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From this image, everyone recognizes the 'Player's Choice' label variation. Now, I ask: Is this
really a good thing? In this issue of ask a blog, we will explore the pros and cons of the run-of-the-mill rerelease, and then, you get to tell
US what you think.
When a game is released, the company has two main things in mind: Will this sell well, and will the customer be satisfied? Every so often, a game meets both of these criteria extremely well, selling copies into the hundreds of thousands, or even millions. This is where the typical rerelease comes in.
For example, take the popular SNES game F-Zero. It was released in 1991 in North America. Once it passed the 1,000,000 sell mark, it was rereleased as Player's Choice. Now, what exactly did this do? It allowed them to stop producing the original version, and produce this second version, with slightly different packaging, and one other major difference: no dust cover. Now, this may not seem like a bad thing, but it sets the scale as for what rereleases do to the game. They usually package it poorly, leave special items out such as promotional coins and mini-mags, and may even use a
lower quality product. This allows them to keep production costs down even more, while still making the same amount of money on the other end.
Granted, if a game makes it to player's choice, chances are that you will be able to find an original copy, with no problem. Other types of remakes also exist, such as with
Ikaruga, the shoot-em-up originally released for the Japanese Dreamcast, later ported and rereleased on the Gamecube and Xbox 360. With the release of the 360 version, prices on the GC and DC versions plummeted, even though their rarity was still the same.
So, rereleases make access to either: hard-to-find games more accessible while driving their price down (yet keeping their rarity), or easily found games even easier. Rereleases, in my humble opinion, are a good thing in that they can give access to an unknown game that is very good. The major downfall is that those who own the original are left with a game that may have devalued by half or more. Does either of these outcomes outweigh the other? Only you can decide that.
And now... We want to hear from
you! The reader!!! What are your thoughts and feelings on a rerelease? Are they great, evil, okay, so-so, not too bad, or completely your lifesaver? Post a comment below, and until next time: Keep having an opinion!