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Because they just release the same game over and over again, see Battlefield Hardline.
I'm not making a statement that "remaster slows down a studio's rate of output in a significant way". I'm saying that it is a popular treatment for the year. New titles are sparse from my perspective, and people seem very interested in buying the games they had before, again, and in my opinion most of these have relatively minor additions not worthy of another purchase - but hey I'm one person who is predominantly a PC player, so I guess maybe that why I see it that way. That is my perspective and my opinion on what I see from this forum. Your mileage may vary
"Remaster" implies some level of improvement though.
Uh no. Porting is not an 8 week thing as a project. Getting 3 big games running? Fine, if you think so. Getting them marketed, rated, released, licensed, and set for retailer and digital distribution? Months.
The original Tomb Raider dev said they collaborated on the remaster with the porting studio since just after the original release. The Last of Us supposedly took nearly the whole year as well and was actually confirmed nearly four months ahead of release. And those were single games with much less DLC.
Just because they get announced on shorter notice due to less need for their marketing cycle, doesn't mean they are a snap to throw into sale.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
This is kind of in the realm of what I am thinking about. If a remaster is just a constitution of "upping the graphics a notch or two", it seems banal to me and certainly not worth my time or money IF I already own the game. So far these games simply seem to mostly be moving the game across to a new platform with the most minimal of "remastering" to be worth while. There is a lot more that could be done or explored here. That is why right now, I am far more interested in new content. GTA V is an example that contradicts this but such games are few and far between.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
I'm not making a statement that "remaster slows down a studio's rate of output in a significant way". I'm saying that it is a popular treatment for the year. New titles are sparse from my perspective, and people seem very interested in buying the games they had before, again, and in my opinion most of these have relatively minor additions not worthy of another purchase - but hey I'm one person who is predominantly a PC player, so I guess maybe that why I see it that way. That is my perspective and my opinion on what I see from this forum. Your mileage may vary
You said that we're getting remasters instead of new content.
The possible scenarios are:
1. Remasters are using up resources and therefore new content cannot be made.
2. There were not a lot of new games ready for release this year, so remasters were put out to fill the gap.
2 is a harmless situation. I don't see a lot of proof for 1.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
Hell yeah !
A Strike Series Remaster Collection .. 1080p/60.
Just fucking include emulated Sega roms and HD-ified Soviet and Nuclear strike !
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
Mirror's Edge
That remastered Madden was probably the best sports game this year.
Several things. Porting PC assets over to PS4/X1 is not a huge undertaking. 8 weeks is possible and doable. The key words are PC assets, which the unreal games can draw from.
The Last of Us is a totally different case. Totally different. It was a game that took advantage of every single nook and cranny of the PS3 which uses a radically different architecture than the PS4 and therefore porting was a much bigger undertaking. Much bigger.
In regards to marketing, a trilogy re-release is not going to get heavy marketing since it's not going to be a massive seller unless it's a big ticket item to a recent hit like The Last of US and/or GTA. Those games are barely a year old and still fresh on people's minds. A Mass Effect re-release does not fall into that category and would not need near the months of prep to release. The last Mass Effect game came out in 2012, almost 3 years ago.
Tomb Raider, GTA:V and The Last of Us all had additional work done outside of porting, which changed things, but one thing they did have in common is that the release date was actually announced for these things within two months of the actual release. Tomb Raiders existence was not even acknowledged until about two months before.
Here is what I would wager to bet is going on. 100% speculation on my part.
Here goes:
Bioware has already been greenlit to re-release the ME trilogy and work is going on and/or currently been done. I would imagine the green light was given before Aaryn responded to shinobi's tweet several months ago. I suspect that Aaryn showing up in the ME thread was more of a formality to announce it without actually announcing it.
I wouldn't be surprised if work on it is close to completion and they announce a release date for it within two months of it actually getting released. I also would not be surprised if it was released a few months before ME4 to easily co-market the two. "ME4 coming this holiday. Re-live the classic trilogy in the mean time."
But whatever. Shinobi is totally free to tell me I am full of it.
please
please please please please please
I'll buy 5. I seriously will buy 5.
You are kidding yourself if you think any of the remasters get done in 8 weeks after being greenlit, let alone 3 huge games and DLC that need testing on more than one system. Distribution and marketing do indeed still need to happen, regardless of the game's age. Doesn't matter how old they are. They are not going to get a Beyoncé stealth release with no attempt to tell its audience that it has been developed.
I don't know where you are getting this 8 weeks figure besides yourself. And it is irrelevant to keep stating when remasters get announced. That has no bearing on how long they were planned and prepared. So far, the indication is that they are in development and then pre-release for many months, contrary to your expectations.
New titles are sparse from your perspective? This is one of the most ridiculous comments I have seen in a while.
Destiny
Shadows of Mordor
Alien Isolation
Evil Within
Sunset Overdrive
Assassins Creed Unity
Farcry 4
Dragon Age Inquisition
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare
LittleBigPlanet 3
All of those are NEW games. 10 new games. This is why I can't take anyone who whines about remasters seriously. During that time frame you had Halo MCC and GTAV get re-released, which means you have a 5:1 ratio of new to old in the past several months.
So please enlighten me how this "new titles are sparse" argument holds up. If not one single one of those titles holds your interest then I'm very curious to hear what your interests would be.
8 weeks is the time they could do the port using PC assets. I am not saying 8 weeks is the time needed from greenlight to distribution. I am saying that if porting work was started today it could be done in 8 weeks. Porting done in 8 weeks.
Then there would be distribution/marketting etc.
So yes, they are planned for many months, but the actual time spent on the project is short. My info came from someone who has experience doing ports.
If someone who has actual experience and can refute my claim I will happily own up to it. Nevertheless, I maintain that a game that has PC assets can be ported to an X1/PS4 in about 8 weeks. If it only has PS3/360/Wii assets it will take longer.
I haven't explained this very well. I mean new titles like some you have listed - such as Shadows of Mordor, Alien Isolation, Evil Within and Sunset Overdrive; Rather than Assassin's Creed X or Call of Duty X. And yes, I see that as pretty sparse. Sorry. I get that it is "the new gen" and that is to be expected and is probably plentiful choice for some, but I also see a lot of interest in getting remasters of older titles above something new and different.
Yet, those still outnumber the number of remasters....
Cos it defeats the purpose of annualised franchises.
8 weeks is the time they could do the port using PC assets. I am not saying 8 weeks is the time needed from greenlight to distribution. I am saying that if porting work was started today it could be done in 8 weeks. The time from being greenlit to porting would obviously vary from studio to studio and/or availability of studio that specializes in porting.
Then there would be distribution/marketting etc.
So yes, they are planned for many months, but the actual time spent on the project is short. My info came from someone who has experience doing ports.
If someone who has actual experience and can refute my claim I will happily own up to it. Nevertheless, I maintain that a game that has PC assets can be ported to an X1/PS4 in about 8 weeks. If it only has PS3/360/Wii assets it will take longer.
8 weeks for what though? You are not even naming a project example. 8 weeks for a porting project this size? Like a team of 15 people? Or 50? 3 different versions of unreal engine? There's just a wild ton of factors so you can't just throw out 8 weeks.
I'm dying to replay Mass Effect, but the remaster needs to come to pc -- I just don't have the patience for another round of clumsy xpadder control and hacks for FOV etc.
Wouldn't you be happy if they just patched in controller support. That was something I explicitly suggested to Aaryn Flynn when he posted in that thread and he said he would look into it.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.
While the other major studios have large libraries of ports and remasters, EA's is almost non-existent. This leaves little hope for a Mass Effect Trilogy on current gen.
Why isn't EA doing remasters when everyone else is?
There is so much wrong with this post.1) They make less money. People that play games once (quite a large amount of people) and already played it will not buy it again.
2) They have annual franchises. You cannot sell remakes of games where each annual or bi-annual successor, is deemed as worse than an earlier iteration. It's the same reason you won't see a Black Ops 2 or COD4 remakes, because to do so implies they maintain value for the player, and an annual franchise model exists and functions on the basis that each new game is superior to the last, otherwise people stop buying them.
3) Bad press. Remastering old games is not good publicity. It shows a sparsity of new products, a gap in products, or a lack of original ideas. Keeping in mind that companies make remasters to make money, not because we all really liked that particular game.
Grimløck;141265261 said:they remaster madden every year.