The Remastered Remake of the Re-release

[Departed]

it is slightly concerning, and suggests that we're deeply stagnating in creativity and creative freedoms provided to classic directors, studios, creators and franchises thanks somewhat to a neverending war between art and profit in the games industry.

I look at it a few ways. The best remakes are made with a vision and heart. SH2R, RE2R, RE4R, and others like them, those are remakes made because in the case of SH2, it's a masterful experience that still benefits from being remade and can lend new context, like you said. And in the case of the REMakes, it's very clear that Capcom recognizes what a disaster the RE story became, so they're course correcting to create a better cohesion between the new RE games and the original storylines.

Whereas others really are just a coat of paint for nostalgia's sake and if it's fun and still holds up, all the better, I'd say.

But it is worth noting that the best remakes are coming from the companies not bottomed out by shareholders. Capcom's been soaring for over half a decade now with hit after hit. Whereas even though Dead Space Remake did well, EA is so beholden to their shareholders that "doing good" isn't good enough, so they cancelled the DS2 Remake.

Everyone I know who works in the game industry has been saying for a while that we're in for another crash because of how out of control "design by shareholder appeasement" has become. A lot of companies are going to either merge or just shut down, and the ones who aren't promising numbers they could never deliver are the ones most likely to reign supreme. It's doubly shocking then that Konami has been really reasonable with sales expectations and quite happy with SH2R's success when a decade ago, they were one of the worst offenders of the fools gold rush. I dunno if there's been a change in management or not, but I welcome the direction they've been headed, and definitely wouldn't mind seeing more of their IP's get remade, so long as there's still something new going along with the remakes.