Hello again gamers.

It’s Meck again on newsletter duty.

Did you notice some slight changes? For now, we’re branding this newsletter as “Previously On Gamer Matters” to highlight its main purpose, to catch you on the going-ons of gaming and the gaming industry.

Table of Contents

• …But FIRST

  • Playing (And Buying) The Same Games Again

• The NEWS From Last Week

• Game Reviews?

…But FIRST

Playing (And Buying) The Same Games Again

I’ve been playing a lot of new games that are technically old games (👀). And I believe earlier this month, the gaming discourse took a turn to re-examine video game remakes and remasters? Why do we keep doing this?

It’s worth a ponder. On the sceptic side of the argument, remakes and remasters are just an excuse for game publishers with legacy to rehash a familiar idea and sell to us fans again. How are we as an entertainment medium move forward if we kept on looking and bringing up past glories? Silent Hill 2 is a masterpiece of a survival horror title, why didn't we get a new whole new bold entry but instead we get Silent Hill 2 remade again?

(There is a brand-new Silent Hill game, free even. It was not good from what I’ve heard. And hey, despite the heavy scepticism by fans Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake turned out fine.)

But on the other side of the argument, how else can we move forward as an entertainment medium if we refuse to remember and learn from the past?

There are generations of new and younger gamers who haven’t had experience games from the last seven generations of consoles, as all of those games can’t run on a PS4 or a PS5 unless it’s being remade, remastered or at the very least ported.

The eighth generation of consoles (PS4, Xbox One, Switch) really is a turning point as these consoles changed to a new architecture of hardware which rendered it being not backwards compatible with games from past consoles.

This was the first domino that dropped that lead us to the proliferation of remakes and remasters in video games. And with the spiraling costs of AAA game development, remakes and remasters are sure-fire hits (unless they somehow turned out to be worse than the original source material, see GTA: The Trilogy- The Definitive Edition).

Personally, I think remakes and remasters have a place in the current games market. I wouldn’t have discovered Romancing SaGa 2 if the new remake didn’t exist. Reading the features list, it is chocked-full of fascinating gameplay mechanics yet the original game was from 31 years ago!

But let’s draw a line on what is an acceptable remake/remaster is. At the very least that game has to be two generations apart. A “remaster” of a PS4 game should just be a free update.

If the effort is worth charging money for, maybe wait a whole console generation first where we all get nostalgic. Nostalgia is what makes fans willing to shell out money to play and buy the same games again.

I genuinely love Guerrilla’s Horizon games, but seven years is not long enough for people longing to play and buy Horizon Zero Dawn again for a PS5 remaster, especially when millions of gamers are still gaming on a PS4.

The NEWS From Last Week

• Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii gets its release day bumped a week earlier to February 21, 2025 because the devs at RGG Studio “wanted you to play the game that comes after it with peace of mind.”

  • Pirate Yakuza isn’t sharing a release date with Monster Hunter Wilds anymore, but February 2025 remains packed with big game releases including Civilization VII, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Avowed and the recently delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

• Interest in Destiny rising on mobile devices with the announcement of Destiny Rising, a mobile game developed and published by NetEase Games with Bungie’s approval.

  • Age Of Empires also has a mobile version and it’s out now, this one developed by TiMi Studios (Level Infinite (Tencent)).

• Not one, not two but three new studios have announced by ex-ZA/UM developers, each making a spiritual successor to Disco Elysium. Well, one of them made a website to let their wordsmiths spit fire, and the fire is as hot as an eternal summer.

  • (Random: a video that goes harder with Disco Elysium music playing)

• Gamescom Asia happened last weekend. In one of the many biz talks, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden laments the loss of the AA video games and the current state of AAA games.

  • “Today, the entry costs for making a AAA game is in triple digit millions now… We're seeing a collapse of creativity in games today [with] studio consolidation and the high cost of production."

  • Speaking of Gamescom Asia, the folks at Virtual SEA has a list of participating indie games (including some made here in Southeast Asia) as part of the Indie Wavemakers showcase.

Game Reviews?

Gamer Matters has a few hot new reviews coming later this week. ( 👀 )

Hope your Tuesday so far is going well as a bouncing Toyota Yaris. And if you like what we’re doing how about sharing the newsletter by forwarding it to your friends and colleagues? One email couldn’t hurt.

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Play games and have fun,

—Meck and the Gamer Matters Team