Asmongold TV - Remakes are beating new games.. | Asmongold TV

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Remakes are beating new games.. Asmongold podcast for all of his stream highlights, competitions, reactions & more. ---------- ------------- Keywords: streamer reactions, gaming hot takes, gaming content creator, streaming highlights, gaming news, gaming reactions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remakes are outperforming actual games. You're seeing remakes popping off way more. And apparently it's not nostalgia. I think they're right. Remakes and remasters seem to be dominating these days. Here's what's kind of cool. There's a new survey and it shows something real striking. That 90% of you have played a remaster or remake within the last few years.

Which isn't really a surprise. I mean, I've certainly played a few. I imagine you have. And who could blame you? These games are dominating. And the biggest example is probably Elder Scrolls Oblivion remastered, because that has outsold all but one of the new games released this here.

Isn't that fucking pathetic? That is so pathetic. You might wonder then, is this just the industry's future? An endless cycle of nostalgic re-releases forever. No, I think the re-releases are a stopgap measure before video games become based again and made by people that actually play video games. One of the big problems is that the video game industry has been taken over by mentally ill funcopop collecting leftist millennials that hate themselves and that are fat.

And they don't make good video games. And so what's happening right now is we're seeing a market correction and many of those games are failing. All consuming itself. That's what happened. Maybe not. Because for most people playing these remakes, it's actually not about nostalgia. No, it's literally impossible because most of them haven't played the original version. And that's just one snippet of the new data we've got about remakes.

When I say every week brings a new remake or remaster, that's not idle words. It's quite literal. Last week had trials in the sky first chapter and platypus reclade. This week, there's Pac-Man World to repack. Perhaps not Oblivion remastered here, and you'd be forgiven for being confused at how it appears. There's some cultural zeitgeist crying out for early 2000s games that have already... No, people, it's not early 2000s games. It's that these games that came out a long time ago were so ridiculously fucking good that I don't think people even realized how good they were.

That's the thing. It's like, you go back and you look at Legend of Zelda linked to the past. That's it. I mean, that's, there you go. It's been re-released reported half a dozen times. It's a bit weird, but in 2025, remake culture has really just reached new heights here. Like, to put some stats in the Elder Scrolls Oblivion situation, that remaster sold more copies in its first month than the original game did in 15 months.

And in total, it is already completely outsold the original release of the game, which is kind of... I wonder if it outsold Starfield. Hild. Now, you could argue that something sad is happening here, that publishers are just pushing lazy nostalgia grabs because they can't make new games that are good. Oh, wait a second. I think that's partially true. It's probably easier to do a remake of a game than completely make a brand new game. I think that's probably true. Like, they're going to bank on guarantees and for sure things. Definitely. Yeah, of course they would do that. And that nobody's money is going to new games. And then maybe this all shows us that people, crave the good games of the past that we used to play, not the bad games that we get now.

That would make full sense because of a kind of staggering statistic from this recent survey that 85% of you have played a remake or a remaster of a game that you did not play in the first place. Well, of course that makes sense. I mean, it obviously makes sense. Like, there's a lot of people that, like, for example, I watched, like, the Ten Commandments. The first time I watched it, I watched it with, like, the remastered version of, you. it, like with higher fidelity and, you know, like a couple of like digital correction things.

And like, I didn't watch the version that my parents watched in movie theaters in like the 50s or something like that, right? Like, so I think this is very common across most types of media. Actually seems that this stuff. It goes so hard. It does. It's really good. Let's dive into the survey. And to do that, we got to define our terms. Remakes are complete reimagining's built from scratch. So updated. graphics, gameplay mechanics, and sometimes story elements. I'm one of these people.

I played Demon Souls for the first time when it was remade for PS5. Astors are enhanced versions of originals. Great game. Incredible. That means improved visual, sound, and performance, but the core gameplay staying the same. And here's what the data tells us. MtM consulting surveyed 1,500 US and UK gamers and game industry.biz brought the data to our attention. And for the sake of uniformity, they gave respondents those specific definitions, so everyone's on the same terms.

Then they ask people how they feel. And the findings. Oh, yeah. So there's the 90% stat of people having played at least one remaster or remake. What a massive, what a massive indictment of the current video game landscape that remakes of video games from 15 years ago are just totally blowing out the new brand new games that they've put all this work and millions of dollars into. That's bad. That's real bad. Nostalgia sells.

Well, congratulations. You're retarded. And considering how many there have been, that's not a surprise. Then there's the 85% stat that I just talked about. But there's some other ones too. 80% and 71% of people respectively believe that these games are comforting and nostalgic at the same time as being a good way to share beloved games with new generations. So through these numbers, we actually see that the majority of people are picking up these games for the first time. See? Hear that?

But where it's getting tricky for publishers is what the hell to do. And we've got big examples of that. Some of them are, say, older Assassin's Creed remake examples. There's the whole Space Marine One thing. And there's a core tension. If you change the game too much, some people won't like it. If you don't change it enough, other people also won't like it, because maybe what they're expecting is a Rezi4 remake tier of work.

But do you know what's nice? We don't need to take this shit in vibes, because now we've actually got some data. Of course. Let me know if this gels with your experience. So 35% of players say, remakes are better when they change narrative or gameplay elements. 30% say they're worse. 35% say they're fine either way. So, uh, you can't say this. It depends on the mechanic. Like, there are some mechanics that are good to change, some mechanics that aren't good to change.

It really just depends. Like, yeah, I mean, like, yeah, it's a case-by-case basis. You, like, in general, changing narrative elements, though, I think that that's a, that's a, pretty big no. Like, I don't think you should be changing that. I mean, except for, like, in certain unique circumstances, right? Yeah. If you're a developer, what do you do? It's a third. Yeah, the camera and Ninja Guyden. Like, Ninja Guide and Black, they should have changed the camera. The camera was bad. They should have made it better. Those are the kinds of changes that I think should happen, but things like making the game easier or, you know, other stuff like that, maybe not. Or a third, because regardless, it seems, some people are going to be a third.

unhappy. This might explain the continual discourse around these games. We haven't settled on a correct approach, but we have now learned some things. So what affects player experience the most? Well, making games look and feel modern. Yeah. And as the survey people put it, gamers expect major graphical overhauls, updated controls, and improvements to mechanics. I think people really just want to see the cinematics in a better, better quality. Like, even with Warcraft reforged, I think that's what a lot of people were looking forward to. It's like, you know, I think a lot of people are hoping that they going to show like the Illyden Arthus fight and then reimagine it. But they just, they did the laziest worst possible thing imaginable.

Now, this is where I can get into some solid examples. Take Catcom's Resident Evil remake. Deforged, yeah. At least one of the interviewees specifically cited tank controls. Basically just saying gamers of a younger age would probably struggle with them. And yeah, can you imagine the zoomers and the gen alphas trying to do tank controls? Like original Rezi, that would be mad. They can do it.

Obviously, if he changed too much, it will feel wrong to fans of the original. Like, in a way, there has to be a little bit of authenticity promoting clunk in the controls of Leon, because if he controlled like an Uber badass, he wouldn't exactly play like one, because it's your mastery of his controls that actually nails the character's development and capability throughout the series. I never bought this one. But as you press on through the survey, well, we get to talk about pricing. And certainly, there's opinions in pricing.

74% of users expect a game to be cheaper than the original release to a greater or lesser degree. And that's both about the value of the upgraded product and the decision to publish it at all. 6% though go further. They say they want them free or within subscription services. And also timing matters. Only 4% of people think two years is enough time between releases. 14% say 3 to 4. 32% say 5 to 6 as the appropriate amount.

5 to 6 years for a remake? Get the fuck out of here. What are you retarded? Absolutely not. Like, remake should be for games that are like 10 years old. I mean, Witcher 3 is 10 years old. Do we need a remake for Witcher 3? No, it looks amazing.

Like, what do you? No, I want a remake for like secret of mana, not, I don't know, like, fucking Bloodborn. Like, Bloodborn's already good. Just make it 60 FPS. That's it. Time. And certainly, hey, Dragon's Dog.

do like doing it pretty quick. But if you want a perfect example of everything going wrong, it comes from a really goddamn sad place, and that is the Space Marine Mastercrafted Edition from Sega earlier this year. Oh dear, it did not do well. Existing players felt cheeses. There was no discounted upgrade path. The Anniversary Edition had effectively been re-released back in 2021, and the mastercrafted edition really didn't add enough graphical improvements whatsoever. It doesn't look that good. It felt like a cheap cash grab to capitalize in Space Marine 2 being pretty goddamn good. Yeah, it was very good. So here's the lesson.

Especially once a game is accessible in a modern digital format to audiences, you can't just keep hitting the re-release button. But companies... Unless you're making Skyrun. These will obviously keep trying, and that's because the opportunities

far, far outweigh the costs. Yeah. Got to talk about the business case. Think about the business side like this. Oblivion is a goddamn dream. dream scenario, it massively outsold the original, in great part, because there are simply more gamers now. One thing you'll see in like, say, rookie startups as people being like, oh, you know, if I just get 10% of the market, then I'll make X amount of money. And that's a little bit silly, but it can kind of fit our purposes for here. Even if you assume that a game sold to 1% of the

audience way back in the day, and it could still sell to 1% of the current audience again in 2025, then it would be worth the cost of updating because good God, the audience, games has increased massively. And this survey effectively validates that logic. The idea that 85% of players are willing to buy remakes with no personal attachment is huge. Well, it's because the old games are objectively really good. Like, that's the issue is that a lot of the newer games have, like, Ghost of Yotai is a great example of this.

Why am I doing these like bamboo quick time events cutting bamboo? Like, this is what the fuck is this? Why am I playing a loot in order to like, you know, remember what it was like, you know, with my mom when I lived on a farm? Like, I have to pick up, like, it's all of these, like, little bits of bullshittery that new video games have that they're bloated out of their fucking mind with just garbage. Like, nobody wants this. Nobody cares about this. It's fucking annoying. And so a lot of these old video games are meat and potatoes.

A lot of new video games are built around retention mechanics. They're built around trying to make you play the game longer. They're built around trying to make you do these new things because it fits with the controller for the PlayStation 5. This is not something, this is a top-down decision that's being made by the developer or the publisher, not necessarily the player. Another good example of this is Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Like, why do you have a house building simulator inside of assassin's fucking creed? You get to decide the color of the cat in your house. I thought you were supposed to be assassinating Oda Nobunaga. What the fuck is going on? And so I see this stuff. Nobody asked for this. What's this bullshit? And so I see this happen with all of these games.

And I think to myself, it's just fucking ridiculous. the amount of mini games, little bits of bullshit, and all these games. It's Ascreet too has a similar thing but building your village. Maybe it was a good idea then, maybe it wasn't. I never played the game. I don't know, but I'll tell you with the Assassin's Creed Shadows,

it had no fucking business being in there, and it was development time, investment time, and you needed to have this in order to do functions in the game. So you needed to go to the house. You needed to upgrade the blacksmith, because that allowed you to change traits on your weapons and on your armor. And it's like, what are you talking about? What is this?

And so I see this happen, and it's very frustrating to me. And I think that a lot of gamers want to play video games. They don't want to play shitty versions of a movie. They don't want to play mini games that wouldn't have even been made as an arcade machine in the 80s. They want to play a video game. They don't want to play filler. It's just filler. Have nostalgia for an era.

That's it. There would be greater coverage, maybe from people who played it back in the day. day. So these remasters will kind of have vanguard-ish super fans. And it helps with branding. Popular games guarantee at least some audiences. And taking a look at my personal playing habits, I've got to say I do have a bit of a theory here in why these games can work so goddamn well. So across this channel, across the years, we've talked about so many game development stories that have been utter, utter, utter goddamn shit shows. I think a great example of one, which, I mean, that it even came out is kind of shocking. It would be Dragon Age Vale Guard.

So the deal with Dragon Age, right? That went through like multiple redevelopments. And I believe they did a reboot and then made the version we got in like 18 months. And that is a story that is just repeated across so many. Such a bad game. Games. Now a lot of that is because of- Incredibly bad game.

Right? There's the game that they plan and then they just keep on needing to goddamn reboot and reboot and reboot. And it ends up being complete chaos. But you see with these remasters, you already have a proven formula. And that proven formula means you have far less design risk. One of the things that we talk about in like project planning is the difference between a known unknown and an unknown unknown. Yeah, sure. Right?

So an unknown unknown is something you just truly cannot predict. Yeah. And any purely new project is going to be stuff full of them. Whereas if you're doing a remaster of a game that you've already got like the whole template for. Yeah, you already have a lot of the uncertainties defined. Yeah, of course. That's going to be way, way, way easy. According to Boondocks,

no, because you can point to everyone across your production team to the literal thing that they're remaking. And that is actually huge. Because one of the things we're pretty good at in this industry is, well, scaling up big production teams. One of the things we're less good at is effectively using all of those production teams.

Some of that can be bad management, as seen in so many stories. Some of that can just be that games are extremely complex. I don't think that's what happens. I think that this is something that is happening across all companies and especially inside of tech, where I think that there is a form of corporate entropy that happens that as a company is around for a long enough period of time, they start to bring on more and more people, and then more people bring on more people, and then the company becomes too big.

I think this is what happens all the time. And it happens across industries. It happens in general. software development goes. They have so much design risk that with teams as large as game team... Well, how do you know that? You're just a streamer? Well, because I founded and organized multiple companies myself. I've invested into companies. I have a degree in business. And I'm also not a fucking retard. I can see that whenever Elon Musk fires 80% of Twitter and then Twitter stays the same and it still turns on and works the same as it did. And in fact, it gets better. I think

that's pretty illuminating that, hey, maybe all the people that you fired didn't necessarily do anything. You don't need to be a genius to be able to see what's in plain sight. As it's just me, it's hard to utilize everyone well. That's just me. And that's where I think the remakes and the remasters actually can do something really important. They can take away risk and that opens the door for pretty amazing levels of polish. The best examples, of course, Resi4 and probably oblivion. I'm sure you can name a few as well. But here's the weird thing. It's not just successful games getting remastered. Isn't what I rude to you? It's aggravating?

Well, I just think that they're stupid. Like, I don't really take any offense to it, right? It's like if a dog barks at me, I don't ask myself what I did wrong. Just a moron. It's not something I would be like, oh, wow, I wonder what I did wrong. There's no reason to take care of that. Be serious about that at all. It exists within an IP library can get a second chance.

If a game was niche before, well, actually that niche could be far large. during 2025. And that's why we've been seeing companies hoovering up legacy IP. Seriously. Embracer does it. Atari does it. Then they shut them in studios. Microids, I think I'll go with Mikeoids. They do it as well. If you can sell diehard fans of the old stuff, the same shit, you can also sell to new genre fans. And it seems that's been driving a lot of IP hovering up over the last few years. Ultimately then, it's a perfect storm. You get either lower development costs or perhaps more efficient deployment of your capital because, well, you know, you're remaking a thing. You already know what the thing looks like. Even better for the rights

holders, there's the potential of outsourcing for upscaling and improvements with the likes of say. Yeah, Blizzard outsourced and a couple of other companies did. Usually outsourcing doesn't go very well, but it's quite common. Asper. That sort of thing's always been the case, but with this new data that we've got, we can see that the audiences, we, are just as responsible for all of this stuff happening because we actually do turn up for these games and we buy them.

Because they're good. You know what? Whenever I think about my recent play habits, yeah, there's actually a lot of this in them. Well, also keep in mind, look at Classic Wow. I don't know if he's going to use that as an example or not. It looks like probably not. But like Classic Wow is a really great example

of sometimes the old stuff was actually better than new stuff. As it's been, oblivion remastered. Recently, Last of Us part one remastered. You know why? Mofrin hadn't played it. We wanted to play through it together. The upgraded version, as it turns out, well, yeah, the multiplayer ain't there. God damn, it is gorgeous. And the gameplay updates have it playing slick as hell. It's been a brilliant experience. And it proves the core of The Last of Us is as timelessly good as it always was. If you give it a big new lick of paint, it'll just be

the best version to play now. Exactly. case, it can be like when you get a new scam, a new remastering of a classic movie that's absolutely beloved that allows people to fully enjoy it and fully appreciate it on newer hardware. I think that's honestly great for games. There's loads of games that I think shouldn't be relegated to the past. But there is another... Yeah, Blizzard did this recently with remastering, not really like changing a whole lot, but bringing out Warcraft 2 again. They did the same thing. And yeah, it's, it's all. Also, it's a money grab. It's easy money. It's good for fans. It activates old fans. It gets them back into the ecosystem. There are only positives. side to this. Making new games is more expensive than ever. And as an example of that,

Shuhay Yoshida, who you may know for being fairly legendary within PlayStation for a long ass time, he was saying recently, and he's not with PlayStation anymore, but that the single player games now cost so much money to make that they actually need the additional income from remasters and PC ports to... Maybe stop spending so much money on motion capturing people's faces and just focus on making a game rather than a movie. That's my opinion. Actually, make shit viable. Now, theoretically, there is an upper limit here.

You can't constantly remake old stuff because eventually you'll run out of it. Sure. And if there's any form of reckoning our industry is going to face, it's probably that senior staff have often been treated quite badly. There's been a lot of burnout. There's been a lot of people leaving the games industry. And in an ideal world, they are the people who make the new games using all of their experience. And in my estimation...

Yeah, you're losing the old. baby boomer and gen X super based developers that, you know, like, just, you know, all the old, the old guys that used to make video games, right? You're losing all the old based guys, and you're replacing them with Lubu-Boo millennials that are obsessed with, like, fucking deviant art and their furries. And so, big surprise, they don't make games that are as good as the original quake. with Antifa. Yeah, and they're part of Antifa.

Exactly. Yeah, you're losing, yes, you're losing the wizards. And the wizards are being replaced with orcs. You combine that with a lot of industry trend chasing. That's probably a large part of why a lot of new games just don't feel like they hit as good as games used to. Games, but when they're remastered, it sure does seem we all lap up and buy. Okay, what I want you to do is let me know what is your best and worst recent experience.

Well, I gotta show you guys. Remaker remaster. And once you're done with that, well, there's a company we need to talk about. It's called Bungee because, uh, called Damma. I think they need a remaker remaster at this stage. But seriously, the situation is kind of dire. Bungi's done. This is a great video.

Let me link it to you guys. It's a Bellewer video. Give it a like. Give them a sub if you haven't already. And, uh, yeah, fuck Bungy. Well, the best has to be oblivion. Well, we got to go back. See, y'all might not even realize how hard this went.

Like, if I go back and I show you, Oblivion remastered intro, watch this. 87 years ago, for 65 years I've ruled as Tamriel's emperor. But for all these years, I've never been the ruler of my own dreams. I have seen the gates of oblivion. Beyond which no waking eye may see. Darkness, a doom sweeps the land. This is the 27th of last seed, the year of Akhtosh 433.

These are the closing days of the third era, the final hour. And then it takes you right into what's happening. No long exposition, no huge explanation of all this stuff. Just two fucking minutes. of absolute fucking cinema. Holy shit, that was amazing. Like, I didn't remember the intro at all. So, like, I was really kind of watching it for the first time

whenever I played the remastered version. And I was like, oh, my God. Like, this is, this is, this was insane. It was so fucking good, man. Yeah, I actually had the balls to build a sense of entry. Yeah, exactly. Like, I mean, it was, no, yeah, no goofball, millennial humor. Nothing like that. It was just fucking amazing, man. Yeah, Amelta King's... Yeah, look at this.

Nerds at Patrick Stewarter's worth to get the most iconic intro to the Elder Scrolls game. Yeah, exactly, it was. And, like, they went so fucking hard back then. And there used to be other games. Like, I'm trying to think if there's another good game intro that, like, really is a good example of this. But it's like, I'm trying to think, like, Skyrim's better. I'm not really a big fan of the Skyrim intro, personally. Diablo 2 intro. Um, it just, I thought actually 10 intro was peak two. Oh,

Marius. Stupid Marius. So, Marius. At last, I find you travel in the skies. There, they're always watching. I've been searching

for you for a long time, Marius. I was rather beginning to think you didn't want to be found oh forgive me teriel please it wasn't my fault not your fault tell me marius how was it not your fault the wanderer yes it was so fucking good man it's insane I saw... The thing about these trailers... There's no...

There's no like, you know, fucking witty Marvel things. There's no little funny comments. It's just straight fucking raw aura. There's no slop, no fluff. No goofing. Just the raw... real shit. Just dude shit?

Yeah, exactly. No retard. Yeah, no message. No pronouns. Yeah, no weird politics. When I dreamt. The memories British of the

postery. Authenticity? Yeah. Which had claimed it. Dreams, memories. I couldn't tell the difference anymore. And I got to

to say this is it's made this is a game made by guys for guys I'm gonna say it this is this was an absolutely a guy game the formula yeah able to carry the weight of this hope's sword move me to hide here the dialogue is really good too it's like I I noticed that whenever I was like watching rings of power and then I was comparing it to of the Rings and I was like man there's a pretty big difference here everything's so fucking dark too to have demons of his own that he struggled to contain The laughing in the scene, yeah.

And you got to admit, Blizzard really, they cooked with this. The new cinematic, they did it, they did it justice. It was good. As I watched, I became convinced that nothing was too much. Yeah. The terror, the destruction of the evil I witnessed. How else could I explain them? Were these the demons from...

Wizard didn't do it, it was outsourced? W. outsourcing. Within the wonder. Oh. It's like, what the fuck? What the fuck? Oh. Oh.

What is this? I'm too drunk for this. What the fuck? And this game went so hard, man. What's your two intro? I don't know. This is so badass I need to quit smoking

bro, yeah exactly Why did I follow him Why do things happen as they do in dreams All I know is that This is one thing that I loved about it It was never even Why did I do it It's just the way

That's the way it is Beckoned East always east Yeah it was brilliant Yeah From that moment we traveled together east always into the so fucking badass absolutely fucking amazing I love it and so I forgot even like where was the other part of it and I guess that was like maybe not it but either way some of these are just so fucking amazing

and I wish that like really I mean this is the kind of stuff that just just is insane. It's so fucking good. And so, like, yeah, now the Cinemaster... Simac intro, well, I don't know. I mean, I'm pretty sure there's a number of other good ones. But, like, those are two of them that I would give you an example for, right? Of, like, this is the high quality stuff. Even, like, I mean, you think about the Eldon Ring intro even, right? Like, that just, it's on a completely different fucking level. Like, I'll do one more, okay? One more. In the age of ancients.

The world was Unfaird Shrouded by fog And this is the endgame cinematic It's not a trailer Grey Crags Archtrees And everlasting dragons

It was peak It was beyond peak But then there was fire And with fire Came disparity Heat I remember watching this Playing this the first time

It was crazy So good And death And death. And of course, light and dark. I do think, by the way, the oblivion one clears all of these. In terms of war. But this one's really good, too.

And found the souls of lords within the flame. You watch a sloppy one to see the contrast? Nito. The first of the deal. I probably should. The witch of Isanith. This is so good. Man. Do Veilgard next?

No. I will not. With the strength of laws, they challenge the dragons. Absolute coolest fucking scene in the entire cinematic. So badass. Holy fuck, yeah. Star Wars Outlaws intro? No. No, absolutely not. I will not do that.

But soon, the flames will fade. And only dark will remain endless nights. It's too good. Amongst the living are seen, carriers of the accursed dark sign. And you see it goes into the ward of the game, too. Like, if you know the game, like, you'd know that, like, all this makes sense and it fits together. And then, like, the next cinematic, right after that, immediately introduces, you and it shows you exactly what's going on and how it fits together.

Like so much of this stuff, like the quality of this is just incredible, man. It is. It's absolutely fucking incredible. And the old games had aura to them that I think that a lot of new games just really don't have access to. They just fucking don't. And it's kind of sad to see, but it's just weird. Is anyone still watching this garbage?

Oh, man, I've got to watch. I'm not going to look at it today. I might look at it later on, though, a good game. Yeah, bro, like, I love that game, man. It was so fucking fun.