Last gen was the start of remasters and collections. It was a practice that was mainly on the ps3 and pretty much went through the ps3 lifetime. The entirety of remastering started basically when sony took backwards compatibility away. This forced you to have to rebuy ps3 versions of the ps2 games you would have played if bc existed.
As usual this was immediately met with disdain from xbox fans and a some nintendo fans. Sure, xbox and nintendo had great games, and the fans of both looked at ps3 fans and said "you dont even have a proper catalog. Half your games and announcements are ps2 games".
Its a valid argument, but of course ps3 owners still wanted to play thise old games and didnt want to have to own yet another console to play them. For ps3 owners, it was a solution.
As time went on we saw more and more, again mainly from sony first party studios. Ypu should find this accurate.
However, it was this same mentality that helped sony in the long run. Toward the end of the generation, there is a problem with waning interest and slowing sales. Usually unless youre atlus, this creates a problem wherein first party studios stop making games because they wont make money from the lowered sales. Consumers think otherwise though.
So, sony dropped game after game in the late years, jnowing that they could simply up-port (remaster) any game they release. After all, theyd been doing it all gen long. This is the reason why we got huge games like gt5 and TloU in the late years...because based on experience, it would be financially mitigating. Ms on the other hand turned all their resources onto making games specifically for new hardware...which is why there was such a drought in the later years.
And now that both systems have no backwards compatibility, they are now both doing remasters and so are third party multiplatformer devs. And yet, sony is still the ones being persecuted for their remaster library, and xbox fans are still griping about it. This is why this issue has become so intrinsic to this gen, because now both sides are attacking other companies over remasters.
Dont forget everyone, that remasters are why ps3 had, arguably, the game of the generation over 2 years ago. Xbox COULD have had titanfall among others last gen but instead chose to do simultaneous releases after xb1 came out.
This authors view does not reflect vgchartz or vgchartz3.0, gamewise or its forum or members. All names have been redacted to protect any hurt feelings. Author does not have stocks or investment positions in named companies or in remaster technology.