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I really don't understand Microsoft's unwillingness to make remasters/remakes

gladdys

Member
Gears, halo, fable and phantom dust had some love at varying degrees. The backwards compatibility and some improvements there counters the need for remakes to some degree. End of the day, for me, even better graphics don’t beat my nostalgia glasses.
 

dorkimoe

Member
Id take fable remaster for sure. But they cant even get new first party games out, they dont have time to remaster. For some reason they let Rare continue to work on sea of thieves and not put them on something better
 

intbal

Member
There are 72 games that are "X Enhanced" in the BC library.
63 are from OG Xbox and 39 are from Xbox 360.

All of these get increases in resolution, framerate (when not capped), texture filtering, loading speed, and sometimes other areas.
The other 593 X360 games on the BC list can also get these same improvements, though not the boost to 4K resolution.

That's a lot of remasters. And perfectly faithful to the original gameplay, since they're the original games.
 
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THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Basically the headline.

Microsoft had really pitiful 2022 in terms of first-party. There is no denying that. And while 2023 is looking strong with Hi-Fi Rush, Starfield, Redfall, Forza etc. I'm really confused, why is Microsoft so unwilling to make more remasters and remakes.
They have plethora of older games/IPs and remaking them would not cost that much money since they are remakes and can be outsourced to "lesser studios" and more importantly it could fill up Game Pass library in a big way, complementing new game releases.

Why on Earth there is no Halo 3 Anniversary with Blur cutscenes? Why no Fable II remaster/remake? Why there still is not Gears collection with first three games? Why there is no Bajno remake? Or remakes of older Rare games?

I get that Microsoft made all Age games with Definitive Editions. But those are PC oriented franchises and games.

I'm confused, aren't a bunch of these already remasters or remakes?
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
99% of the time the reason companies do remasters is to sell the game to people a second time either because it's not BC or they don't want to make it BC on a console that supports it. All of the MS games you mention are already BC with enhancements.
 

Moses85

Member
They actually have to much exclusives and new franchises they have to release..

Just Kidding Jk GIF
 

Kacho

Member
They’ve done a pretty good job. Probably the best of the big three. We got the Rare collection, Goldeneye, a whole bunch of Xbox/360 games via BC, some that have Xhancements.

Now that they own Bethesda and Obsidian they should definitely revisit New Vegas. That is a game that could use a new coat of paint.
 
99% of the time the reason companies do remasters is to sell the game to people a second time either because it's not BC or they don't want to make it BC on a console that supports it. All of the MS games you mention are already BC with enhancements.
There are 72 games that are "X Enhanced" in the BC library.
63 are from OG Xbox and 39 are from Xbox 360.

All of these get increases in resolution, framerate (when not capped), texture filtering, loading speed, and sometimes other areas.
The other 593 X360 games on the BC list can also get these same improvements, though not the boost to 4K resolution.

That's a lot of remasters. And perfectly faithful to the original gameplay, since they're the original games.

Came to post basically these exact points. BC/Enhanced BC has lessened the need for remasters/remakes. Of course, that then leads to the question, what in the hell are Microsoft first/second party developers doing with their time?
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
we had the Halo remaster, the gears of war remaster. rumours of a gears of war collection coming to. I think people need to move on from so many remakes and want new games
 

NickFire

Member
Talking out of your ass I see. MS is not short of IPs. They are sitting on a lot of good ones, so I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion.
He has a very fair point. But I assume he is talking in more relative terms than literal ones.

What I am getting at is you can't really count Bethesda studios and IP's yet. They have only been an MS asset for a year, already had projects going, and remasters also take time to create. There just hasn't been enough time to make meaningful remasters they were not already developing a year ago. Maybe end of this year or next though. So in the here and now and 2022, to answer OP's question(s) you need to look at where MS was 2-4 years ago. And clearly the studios they already had then were already working on what has come and comes soon. So in that context, what IP is so valuable that MS should have put ongoing work on the still to come games aside for?
 

Riky

$MSFT
we had the Halo remaster, the gears of war remaster. rumours of a gears of war collection coming to. I think people need to move on from so many remakes and want new games

I agree , all these remakes and remasters however nice they look are still bogged down by gameplay designed around ancient hardware.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
You do realise that if you have a xbox one x or series x then you basically get a remastered experience for loading the games up?

The old xbox 360 versions of gears of War is gorgeous.
 

wvnative

Member
Backwards compatibility with enhancements eliminates the need to spend the money on remastering a game, and that effort time and money can be spent on new games.
 

PJX

Member
He has a very fair point. But I assume he is talking in more relative terms than literal ones.

What I am getting at is you can't really count Bethesda studios and IP's yet. They have only been an MS asset for a year, already had projects going, and remasters also take time to create. There just hasn't been enough time to make meaningful remasters they were not already developing a year ago. Maybe end of this year or next though. So in the here and now and 2022, to answer OP's question(s) you need to look at where MS was 2-4 years ago. And clearly the studios they already had then were already working on what has come and comes soon. So in that context, what IP is so valuable that MS should have put ongoing work on the still to come games aside for?
I get what you are saying and I agree about remakes take time. But I quoted the guy who claimed that MS was short in the IP department when that is nonsense.
 
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There's no need because of their masterful work with backwards compatibility and free upgrades for many of those titles like 60 fps ray tracing, VRS, 4k etc etc.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I much prefer MS’ enhanced BC over paid for remasters, although they’re not really doing it anymore. You can play Fable 2 at 4K, just get an old copy of the game and you’re set. Much better.
 

NahaNago

Member
I do like the idea MS enhanced BC but a complete remake can breathe new life in old ips. Even just a remaster can drum up some hype for a old game.
 
Because it doesn't move the industry forward. Remasters, ports, sequels...etc...can only last so long. They need fresh IP's and innovative titles.

Sony will be in a world of hurt soon unless they come up with some new stuff. They can't survive forever on sequels and remasters of Uncharted, Horizon , Last of Us and God of War. All of those sequels were met with middling responses (yes the scores were good but almost everyone says they were all just more of the same...or worse than the original).

Look at the release schedule this year and probably over 75% are sequels, spin offs, ports, remasters or reboots.................It's sad.

Yes we all appreciate MS moving the industry forward through *checks notes* buying studios.
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
Tony Hawk 3/4 eventually fingers crossed only remake I’ll really want. Everything else scales super well with their backwards upgrades.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
I'm not sure why Sony hasn't put out even more remakes of classic titles. Very low risk, leverage nostalgia effect, and take advantage of new tech/hardware. And yes we can have new games also; one doesn't prevent the other.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Some of these remakes together would make me buy an XSX

Lost Odyssey
Brute Force
Advent Rising
Gears of War 2
Banjo Kazooie
Otogi
Halo 3
 
I don’t mind them just relying on BC, but I also feel like remaking some of these old games, like Fable, would be a good exercise for their teams just to get more familiar with those titles and what fans expect.

Just handing stuff like Fable and Perfect Dark to new devs without prior experience making those titles feels risky. Could work out perfectly fine, but I don’t think people would mind quality remakes of past titles and it could result in better sequels.
They already remade Fable.
 
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