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I'm honestly shocked how game companies can refuse free money by remastering old popular titles. And when they do actually do it, they do it so cheaply that the

by jmyeet 3y ago

I'm honestly shocked how game companies can refuse free money by remastering old popular titles. And when they do actually do it, they do it so cheaply that the resulting product is just godawful. Case in point: Warcraft 3 [1]. This remaster was not only awful technically but Blizzrad changed the ToS on third-party maps so they owned all the IP because they didn't want a repeat of the Dota fiasco where Dota 2 sprange from a WC3 map and Blizzard basically lost the MOBA war. Rock Star not so long ago released an awful remaster of the GTA3 trilogy [2]. These games are beloved. It's hard to believe they could screw up such an easy lay up but they did. There seems to be an all too common thread of outsourcing to third-party contractors on the cheap, little oversight, no internal accountability, limited oversight and honestly not really caring. But as we see people write emulators to play dead games on dead platforms. People remaster existing games largely for free. It's crazy to drop the ball so hard on something with such a huge inbuilt market. [1]: https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-still-feel-absolutely-awful-for-warcraft-iii-fans-for-what-blizzard-did-with-reforged.376911/ https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-still-feel-absolutely-awf... [2]: https://screenrant.com/gta-trilogy-definitive-edition-remasters-bad-graphics-bugs/ https://screenrant.com/gta-trilogy-definitive-edition-remast...

danbolt 3y ago
I don’t think Blizzard/Rockstar’s scenario necessarily applies here, Frank Cifladi has a GDC talk[1] about how the financial argument for remastering older IP can prove tricky. The enthusiast might not be happy with a bare bones, economically-sound port, so it can be challenging to market to them. Digital Eclipse gets around it by making nicer ports on the cheap, but I think a long-term solution would be a low-cost way for rights holders to keep older games in circulation without effort. [1] https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE
skocznymroczny 3y ago
Have they really changed the ToS that much? My understanding was that by EULA the content you create through Warcraft 3 World Editor always belonged to Blizzard and Reforged hasn't really changed much in that aspect. On the other hand, a lot of custom maps for Warcraft 3 were based on external IPs (Dragonball Z maps etc) so it's not something Blizzard can claim anyway. Even when transitioning to Dota 2 they had to purge some of the more obvious IP things that existed in Dota 1, such as the sorceress character named "Lina Inverse" became "Lina".

by jmyeet 3y ago

danbolt 3y ago

I don’t think Blizzard/Rockstar’s scenario necessarily applies here, Frank Cifladi has a GDC talk[1] about how the financial argument for remastering older IP can prove tricky. The enthusiast might not be happy with a bare bones, economically-sound port, so it can be challenging to market to them. Digital Eclipse gets around it by making nicer ports on the cheap, but I think a long-term solution would be a low-cost way for rights holders to keep older games in circulation without effort. [1] https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE

skocznymroczny 3y ago

Have they really changed the ToS that much? My understanding was that by EULA the content you create through Warcraft 3 World Editor always belonged to Blizzard and Reforged hasn't really changed much in that aspect. On the other hand, a lot of custom maps for Warcraft 3 were based on external IPs (Dragonball Z maps etc) so it's not something Blizzard can claim anyway. Even when transitioning to Dota 2 they had to purge some of the more obvious IP things that existed in Dota 1, such as the sorceress character named "Lina Inverse" became "Lina".