The Collection Conundrum

Are remastered editions and specially-priced classic game bundles necessary in an age when there’s already such little innovation?

Everyone knows of them, and most of us have even given in to the temptation every now and then. You can’t beat a good deal, after all. With the recent surge of remastered games cropping, is there really a demand for the classics, or is it just one more nail in the coffin on a stagnating medium? There seems to be a universal outcry for innovation and new intellectual properties, and yet when a developer takes a chance on something new, it’s often met with an underwhelming response. The industry feels safe with franchises like Call of Duty, Madden, and Final Fantasy because they continue to sell. Brands sell, not ideas. And it’s because of this that the developers are now starting to give more attention to the classics that made them famous in the first place.

Collections are nothing new. Back in the PlayStation era, then-Squaresoft was putting out bundles like Final Fantasy Chronicles, Anthologies, and Origins (although Chronicles was produced after the Square/Enix merger) which contained enhanced ports of their earlier games. Prior to this, Nintendo had Super Mario All-Stars, a single-cartridge collection of four Super Mario Bros. games for the SNES. All of these went on to relative success and opened the role-playing and platforming doors to newcomers. But they were scarce and timely. You didn’t see a new collection every month, perhaps because the gaming library was not as diverse as it is today or perhaps because there just wasn’t a market for it yet. Whatever the reason, both of those are precisely why the whole Collection Revolution is going strong today.

Go to your local GameStop or Best Buy and I guarantee you’ll find a handful of game bundles of either older or current generation games (or both): Resistance, God of War, Metal Gear Solid, Uncharted. Collections like these and more are becoming more frequent in an age when stagnation and mediocrity is all too prevalent. With your yearly iterations of franchises like Call of Duty, Madden, and Assassin’s Creed, the trend seems to hinge more on the philosophy of “stick to what works.” Because hey, if it ain’t broke…right? But that’s the problem – it is broke. The system is crippled, and something needs to be done.

It seems like every time there’s a new innovation in the gaming market, it’s often looked at with disinterest or caution. And that’s fair: it’s natural to be skeptical of something you’re unfamiliar with. But skepticism and disregard shouldn’t go hand-in-hand. Just because you’re unsure of something doesn’t mean you should completely ignore it and maintain a play style that’s comfortable to you. With services like GameFly, you have the option to rent games and try them out before spending a sizeable portion of money on them.

Below is a (short) list of some of the more popular HD Remixes/Collections that came out between 2012 and 2013.

Jak & Daxter Collecttion – February 7, 2012

Silent Hill HD Collection – March 20, 2012D

Devil May Cry HD Collection – April 3, 2012

Ratchet & Clank HD Collection – April 28, 2012

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD – August 28, 2012

God of War Saga – August 28, 2012

inFamous Collection – August 28, 2012

Killzone Trilogy – October 23, 2012

Zone of the Enders HD Collection – October 30, 2012

Assassin’s Creed Ezio Trilogy – November 12, 2012

Mass Effect Trilogy – December 4, 2012

Resistance Collection – December 5, 2012

Hitman HD Trilogy – January 29, 2013

Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection – July 9, 2013

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix – September 10, 2013

Are some of these collections worth it? They can be. Quite frankly, worth and value is something that each person defines individually. As a console’s life cycle nears its end, as we’re witnessing now with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and the new wave of technology comes forth, we’re finding that backwards compatibility is soon becoming a thing of the past. Developers are more inclined to charge consumers again for products they may have already purchased, and still own, rather than allow them to simply play their old copy. Of course, then there are those people who may have never shown an interest in some of those earlier games, and are now suddenly finding themselves in the mood for a new experience. That is when complete collections like the God of War Saga are at their most influential.

But when you have something like the Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, which only contains 3 of the 7 games in the series, you know you’re dealing with a company willing to nickel and dime its consumers for all they can get. There’s a line in the sand when it comes to these sorts of things, and when we start to cross it by buying into every single re-release that comes out based on some feeling of nostalgia or necessity, then we give those developers every right to resist change and progress. We tell them with our wallets that “We don’t want you to make new games. Keep giving us old products.” We may as well just rebuy the same game every year, if that’s the case. Call of Duty fans already do, and look how successful that franchise is.