10 Reasons The Video Game Industry Is Heading For Another Crash
4. Too Many Re-Releases
It started with Tomb Raider and her hair. Then no-one was surprised when Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of Us - widely regarded as two of the greatest games of the last generation - were updated and brought to Xbox One and PS4, despite both being less than two years old.
Next came Halo: The Master Chief Collection, which despite its bug-filled rollout, was exactly the sort of thing that should get re-released.
But then, the deluge started. What followed was a whole list of games that weren’t that popular on the Xbox 360 and PS3, so why bring them to the new consoles? It has gotten so absurd that The Game Awards have introduced a “Best Remaster” category.
It’s about time the games industry called this trend for what it actually is: monetised backwards compatibility. A big deal was made about the lack of this feature for the new generation, but here it is - so long as you are willing to pay £50 for each game you already own. Once again this poor output leads to lower than expected sales, because who in their right mind wants to pay close to full retail price for a game they either already own and have experienced, or could go purchase on an old console for a tenth of the cost?
At least the independent companies are still releasing original games. Except that...