We’re a generation that believes in recycling. You’re as likely to hear about a remaster as you are to learn of an entirely new game. This isn’t entirely bad. There are situations in which such a thing might be okay. But the question is, what is the value of such endeavors? When a game comes to the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One months or years after its original release, should it still carry a premium price tag?
It’s a tricky question. We can’t just say yes or no, because each remaster is different. There are some that clearly do deserve the higher price and others that don’t. Especially when we see ports with similar amounts of work put into them at different prices.
Batman: Arkham Collection , BioShock: The Collection , and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition are three of the biggest games spurring on this query. All three are remasters of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 games that are coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. All three have similar levels of content, giving us the games with their DLC. All three are also $59.99. But do they all deserve that price tag?
Batman: Arkham Collection and BioShock: The Collection both very obviously do. Both are detailed remasters. When you look at the screenshots, you can see an obvious difference, due to some of the games in the collection being seven to nine years old. Each one also has all of the DLC that originally released with the games. Most importantly, they’re collections. You aren’t getting a single game. You’re getting Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City in the one and BioShock , BioShock 2 , and BioShock Infinite in the other. That’s a lot of gaming for a good price, and the remaster price is comparable to current prices when the original versions of these games go on sale.
If only we could say the same about The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. This is a remaster with most of the same content as the above collections. It’s only five years old, compared to BioShock ’s nine and Batman: Arkham Asylum ’s seven. It’s getting a visual upgrade and including all bits of DLC. The only major addition is mod support, though we see how well that’s going for the console versions of Fallout 4 right now (there are issues).
It doesn’t feel right, especially when compared to other ports that have come to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with more content. Let’s think about Fairy Fencer F: Dark Advent Force . It’s a $59.99 port of a PlayStation 3 game, but offers two new storylines, multiple endings, new playable characters, and larger parties. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD , a port of a PlayStation Portable game, was $59.99 when it was released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but it was a title never released outside of Japan prior to that debut.
The point is, we’re seeing other older remasters with similar, sometimes even more, amounts of work required getting released. Some of them absolutely deserve the $59.99 price tag, because they’re giving us multiple games at once. But the Skyrim remaster gives us pause. While adding mod support is no small thing, we’re seeing other remasters of single games that are adding far more content and effort for that price. Plus, we have to consider that mod support isn’t exactly what we thought it’d be in Fallout 4 . It’ll be up to you to determine if a remaster is worth your money, but I recommend holding off on buying them at launch and thinking about if you’re willing to buy them again.