Horizon Zero Dawn and Freedom Wars Remasters Show the Ups and Downs of the Remake Trend
A blast from the recent past.
Want to play a bit of Horizon Zero Dawn? No problem. You can get the seven-year-old game for $20 and play it on your PlayStation 4 or PS5 easily. Or, if rumors are to be believed, you’ll soon be able to fork out a presumably larger amount for a remastered version of the recent, readily available, still great-looking game instead. The supposed new release of Horizon Zero Dawn highlights what looks like a new strategy from Sony of constantly churning through new editions of popular games that no one really needs.
Word of the release comes from the ESRB, which recently listed a rating for Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, as spotted by social media aggregator Wario64. ESRB ratings don’t always mean a new game is actually imminent, but they’ve signaled the existence of real games plenty of times in the past. Given that this isn’t the first we’ve heard of a Horizon Zero Dawn remaster, it seems likely that the game is really on its way.
The unannounced Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered was recently rated by the ESRB.
Talk of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered first emerged in 2022, when gaming outlet MP1ST reported that an anonymous source had revealed its existence. (The story was soon corroborated by other publications.) The source pointed to new textures, animations, and lighting that would set the remake apart from the original.
Making the rumors seem even more legit is the fact that this wouldn’t be a first for Sony. Early in 2024, the publisher released The Last of Us Part II Remastered, just four years after the original game launched, meaning Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered wouldn’t even be the quickest turnaround for a remaster in recent memory.
It’s a trend that seems to make a lot of sense for Sony on the surface. If it can wring more money out of players by releasing a remaster rather than building a new game from the ground up, why not take the money? But at the same time, putting developers to work on recreating a game that’s already out sucks up resources that could otherwise be spent on making original games, like the recent, incredibly well-received Astro Bot. And if it insists on making remasters, well, Bloodborne is right there.
It’s hard to see the case for a remaster of Horizon Zero Dawn.
For both The Last of Us Part II and Horizon Zero Dawn, these remasters seem to be aimed at updating a game originally released for the PS4 to look better on PS5. But that feels like an increasingly pointless goal when adoption of the PS5 remains low, not to mention that the newly announced PS5 Pro isn’t going to convince much of any to make the switch with its massive $700 price tag. Add to that the fact that the PS6 likely isn’t too many years away and the Switch 2 is just around the corner, and you have a remaster essentially made to show off the power of a console that not many people have and will be obsolete soon enough that skipping it feels like a wise choice.
The sheer oddity of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered is highlighted by another remaster announced around the same time. Also this week, Bandai Namco announced that it’s bringing Freedom Wars Remastered to PC and consoles in January 2025. If you haven’t heard of it, that’s not surprising. The original Freedom Wars is a 2014 multiplayer game exclusive to the PlayStation Vita. With the Vita defunct and the game’s servers shut down as of 2021, there’s currently no way to play what’s been called one of the Vita’s best games. Adding insult to injury, Freedom Wars was developed by Japan Studio, which Sony shuttered in 2021, though some of its members then joined Astro Bot developer Team Asobi, which originally formed under Japan Studio.
The cult hit Freedom Wars feels like a natural case for a remaster.
In short, Freedom Wars is the perfect candidate for a remaster. It’s a strange game with a cult following by a studio that no longer exists and it isn’t possible to play it today. Compare that to Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, which is a prettier version of a game you can play on modern consoles and was even part of PlayStation Plus until it was removed when rumors of the remaster surfaced.
Where Freedom Wars Remastered represents the potential of remasters to revive gems that are no longer playable, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered feels like an unnecessary cash grab from a company more concerned with parading its legacy titles for public approval than actually making them playable or keeping their developers running. I’m sure those robot dinos will look a bit shinier in the remaster, but I just can’t see that as a smart choice for re-releasing a game.
