Bluepoint Explains Why Remasters Help Maximize Quality Of New Titles

While a certain part of the player-base often downplays remasters and remakes for sequels and new releases, Bluepoint Games says otherwise.

While a certain part of the player-base often downplays remasters and remakes for sequels and new releases, Bluepoint Games says otherwise.

In a recent interview with SegmentNext, president Marco Thrush stated that remasters and remakes are incredibly important. They help developers to understand hardware limitations and formulate new tools and methods that ultimately maximize the quality of new games. Hence, as far as Bluepoint Games is concerned, remasters and remakes are a good practice and greatly beneficial when it comes to working on new projects.

Thrush took the example of Naughty Dog and how the developer invested a lot of resources into remastering The Last of Us for PlayStation 4. In the process, Naughty Dog was able to adapt in-house tools and the engine for the newer platform. The efforts directly contributed to Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, the very next game undertaken by Naughty Dog and which was hailed by critics.

They [Naughty Dog] are known for their best-in-class original development. However, they also spent the time to remaster The Last of Us, moving it from the PS3 to the PS4.

In the process of doing this they were able to move their engine and tools onto the new hardware and learn a lot about how to maximize the PS4. All of this effort directly contributed to the quality of their next game, Uncharted 4.

There’s also another reason remasters and remakes are so important. They help a brand new audience walk the bridge to masterpieces that they would otherwise never come to appreciate.

Many games, SotC included, were incredibly ambitious visions and the hardware of their time was limiting. Sometimes the original dev team had to cut corners due to those limitations. Sometimes frame rate suffered and areas of the game did not play well. 100-million gamers can now enjoy a more fully realized SotC playing at 60 fps.

Bluepoint Games has overhauled many classic games to date. The developer remastered Ico and Shadow of the Colossus for PlayStation 3, and for PlayStation 4 down the road. The same studio also remastered the Metal Gear Solid and Uncharted collections. Bluepoint Games, for those unaware, was involved in the development of Titanfall as well.

Currently, the studio is working on something major for PlayStation 5. Bluepoint Games is remaking not one but two critically acclaimed classic games, one of which is strongly speculated to be the critically acclaimed Demon’s Souls. You might think that Bluepoint Games has its hands full at the moment. However, the studio is hungry to take on more challenges. Within the same interview, Thrush teased that the upcoming PlayStation 5 project will become a most prized achievement of the studio.

Following the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx last week, Bluepoint Games expressed a wish to remake the original Half-Life, something that millions of fans out there would be hoping for Valve to read. Bluepoint Games certainly has a clean record when it comes to high-quality remasters and remakes. Unless Valve wants to go full virtual reality with Half-Life 3 as well.

Saqib is a managing editor at segmentnext.com who has halted regime changes, curbed demonic invasions, and averted at least one cosmic omnicide from the confines of his gaming chair. When not whipping his writers into ...