How remakes and remasters have rejuvenated the UK games industry

Nostalgia is a powerful attribute, and that’s been no more prevalent in gaming these last few years.

Remakes, remasters and sequels to games thought long forgotten have been a big boon to the industry, where new entries have not only brought back old fans, but brought in new ones, and in turn, introducing them to the other entires from long ago.

Thanks to this report by Mobiles, their research has shown that remasters and remakes are here to stay, and could be a pillar for the industry for many generations to come.

Let’s go through it and see just what it means for next-gen consoles too.

Remakes are the new AAA

Crash Bandicoot, Resident Evil, Dark Souls and now Mario have seen remasters and remakes be abound in their releases these last few years. Resident Evil 2 is a remake to the 1998 original, which was received to wide acclaim, and Crash Bandicoot is seeing a resurgence after the N-Sane Trilogy, and soon, a fourth entry to follow on from the Naughty Dog entries.

The Resident Evil 2 remaster certainly spiked the interest of gamers, and keywordtools.io shows a huge 49% increase in search volume over the past 12 months alone.

The report from ‘Mobiles’ goes into great detail on the sales and trends of the last few years, such as Pokémon Go, Candy Crush and even Sonic for mobile devices.

Remasters are essentially a port of the existing game, but with redone assets and in a much higher resolution than before. Case in point, the ‘Mario 3D All Stars’ collection coming on Friday is a great example of this.

Native widescreen for Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy, alongside better textures for the HUD and other aspects in Mario 64 to look much better in 1080P on the Switch.

READ MORE: Confirmed; Mario 3D All Stars is coming to the Switch!

Too much of a good thing

We are in an age where we can harken back to the games of our past. If you look to ‘Indie Game The Movie’, the interviewees spoke of growing up with the NES and Macintosh as gaming influences. But ten years on, the next generation of nostalgia is firmly in the public consciousness. Sonic, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot are now the brands that have shaped many careers out of gamers from the mid-nineties.

”Stats from Gamasutra which measure worldwide sales up until 2003, show the first Crash Bandicoot game alone sold around 6.8 million units, while US figures show the second instalment Cortext Strikes Back sold 3.85 million units and the third, Warped, sold 3.74 million. While worldwide success of the originals is predicted to be higher, this remaster has certainly been a resounding success not just in the UK, but across the globe.”

As the above from the report shows, there will always be a growing demand for the franchises of the past. Whether if its in a sequel, a remaster or a remake, people want to feel like they did from back in the day. That feeling of collecting the first ‘Wampa Fruit’, or trying to open a door with the wrong key so Lara Croft can say ‘No.’, it’s all about rediscovering that feeling again.

With the next-generation of consoles looming, it will be up to the fans to discover what other brands and entries they want to play again, but with different eyes, and different resolutions.

READ MORE: What would a 35th Zelda Anniversary look like?