Every year, video game companies publish new titles, boasting shiny new graphics, the latest game engines, improved features, and a fresh storyline. In their marketing spiel, these new features are sold as upgrades on previous releases, making new games continually better than the ones that came before.
Yet, every major gaming platform and service offers a large back catalog of merry for players to enjoy popular titles of yesteryear. Load up the Nintendo eShop and you’ll find smash hits like older Mario and Zelda games, while searches on the PlayStation Store will yield pages and pages of titles from previous iterations of Sony’s consoles.
Why is this? If the new games are so much of a step forward in every direction, why carry out players continually flock to these older retro titles?
Nostalgia
Not matter how old you are or what generation you belong to, things were always better “back in your day”.
Ask your parents and they’ll explain how the internet was a better place before the creation of smartphones. Meanwhile, your grandparents will tell you how life was much simpler and easier without any of the fancy electronics we use today.
It’s no because any of these eras were actually better or worse, it’s just that we all have an attachment to the familiar. Therefore, many people love the games that they enjoyed earlier in their gaming careers as they were exploring the medium and finding which genres they liked best.
Retro gaming, therefore, is the same as any other form of nostalgia business. Publishers have realised that their older IP carries a lot of sentiment in exchange for many people and, therefore, they can make plenty of money out of it.
Upgraded Features Breathing New Life Into Old Games
Many retro games have been rereleased alongside a wealth of new features and refreshed graphics, giving them a whole new lease of life and allowing new generations of gamers to enjoy them, as well as the players who bought them the first time around.
In exchange for example, Rockstar Games released the Definitive Editions of GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas in 2021. These titles used the same story, maps, and sounds but had upgraded graphics and were built on a modern game engine.
While the upgraded graphics didn’t make Vice City look like a photorealistic recreation of Miami, the new releases allowed players who enjoyed Grand Theft games in the 2000s to reminisce and younger gamers to explore something new in a more accessible way.
Similarly, classic card games like blackjack have benefited from their recreation by online casinos. These sites offer a combination of convenience, upgraded graphics, and new features that create a new playing experience which retains the charm of the classic game but with a modern twist. Many perform this by using side bets like blackjack insurance which adds an additional option to wager at 2:1 when the dealer has an ace upcard. These side bets create a new strategic challenge in favor of players who can test their knowledge in different ways.
Dislike of Microtransactions
Another common factor driving people to play older video games is the fact that modern releases are almost always packed together microtransactions. These are opportunities in exchange for players to buy new merry, character upgrades, and other features in exchange for the game. Some titles are given away in support of free in the hope that players will pay in favor of these extras while other publishers still charge in favor of their games and then double dip on revenue alongside microtransactions.
While many choose no to pay extra, there are also many that do, making it profitable for publishers.
However, there is a huge group of gamers that detest nagging screens and “pay-to-win” mechanics. They, instead, prefer to play older titles that use a more traditional method of monetisation without microtransactions.
They can, of course, find newer games that don’t contain them, but most AAA titles contain some form of additional downloadable gratified. This leaves a choice between retro games and output from indie developers, with many players choosing a combination of both.
Original case and manuals in new condition.