There are many reasons to remake or remaster a proven video game, but there is a limit to the number of Sony remakes and remasters Play station games that players really want or need. Even a large and successful company like Sony and its PS games division, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), is limited in the amount of high-quality content it can produce annually, so any additional remake or remaster of an existing game comes at the cost of the potential to work on an original title. While players watch the recent remake of The last of us part 1 – doesn’t get on the heels of other remakes/remasters for long, including Spider Man, Ghost of Tsushimaand uncharted 4, the latter legacy of thieves collection set to release on PC in October 2022 – rumors are rolling in that SIE is planning a Horizon Zero Dawn remake for the PS5, igniting anger at what is demanded and what is lost in exchange for yet another remake.
The concepts are often used interchangeably, but while a game remaster uses updated technologies to provide an existing game with visual and sound improvements, bug fixes, and other tweaks, a remake takes an older game and rebuilds it from the ground up. While remakes are typically more comprehensive than remasters and may include new gameplay and story elements, both remasters and remakes leave the core aspects of the original game intact. Seasoned players of PlayStation games recreated or remastered (including games not available on PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium in 2022) should decide whether the game changes are extensive enough to warrant a second purchase. Motivations can be a desire to experience a familiar story in a heightened visual format and replay a game on the latest console. Either way, players of a remake or remaster will encounter a game whose basic elements may already be known, rather than experiencing a whole new world with a new story, missions, and characters.
Horizon Zero Dawn is a great game, but just five years after its original release, players may be wondering if the need for a remake/remaster is so urgent. After all, a sequel Horizon Forbidden West, was released earlier in 2022 for the PS5, and now – as first reported by MP1st and confirmed by VGC – it looks like a remake or remaster of the first game is on the way. An audience for one Horizon Zero Dawn remake or remaster must exist, otherwise SIE wouldn’t go to the trouble and expense of making it; and for new or otherwise gifted players, the remake/remaster may indeed be welcome. But for other long-term fans of the PlayStation and its games, the remake/remaster of yet another well-known title feels frustrating and unnecessary. Bored of reruns and asked to pay full price for a game that came out just five years ago? The cost of a new remake is high, both literally and figuratively, and experienced players may refuse to carry it.
Does Horizon Zero Dawn need a remake?
Originally released for the PS4 in 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn is an action RPG developed by Guerrilla Games and published by SIE. Players control Aloy as she ventures through a post-apocalyptic world filled with voracious mechanical monsters, trying to unravel the mystery of who she is and what happened to her world. Equipped with legendary weapons and armor in Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy is an excellent fighter, warrior and mechanic, and a thrilling protagonist. Since its release, the game has sold some 20 million copies, making it one of the best-selling PS4 games of all time.
Such success is certainly a factor in SIE’s decision to remake/remaster the game (the full re-release has not been announced at the time of writing). With so many players who have never experienced Horizon Zero Dawn in all the visual glory of the PS5, and having recently played the sequel in that format, there are probably plenty of players willing to pay a premium to (re)play the original on modern technology. The remake/remaster would feature visual and sound upgrades that would align it with the sequel, Horizon Forbidden Westincluding new character models, animations, better textures and improved lighting, which could improve continuity by showing how Aloy’s character changed from Horizon Zero Dawn.
Gameplay improvements would include unspecified quality of life improvements that were included in the sequel. Perhaps most importantly, the remaster/remake will also include accessibility options that were also part of the sequel, but not in the original game. There are also rumors that an online, multiplayer spin-off of the Horizon series may be forthcoming, but whether that will be part of the remake/remaster or something else entirely is yet to be confirmed.
For those for whom such things can determine their ability to enjoy a game (and for those who want a solution to the largest Horizon Zero Dawn problem, that Forbidden West unaddressable), a remake/remaster will certainly be welcome. For others, the upgraded game will be of little interest, especially if it follows the pricing model used for TLOU Part 1 and will be sold for the same full retail price as a brand new game. That pricing adds to SIE’s motivation to revisit a proven title – even a full remake costs less to develop than a brand new game, and profits grow if both sell for the same retail price. But there are other hidden costs for players, including those who choose not to buy the remake/remaster.
Old PlayStation titles trade creativity for technical brilliance
Again, there are many good reasons to remake/remaster a game. Remakes preserve older titles for history and use new technology to improve on titles that didn’t reach their full potential on an older platform (as was done with FF7 and his better Japanese voice acting). Remakes can expose new audiences to familiar games, especially if the games being remade are older classics that can’t be played on current consoles. And fans of remakes can enjoy old stories with the most current images, sounds and refresh rates.
But what is not measured herein is what is being sacrificed in exchange for the current onslaught of well-known, profitable remakes and remasters. There are still thousands of new titles released every year, so there’s no shortage of video games to play, on PlayStation and elsewhere. But how many of those games are really good and worth the investment players have to make to play them? If the best studios and publishers are investing too much in niche markets and remakes, where can players look for the best, most original content? why not one Horizon Forbidden West continued, a Forbidden Dawn prequel, or something new, rather than a return to trodden ground? As much as players enjoy rediscovering a familiar world with beloved characters, people play video games for the discovery, challenge, and excitement of the new. With every old game that Sony and Play station remake, another new discovery can be put on hold, leaving a new challenge, and players can only hope that they will eventually see the light of day. That might be worth paying full price for.
Sources: MP1st, VGC, Hermen Hulst/Twitter
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