There are many different reasons people buy remasters, so using one line of thinking does not make sense.

Some people buy a remaster because they never played the game, and never had the device it was on. In this case it is a brand new game, so paying brand new prices is not an issue.

Some people are buying remasters because they loved the game the last time they played it, and are willing to pay full price to experience it agian in better quality.Again, in this scenario, full price is worth it to this person.

Some people are buying remasters because their old system broke and they don't want to replace it, but they still like the game enough to repurchse it. In this case, this person may not want to pay full price.

Some people are buying just because they like to have a library of games. These people fall into a catagory, where maybe they pay full price, or maybe they wait for a sale.

Then their are some people that think full price for any game day one is overboard. These people will wait till a game is half off, and will most likly expect a remasted game to be less than a brand new game.

At any rate, remasters do not just appear out of thin air. Some team of devs has work to get the game running on the new device, they have to optimize for the device, in some cases they redo the assets of the game, add new features, and much more. Somebody has to pay these people, otherwise their would be no remaster at all.

The movie buisness has been doing this for ages. I have had Terminator 2 of VHS, DVD, a DVD Special Edition, Blu-ray, and am ready to pay full price again if it is ever available on PlayStation Video. That is the way it goes. Sometimes a company does remasters on the cheap, most of the time they don't.

If someone does not agree with a full price purchase of a remaster, then by all means they should wait for the price to drop. There is no harm in this appraoch, then the dev makes full price off the people that are willing to play, and the gamer that gets it at a discounted price gets to enjoy the game once it reaches a price point they are willing to pay.

I personally have no problem with remasters, and paying day one prices. I have bought Tomb Raider, The Last of Us, God of War 3, and The Uncharted Collection so far this gen off the top of my head. Over the years I have bought countless re-releases across, Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, Wii, and many other consoles.

Nobody forces you to buy the remasters / ports for full price, when they are released... their prices fall fast enough and you can get them if the value is right for you. If you already have played the original game it should be easy enough to wait until that point is reached.

I bought the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition for €11.99 earlier this year (even minus 20% for filling my PSN wallet).

"The Last of Us Remastered" included the new €15-DLC "Left Behind" which I gladly hadn't bought yet for PS3 when the PS4 announcement arrived. So I sold my PS3-version for €25 right after the announcement and bought the PS4-version in the summer for €37... and paid eventually less for the prettier version (plus commentaries, photo mode, 60 fps...) than if I had sticked to my PS3 version + DLC costs.

Thanks to Cross-buy I got the (later released) PS4-versions of Escape Plan, FEZ, flOw, Flower, Hotline Miami, The Unfinished Swan and Thomas Was Alone for free... definitively no cash-grab. I also got the (later released) Vita-versions of Resogun, Entwined, God of War collection, Jak collection, Ratchet collection and Sly collection for free, so I can play them on the go.

Of course I had to buy these collections (God of War, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Trilogy) first... but they were cheaper than the money I got for selling the PS2 versions.

The Halo MCC collection (plus 5€ for ODST) was also cheaper than the money I got from selling the 360-versions of my Halo games.

The upgrade from my GC-version of Wind Waker to the Wii-U-remake was a no-brainer... I got it as a bonus game with my Mario Kart 8 purchase and still got over €40 for my old limited edition (which included the N64 version of Ocarina of Time, but I got its 3DS version for €20)

If I include late ports to PC (Alan Wake, Brutal Legend, Gears of War, GTA IV, Mass Effect, Resident Evil 5...) I can't complain: in most cases I got more for my used 360-version than the price of the prettier PC-version.

The remastered version of "God of War 3" (only 1 game) seems overpriced for me, so I will wait for a price cut. The Uncharted collection (3 games) is better priced, but it depends on my backlog, if if get it this year or wait for a price cut.

With pricing, just play the waiting game and you'll get what you want for a better price.

Yes, they're often overpriced. Also, the whole thing is getting out of hand.

Did you not notice how you're comparing two very old games and a budget title with recent full priced games?

Honestly I think its fine that remasters cost as much or more than orginal, if they warrent that price.
Most just dont, and then drop in price fast. The ones they hurt the most is probably themselves in terms of sales, and profits lost due to low sales.

as mentioned above: Sony has Cross-buy concept.

"the notion that we could buy games on one Sony platform and immediately get the right to download

the same game for another platform absolutely free of charge."

good for people that stick with sony, and have a ps vita/tv , ps3, ps4 ect.

Buy the game for one platform, and then get it again lateron when its released for another, if you want.

B asically if you want to avoid this... then:

1) Buy physical copies of games you can resell lateron, when a remaster is released (helps cut down on price)

2) Make use of Cross-buy.

3) Dont buy them if they are too expensive, wait for it to drop.

Don't buy them then. I

Which is why the discussion in this thread should be relevant even from a libertarian point of view.

OT: Remasters should always be priced lower than other retail releases and include all DLCs. And we as consumers must be better at NOT bying fullpriced remasters.

Not just remasters are getting a price pump. All games are.

I am not buying a console this gen until the next gen consoles are announced. That way I'll get to pay what I want for what I want. I will get to enjoy games with the latest patches and everything too.

I also have a lot of old PC games to catch up to. I am occupied enough.

I am not poor, I just don't think games are worth that much money. My weekly trip to the fancy massaging spa is totally worth the "sacrifice".

Depends on how the game is remastered. If it's just a splash of HD textures and better lighting details, then don't bother asking too much. If you really improved the animation, the poly count, new lighting engine and better textures, you can ask a bit more.