Retro video games are a waste of everyone’s time and money – Reader’s Feature

metro.co.uk:

A reader worries that retro gaming is become more mainstream and is encouraging publishers to take less risks in terms of making new games.

I have watched the circus surrounding PS Plus Premium with some amusement for the last few weeks and, like everyone, I’ve been confused as to why it seems so rushed and poorly thought out. I was curious only out of a general interest though and not because I had any intention of paying for it. I realised a long time ago that I have no interest in retro games and I’m genuinely surprised to find anyone else does.

A lot of it is nostalgia, I realise that, but I remember when Microsoft started pushing backwards compatibility and I was excited to put in some of my old OG Xbox discs and see how they looked and… I wish I hadn’t because it killed my sense of nostalgia over them. In short, they looked terrible and, in general, they played worse, even with enhancements.

I’m not surprised that PS Plus Premium has relatively few PlayStation 1 and 2 titles, as games from that era just do not stand up, as far as I’m concerned. I think that’s perfectly understandable, given their age and how quickly the games industry moves on but rather than actually doing that it seems we’re spending more and more time looking backwards and I don’t like it.

One of the arguments I’ve seen is that the industry in general doesn’t take enough care of its old games and the current obsession is making up for lost time. That’s true to a degree but the only reason Microsoft started going on about backwards compatibility is that, especially pre-Game Pass, they had nothing else going on, with most of the Xbox One era devoid of big name games.

And in terms of remasters and remakes, well… it’s obvious why companies do that.