Lots of good points here. Re-releases are obviously selling well or there wouldn't be so many of them. GTA V was one of the top selling games on PS4/Xbox One and still charts in the top 10 NPD numbers.
People clearly want them so they can't be unnecessary.
Well first off, I don't think we can classify GTA V PS4/One edition as true re-releases. Those were in development in parallel with the last gen versions, and since it came out so late in the last gen life cycle many people held off buying knowing that either A: It would come out on current gen, or B: If it didn't they'd be able to get it at a significant discount.
And it isn't so much a case that re-releases are obviously selling well and are thus successful. It's that re-releases don't HAVE to sell well in order to be successful. In most cases, the cost of porting a last gen game to current gen is incredibly small compared to a completely new game. Whereas modern "AAA" games need to sell millions of copies to be profitable, you have to sell a fraction of a typical remastering in order to be profitable. And as I said, a good number of remasters are completely unnecessary in the sense that to me, a remaster means you bring something really new to the table. I don't consider an HD version of a last gen game to be a true remastering. To me it just screams of "We have an easy way to make money and continue to milk people due to lack of backwards compatibility."
Take for example an older game of what would be considered a remastering in the case of Lunar: The Silver Star. Lunar was a Final Fantasy style turn based RPG that came out on the Sega CD. It's considered one of the best games in the entire Sega CD library (and one of my favorites) but since it came out on the Sega CD, not a lot of people played it, and because of hardware limitations, a lot of corners had to be cut to make the game a reality. Fast forward a few years and then we have Lunar: The Silver Star Story Complete on the PlayStation. This game had better graphics, sound, video, and the story length was increased so that it could be told in its entirety. Not only that, but the packaging for the game was great. You got 2 game discs, a making of documentary, a soundtrack, a nice hard covered instruction manual with glossy full colored pages, and a cloth map. Here's my copy (lost the soundtrack apparently):
They did a similar thing for Lunar 2 as well, coming out on Sega CD then re-mastered with a nice set for PS1.
I'm not saying that ALL remasters of last gen games are useless, but to me, unless your remake is bringing something tangibly new or enhances the experience significantly, it doesn't serve much of a purpose other than generating money and taking advantage of our non-backwards compatibility world. I guess TLoU can be defended in that it was a console exclusive and not EVERYONE that has a PS4 had a PS3, but there is NO reason for games like Dishonored: Definitive Edition to exist when ALL it is is enhanced graphics and DLC. Hell it doesn't even run at 60 FPS, and is more expensive than its (superior) PC counterpart. Or the Prototype remakes, which are given better graphics but perform worse than they did on last gen. Like I said, I prefer remasters that truly bring you a better experience than the original version, like the Nathan Drake Collection that not only has better graphics but also gameplay tweaks across all games to make it more fun. Or I also like remakes of games that you really can't get on modern (or not so modern) hardware, like Grim Fandango Remastered, as the original game is A: Impossible to buy from a store, and B: Is nearly impossible to run on any sort of halfway modern games.
The problem with remasters like I want them to be is that they're more expensive than those that I don't like, so they're less likely to be made. That's because, as was mentioned in the video I linked, that you're basically making a whole new game. Yeah you may have lower story and writing costs, but you can't import/update any old assets so you need to make all new ones, so many publishers decide to just forget them and work on the easier, cheaper ones, which is sad. 2 games that I can think of that would definitely benefit from a remake, especially in today's gaming world, would be Snatcher and Policenauts. These are 2 classic games from Hideo Kojima that came out before Metal Gear Solid did, but they all feature great writing, great production, and intriguing stories. They're rather light on gameplay, but as we've seen with the success of the Tell Tale games and other indie games like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Gone Home, there's a very tangible market for more narrative based games, which these 2 fit perfectly. Sadly though these games will never be seen by the vast majority of gamers, as the only way to play them is through emulation, and in the case of Policenauts, unless you speak Japanese, you need to get a special pirated fan subbed copy of the game along with a PS1 emulator OR a Japanese PS1 OR a NA PS1 that's been modded. Most people won't jump through all these hoops, and that's too bad because they're missing out on such a great game. And of course we can't count on Konami to re-release these games considering their total disdain for Kojima, not to mention the likelihood of them completely abandoning console games.
Sorry for the long post and I don't want this to turn into a back and forth argument over the validity of the remaster/remake market. I just wanted to get my side out there so you understand better where I'm coming from and why I look at all these remasters in a more negative light than some.
The PS3 is still my main console for media purposes (blu-ray, Netflix, YouTube, network streaming, and even CD playback), and I still play free PS Plus games and DLC for certain older games after the DLC finally goes on sale. There are also four Telltale series and two AAA games I own that I haven't gotten around to playing yet.
