Numerous Starcraft fans worldwide look forward to 'Starcraft Remastered', which will be released this summer. Some experts predict another wave of e-sport fanaticism. Unveiled in 1998, Starcraft has been loved especially in Korea and news about a re-made version surely excited many fans in the nation.
So, what has been remastered? Remastering means improving image, detail, or sound quality. It can be applied to movies, games, and even songs. Advent of remastered games can be explained by change of game consoles such as PS3 to PS4 and companies' sales strategy (stated below). If a game is remastered, it must have better graphics and music. It might also provide dubbing in various languages for users around the world.
For example, 'Age of Empires HD edition', 'Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition', and 'Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection' were typical remastered games of great qualities which were loved by many players. Their successes are due to bug amendments, improved graphics, better story details, and player-friendly environments. However, 'The Elder Scrolls 5: Special Edition', 'The Last of Us: Remastered' were criticized for bugs and only improvements in graphics. As time passes by, users started to want more than just graphic improvements. Because of satisfaction and affection to existing model, they expect overall improvements in detail, bugs, graphics and music. Therefore, companies nowadays should be careful to certainly improve overall quality when they remaster.
There are two reasons for companies to remaster existing games. First, they pick renowned, popular one for remastering which has many loyal fans. By doing this, there is little risk of failure. Many await 'Diablo 2' and 'Warcraft 3.' Next, compared to developing a completely new game, remastering requires a lot less effort, cost, and time. Companies do not have to fully concentrate on marketing owing to sincere fans and have to pay only for enhanced graphics and music. Furthermore, if the business goes wrong, companies just lose the part of capital. However, when people love re-made version, it is a big hit.
After emergence of smart phones, mobile games now hold a dominant position over PC games. Consumers enjoy mobile games for portability accessibility. It costs less to produce, takes less time, and the rewards are immediate to the developer. To sum up, it is much harder to make new online games than before. That is why game companies remaster games.
Despite great successes of these re-made games, some disagree with the trends of game industry. They say if game firms settle for yesterday’s success, the future of PC gaming is bleak. Therefore, companies should make innovative, new games that have the power to stir the game field up. In other words, to bring the glory of PC game once again, novel and astonishing PC games should be developed rather than remastered ones.