Hidden Re-Release Race

SiN: Reloaded Screenshot. Taken from Steam.

Recent announcements from Nightdive Studios provided some interesting food for thoughts, which I think is enough to a reason to write down about the things it led me to. While others were eager to nag 3D Realms over the announced status of SiN: Reloaded, the reveals that followed have reminded me about some of my prior observations from this old school side of gaming industry that I think is worth to mumble about for a bit. You know, to free my mind as usual. It's been kind of a while since I've done this here.

Basically, I think it's another showcase of a big thing happening under everyone's noses. While re-releases, remasters and remakes/reboots were a stable part of video games for many years now, some events here and there point out towards an increase in competition among various parties within this somewhat limited field. In other words, some companies are currently running a marathon when it comes to revisiting and bringing back older titles.

Practical Sin.

Let's start with the extremely obvious part. I think most people clearly understand that the reason why remaster of original SiN was put aside by Nightdive Studios is that, similarly to System Shock, it's a unique case for them as they own the game and IP as a whole. Unlike other projects they've been working on, Nightdive serves as its own boss in this matter. They're the ones who have the final say on its deadlines, which is surely not something they could've counted on when it came to re-releases of Quake and its sequel.

And picking up other games for re-releasing and remastering didn't help the matter either. With the reboot of System Shock reaching its finish line in the development and the likes of Rise of the Triad: Ludicrous Edition following after, it's obvious that some titles would have to be prioritized over others. Don't forget about the System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition! Nightdive Studios has the same amount of freedom with this one as with SiN, it being a pre-order bonus of the remake leads to certain limitations when it comes to time limits. Nothing stops them to deprioritizing it as well, but that won't be a wise decision.

Not to mention that getting acquired by nu-Atari (same goes to 3D Realms & Embracer Group) also might've shaken things up somewhat, but I'm not going to dive deep into this side of things as it just doesn't feel necessary here. The same thing also implies to 3D Realms' role in the project. Since there were no signs of Blade's role getting cut from Phantom Fury, I think it's safe to assume that them not being linked as co-developer & co-publisher of SiN: Reloaded might at best being just a temporary formality. It's no secret that 3D Realms is still carrying its curse and there's no end of sign for jokes and criticism when it comes to delays and development cycles of their games. Getting some kind of break from that would surely go a long way, you know? Besides, anything like that would've been announced officially much like with the re-release of Rise of the Triad.

It's clear that latest re-release of Quake 2 will play an important role in SiN: Reloaded's future. Aside from all those things I've mentioned before, it's clear that Nightdive Studios would absolutely love to at least match the same amount of craftsmanship as they delivered there. This bar of passion being put into this type of project is getting quite high nowadays, so some things would have to be revisioned with SiN in order to ensure that this re-release or remaster can be the best version of itself. I have no idea about the current status of its source code (it's not even open source, apparently?), but nevertheless Nightdive's good relationship with id Software could serve as a key to using all the work they've done for Quake 2's re-release and expanding on it. I remember reading some tweets or something about them experiencing some issues with Quake 2 stuff, but that could've been related to its re-release and ultimately I don't think it matters all that much at the end.

Competitive Collection.

Nowadays, there's more variety when it comes to (re)experiencing older games and I think we've reached the point where competition is really ramping up. It's not to say that it wasn't the case before since there was always many companies that paid attention to this subject. Some examples of that include the likes of Dotemu and Piko Interactive. However, there're a few "key players" I would like to highlight specifically, starting with little company called SNEG. I think I've already mentioned them in some other "article", but this group created by ex-GOG employee has consistently rolled out all sorts of classic titles in the style of aforementioned platform with some notable high profile exception like Blade of Darkness & Chasm: The Rift (I was convinced this won't happen) where they partnered with General Arcade. This highlights the fact that slowly but surely, the backlog of older titles is limited and everyone wants to have a piece of that pie.

While current iteration of Digital Eclipse has joined the growing ranks of new companies using older names, it's currently one of the leading place in this re-releasing space. Their effort towards preserving the legacy of gaming industry has been highlighted by curious re-release like Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration and latest The Making of Karateka. I'm only somewhat familiar with Digital Eclipse's Blizzard Arcade Collection, but I think there three examples show gradual evolution of documentary content in video game format.

The Making of Karateka Screenshot. Taken from Digital Eclipse.

First two re-releases are more of a "interactive museum", but even Blizzard's foray into this field includes a lot of nerdy details like videos, concept art and even design documents. While such extras were always a thing in some re-release, Digital Eclipse is definitely setting a new high standard for them and they seem to be very successful at that. I would even go as far as to say that Atari 50 in particualr might've "forced" Nightdive to play catch up with Digital Eclipse via id Vault in Quake 2's re-release.

And to top it all off, we have Limited Run Games. They've been colaborating with Nightdive Studios for physical releases of their projects for a while. It certainly looks like Limited Run has taken some notes from their partners from Nightdive. Perhaps that's just me, but their Carbon Engine gets marketed in about the same way Kex Engine is. Even though they're not exactly the same thing: Carbon is all about emulation while Kex is working game's code directly or something like that, I think. Either way, Limited Run Games aren't messing around with these re-releases. One of their upcoming projects is (pardon my French) fucking Gex Trilogy, after all! We aren't ready for this!

Conclusion.

Seriously though, let me try to make some sense of what I wrote above. Things are moving rapidly in re-release scene. Nightdive is trying to catch up not just with Nu-Atari, their new owners, but also colleagues such as Digital Eclipse and Limited Run Games. To keep up with its generally good reputation that withstood the likes of long System Shock remake/reboot development and troubled launch of Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition. While now their efforts seem to be successful, who knows what the future holds.

Not that I'm trying to be cynical here. Just think it's worth looking at this from more neutral perspective. While I totally understand why Nightdive deprioritized SiN: Reloaded in favor of various projects from different companies, part of me thinks it would've been best if they kept their focus on announced thing instead of looking forward. Who knows how much System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition was and will be affected by this strategy. After all, these are the two only projects that Nightdive Studios can allow itself to take slower (unless SiN's reboot/remake is in early works) or push aside completely. Well, to a certain point at least: either until a total cancellation or before their audience decides to get really angry about the lack of news regarding them. Surely, Nightdive won't be stupid enough to hold System Shock 2's re-release for too long. Not that they should push it out of the door at the expense of product's overall quality.

It's certainly would be interesting to see how all these parties will act moving forward. Not just Nightdive, but others too. If anything, I'm very curious about Digital Eclipse's Gold Master Series that was kicked off with The Making of Karateka and what games will get the same treatment next. There's definitely a chance that this format won't catch on quite as much as your typical re-release since people's laziness would make them more inclined to watch something along the lines of Noclip's documentaries. Would be nice to be wrong about this though.