Microsoft Game Studios not that interested in HD remakes

by Mike Schramm on Oct 26th 2010 11:00PM

After the success of the God of War Collection, Sony is going all in on the HD remakes, with re-tuned versions of the Sly Cooper, Ico, Medal of Honor and Oddworld games all coming out on the PS3. But fans of the original Halo, Blinx: The Time Sweeper and Voodoo Vince probably won't get to see their favorites in high definition -- Microsoft's Phil Spencer says the company isn't all that interested in remaking older games with HD graphics. "We obviously have a lot of new things going on," he said in an interview with IGN, "so the thought of re-doing a bunch of things is probably difficult to just weave into the overall portfolio."

Of course, he doesn't rule it out, saying that if releasing an HD collection could "provide real value to the customer, there could be possibilities for that." But it's too bad that he doesn't think any of the early Microsoft Game Studios titles deserve an HD remake right away. Not even Quantum Redshift, guys? Of course seeing that game running in full HD and hearing the Junkie XL soundtrack would be valuable!

Source: IGN

Tags: hd, microsoft, Microsoft-Game-Studios, phil-spencer, remakes, xbox

Reader Comments (85)

100% for this.

@Jack Kevorkian Honestly other than the 2 Halo games I can't think of another series that were on the Xbox worth an HD remake. KOTOR could be another, but unless they did a good job I would just get off of steam.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga

Jet Set Radio HD Future, nough said.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is Jet set games are more DC games than anything else. Not to mention the fact that you didn't play Jet Set games for their stories, so they should just make a new one.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga
"Burnout:Takedown" would be a beauty in HD.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga
No love for Crimson Skies?

Halo 1 and 2 HD Release would sell millions.

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2

I'd be likely to pick it up for a fair price, since I missed out on them both.

There must be a clever marketing chap somewhere who can do something with the name... Halo Re-Mastered (Chief)? Ok it's obviously not me, but you know what I mean

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 Wouldnt you rather them try new IPs or decent sequels? HD remakes seems like a cheap cash in.

Right before gow3 came out I revisited the first game as and looked and played pretty damn good.

@Jack Kevorkian

Well, HD collections like GOW collection helps to sell the sequel. I'm sure there were plenty of people like me who hadn't played GOW before the collection and didn't want to miss out before the third one came out. Good way to get it on people's minds too. It's advertisement except that you can make money off of it, I can't believe they wouldn't want that...

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 - And Fable. Or anything Microsoft can get their hands on (Ninja Gaiden, Splinter Cell*, Psychonauts, Doom 3**, etc, etc).

LIVE integration and Achievements = $

*Lock in "exclusive deal" with Ubisoft (it worked for Conviction), despite what the European retailer leak said
**There better be a GD flashlight attachment (damn it all if it's DLC).

@TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2
I'd preorder right now, all we need is the single player campaigns (maybe with matchmaking) leaving all the only stuff to Halo 3 & Reach

@MystileArmor

"I'd be likely to pick it up for a fair price, since I missed out on them both."

"Miss out" wouldn't be the term I'd use.

"Off enjoying better aspects of life" maybe.

I'd buy the Halo collection, or even Halo arcade, and Fable HD.

We all know that MS just likes to blow air up people's butts with comments like these. They always take a wait and see approach and then if something becomes successful for another company then they go ahead and implement it themselves. They aren't really innovative in this manner.

@Jason B exactly.. Microsoft should be renamed to :

Monkey see Monkey do, oooh oooh oooh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edN4o8F9_P4 even its ceo prances around like a monkey.

That may be because they lacked strong first party games. Sure we had our halos and Crimson Skies....But most people played a ps2 last gen.

@The Wicker Man

MS does have some strong stuff in their past, but how many owned studios do they have left that could do the conversion? They'd have to farm it out to a 3rd party.

Anyone remember if that is what Sony is doing, or is it in house?

@Bailers77

Bluepoint Games did the GoW Collection. I think they are third party.

So, I would bet all HD collection are third party

@Bailers77 Yeah, true Fasa and several others have been shuttered.

@Faenix

Sly Collection is being handled by Sanzaru Games

Team Ico Collection may be made by first party team, but theres no info on it at all... just Ueda saying he WANTS to do it.

@The Wicker Man

This. Though I'd Halo is really the only series that's worth capitalizing on, since nothing else they put out last get would be successful. A Halo/Halo2 HD-ified a la God of War collection would be well worth the investment. Although these re-releases that sony's putting out come in the way of promotion for an up coming game, like God of War 3. We're seeing more PS2 games re-released again because of the GOW collection's success.

@The Wicker Man

I think they had a lot of great exclusives last gen. Otogi, JSRF, Phantom Dust, Panzer Dragoon Orta, the Oddworld games, and of course Halo. Hell, even Voodoo Vince and Brute Force were pretty good. Oh, and lets not forget Breakdown.

If they made a Halo HD collection with Live multiplayer that would definitely sell. I never got to play a full 16 player system link game of the original Halo. The highest I ever got to was 8 players and that was amazing. One of the best videogame experiences I've ever had. Greatest. Pistol.

Ever.

@Liquidfingers

Also, how about Jade Empire and/or KOTOR? That would be great. Microsoft quit sucking! Spend some of that Kinect money on HD remakes!!!

@Liquidfingers Some of those are indeed good games. (Morrowind, you forgot Morrowind) but they are not first party. Panzer= Sega etc. Most xbox games were multi plat. They only had a couple of good first party. This gen is different though. A couple of years ago you could have told me I would love the 360 and I would have called ya nuts!

@The Wicker Man

Actually, all of those are exclusives, and Phantom Dust actually IS first-party. Granted, it came from the MGS Japan Studio and was published here in the States by Majesco. KInd of weird...If you look at how Microsoft does things, they have never really been a big first-party developer. With a few exceptions, most of their big games are outsourced to huge studios like BioWare, Epic, and even Bungie now. As someone else above pointed out, however, I don't believe that any of the HD remakes on the PS3 thus far are actually being done by first-party studios, except for maybe the Team ICO bundle.

@ben linus Not that I want HD remakes but...Bioware.

Don't front, Microsoft.

You know you're going to remake Halo 1 and 2 in HD some day.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I believe that they will too but they really need to focus on making new & original IPs before they can focus on doing HD remakes

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

No doubt.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I'd also love to see this done with Crimson Skies.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
At least they should make sure the emulator runs at least Beyond Good and Evil...

I don't see the point of re-releasing Halo 1 and 2 in HD. Its not like it will improve the game overall and with each halo since the original Xbox, the multiplayer has evolved. So why would you want to go back and play a game that will have nothing new to it but HD? Besides, its barely even been a decade since these games we're released. Sure the single player campaign in HD could be amazing but the first Halo did spend much of its time in corridors. I just dont see the point in re-releasing something that doesn't really need it...

@RedRose

I'd love a Halo HD

@RedRose

It's for the fans. Nobody needs an HD remake, they just want it. The only reason I could understand HD remakes on PS3's is because you can't play PS2 games on it anymore so it would make sense to re-release them.

@RedRose
I want Halo 2 back online. It might just be my nostalgia-glasses, but I seem to remember having much more fun playing Halo 2 online than I do Reach.

@KentuckyFrydCow28
I'm with you on that, Halo 2 was a great game but i mostly played LAN games with my mates. Face to face smack talk works better when you can see the tears in your friends eyes after their 20th successive teabagging.... i'd just hate to be forced into rebuying it again to play it online...

@RedRose

i was thinking the same thing in regards to Halo. "Oh look, the bump mapping has more bumps on the textures!" Maybe another title. I also see people saying if the 1rst two Halos are released, calling it a rip off.

'Otogi: Myth of Demons' and 'Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors' please.

"provide real value to the customer, there could be possibilities for that."
"provide real value, there could be possibilities for that."
"provide real value."
"real value"
"revenue"

@Nirvash Planeteer Power of Capt

RROD... Real value to the customer... Riiiiiight...

Yeah I back this. Seems Sony is only doing it so as show off; bit like these re-mastered Blu Ray's that are now cropping up. Did we cry out for a remastered version when we originally played them? No, they had something called gameplay back in them days and fancy graphics were left to the likes of Space Ace and other leg-ends of the gaming world.

@Hong Dong

I actually LOVE the remakes. I'm buying every remake collection they are releasing,

Sly Cooper Collection? Day 1.
Team Ico? DAY ONE.
Oddworld? You better believe it, day one.

MS needs Fable 1 HD, so I can add it to my fable collection ;)

"We obviously have a lot of new things going on,"

Thats gotta be a joke of a line, Since Alan Wake and Mass effect 2 -theres been Halo Reach and Fable 3.

The only game now I want is Gears 3, and thats not till winter 2011!

If they make Fable HD, or Halo HD - I will buy on day one.. but for no more then $30.

@Faenix Well, they are busy with that little thing called Kinect.

On a purely curious note, I'd be interested to know what you get out of the HD remake that you didn't originally? Or is it something to do with having a game you have fond memories of in a shiny new outfit?

I know it wouldn't make much sense because of the graphics style, but an HD remake of Jet Set Radio Future would be awesome

I really want to see Gauntlet Dark Legacy...its a classic that my family has played for years...I'd even take the Gauntlet Legends(N64/PS1). Guess there's not enough fans out there asking for them.

Blinx: The Time Sweeper. Good times, good times.

Never did make it past the third boss though. But it was one of my first Xbox games.

Mech Warrior?

The problem with Xbox games is that, for their time and up against their console competitors, those Xbox games don't look all that awful comparatively.

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Microsoft Game Studios not that interested in HD remakes

Reader Comments (85)

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:06PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:23AM The angry pro consumer gaming ga said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 6:14AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 9:18AM The angry pro consumer gaming ga said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 10:26AM bioadam said

Posted: Oct 28th 2010 5:40AM mahouneko said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:09PM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:11PM MystileArmor said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:17PM Halwende said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:18PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:32PM LockeDaemonfire said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:37PM Nintendo Tim said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 1:18AM Mazrael said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 8:49AM Co said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:12PM Epoque said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:12PM Jason B said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:45AM McDuckScrooged said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:12PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:16PM Bailers77 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:44PM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:45PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:46PM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:46PM DangerMouse001 said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:53PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:55PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:03AM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 8:58AM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:20PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:22PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:58PM Prboi said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:36AM AltairArcanum said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:00PM xGeneral DEATHxDEETH82 said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 2:56PM eNriqeu said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:24PM RedRose said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:36PM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:07AM Prboi said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:34AM KentuckyFrydCow28 said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:47AM RedRose said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 9:27AM Negatron said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:25PM Robborboy said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:27PM Nirvash Planeteer Power of Capt said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 2:43AM Ballistic H said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:31PM Hong Dong said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:35PM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:33PM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 27th 2010 12:09AM Hong Dong said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:37PM GoldandFinal said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:39PM lewminous said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:39PM Burnflare said

Posted: Oct 26th 2010 11:52PM Assmar said

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