There is a growing trend in the gaming industry. Companies are taking their previous games from previous consoles and remastering them and re-releasing them for an unfair amount of money.

This trend started to pick up steam once next generation consoles, such as Xbox One and PS4, were released. These gaming companies appear to take their previous games and revamp their graphics and maybe add a slight amount of content. They then re-release the game for usually around $40, which is $20 less than full price for major titles. This recycling of content is a genius idea to get at gamers wallets a second and third time for games they have already made.

This trend is draining the life out of the gaming industry.

On the upside, these remastered games give us a chance to relive our old favorites and wallow in the wonderful nostalgia.

A good example that is a little dated is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. This game’s release marked the 10-year anniversary of the very first Halo game. It was $40 and featured a new content with stunning new graphics that could be switched between with the old retro graphics for extra nostalgia.

This was a more reasonable and acceptable example of a remastered game. It was apparent the developers put a lot of effort into making it good. This is great, but most of the newer examples of this are not like this.

Most of the new remastered games feature very little content difference. A popular example of this is Skyrim: Special Edition. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was one of the most well received and universally loved games ever created. It was released on last gen. consoles in 2011.

The game was pretty much a carbon copy of the original with very marginally better graphics and no added content. The closest attempt to an addition of content is that they added mod capabilities which are fan made and require no effort on the developers and should be there anyway.

Their previous title, Oblivion, was also fan favorite but less of a smash hit than Skyrim. It was older, clunkier and could have used a remaster much more than Skyrim, but Bethesda chose Skyrim because they knew it would make more money.

Bethesda also pushed back the release of their next game most likely because they were too focused on remastering Skyrim and coming out with app games. This shows that these remastered games and other of these shallow money-making schemes are taking away from the production of new content and games.

These are only a few examples and remastered games are a dime a dozen. So why are these companies dropping what they are doing and remastering their games? The short answer, in my opinion, is because they care more about money than they do their fans.