Your Thoughts on Paid "Remasters" of iOS Games

After a recent short back-and-forth with Kepa Auwae of Rocketcat Games on these boards, an interesting topic was touched on that sparked my interest into what the TA community would think about it.

I messaged Kepa and asked him what the likelihood of a substantially updated version of iOS classic action/adventure game Mage Gauntlet ever seeing the light of day might be. I'm mainly talking things like MFi controller support, (better) widescreen support, optimization for new iOS devices, etc. While asking him, I was well aware of the fact that his team of developers is only a 3-man independent development team, and obviously doing an overhaul of this magnitude would take a considerable amount of time and resources to produce. Since games like Mage Gauntlet are relatively "old" in the ever-growing and changing App Store, sales from the game would have peaked long ago, are likely at a slow trickle nowadays, mostly of people newly discovering the developer after trying another one of their games. Point being, it doesn't make a lot of sense from a financial standpoint for Rocketcat (or any other indie dev in a similar situation) to put their time and resources into something that isn't likely to pay the bills at the studio.

That's when I had a thought, and in the very next sentence of his message Kepa expressed the same thought, which is what brings us here. The big question is: Would you support paid, re-released "remasters" of older, beloved iOS titles? Sticking to the Rocketcat example, I for one would absolutely love fully-updated versions of their older back-catalog titles like Hook Champ, Hook Worlds and Super Quickhook. Rocketcat doesn't exactly have the resources of a big-name dev like Square Enix or Blizzard to keep their catalog updated for current devices and software versions, especially given the frequency of which these updates would be demanded. I've always just sort of accepted that fact, and never really expected updates from great games that eventually fade into history on the App Store. I'm talking about games like Vlambeer's Super Crate Box, or the 2 classic Sword & Poker games that basically faded into App Store purgatory well before their time.

So this is where your opinion comes in. I expect to see a fairly divided response split into at least these two main schools of thought: The thought that once you buy a game, updates should always be free, and a game should be kept updated as long as it is available for sale in the App Store. The other being the crowd that would support these remasters with their dollars, and understand that developers need to see a financial return on the work they put in. Of course there will be contentious gray areas ie: games that came out not so long ago making paid remasters/overhauling updates, games from big-name devs whose games still see good sales numbers and who have the resources available to keep the games updated (Gameloft, Rovio, etc) without asking for additional payment.

I ask this in the hopes that maybe the feedback and response to this idea might be positive enough to light a fire under some indie devs' rear ends to consider making new, shiny versions of our favourite iOS classics. How cool would it be to have a new version of Super Crate Box with a bunch of new levels, characters, and modes to unlock, online play functionality, Game Center achievements, and HD retina graphics? Obviously we'd all like to see updates like these, but would you be willing to pay for them if you already paid for the game a couple of years ago? Or would you join a torch and pitchfork mob, demanding MOAR FREE UPDATES?

I'd also like the community's contributions to the expansion of this idea, for example something like "free" updates to the existing games, but with added optional IAPs/DLC available at an additional cost as a way of supporting the devs, and of course I've thought about how disappointing it would be to boot up my brand new HD Hyper Turbo Mage Gauntlet Championship Edition, only to have my heart crushed in an instant by a full page pop-up add of Kate Upton's funbags bouncing around, telling me to download Game of War.

So let's hear your guys' thoughts on the subject! Who knows, maybe some of your ideas may inspire the devs who frequent these boards to take them into consideration, and maybe someday we'll see HD Turbo Remastered Remix Editions of some great games currently occupying large, obnoxious gravestones in the App Store graveyard.