration for Demakes. No high-fidelity polish, no sanding away the original’s rough edges, no alterations to fit the whims of modern appetites and sensibilities. Instead it strips these things away; a bared skeletal core of mechanics and base aesthetics that are otherwise unpalatable to executives and franchise owners.

Also they're free.

#Video Games #Demakes #Remakes #Video Game Industry #Capitalism #Nostalgia #I want to see more demakes! #The original Halo with 90s graphics! #Dark Souls with painted backgrounds and 3D models with FFVII quality #refuse to buy the 12th port of Skyrim and instead play a Skyrim remake built on Morrowind tech #Make 👏 AAA Games 👏 Worse #Meanwhile Bloodborne fans wait for a PC port like it's Godot