14 DAY TRIAL // These are very troubled times for developers and publishers of games, because people don't have the same amount of money to spare on games, and are now much more careful as to what titles they buy. This has made a lot of medium-sized companies focus on franchises and games with which people are already familiar, and will surely buy a copy of, so as to ensure profit.
This trend has materialized in a wide variety of old arcade games being revived and revamped for this generation of high end-platforms. A lot of publishers are announcing remakes of old arcade titles or various collections of games, which almost any customer can relate to, and will definitely buy. Such is the case of Capcom, which will release an HD version of the classic Super Street Fighter II Remix title, coupled with a new, 3D iteration in Street Fighter IV.
Yoichi Wada, the president of Square Enix, one of the most successful games developers and publishers in Japan, recently talked about this trend of remakes with industry magazine Asashi Shimbun. He went on to say that the low risk and high return of retro games were a big incentive for companies to make, and that only through heavy promotion could new games become popular. “The price of games is high, and consumers tend to be wary of buying games they are unfamiliar with. Now, it's possible for consumers to learn a great deal about the content of new titles through the Internet.”
This is a very interesting statement, which really shows that heavy promotion is the only way to ensure that customers are aware of a game, and that they will buy it. However, as with a lot of small- and medium-sized developers, the funds for publicity are, unfortunately, not very high. This could, potentially, result in a great game, which does indeed keep trace of the media, and ultimately release it, with only a few people knowing about it.
Let's just hope that remakes won't get hold of the whole market, and that developers will still continue to create original games that push the industry forward.