The first period of life of the current consoles was remembered, at least by most of the insiders, as the year of the remastered. Developers still struggled to work with new hardware and, for this very reason, game development was more difficult than expected. Obviously, things have not changed, although we can say that the times have somewhat standardized. The software houses have taken the measures as they should and, now, before announcing a title in development we always think very well about it. There is a constant, however, that in all these years has never changed, namely the presence of the remastered. Users initially reacted badly to this "newborn" type of product, only to change their minds after the publication of some games that, for most fans, marked the best years of their childhood. After this statement you will almost certainly have thought about Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy: we know perfectly well that this work is a remake, therefore a product developed from scratch and not a simple port adapted to PlayStation 4. In any case, whether it is Ramake or Remastered, the fan base responded present, almost forgetting Suddenly the times when people cursed the return to "next gen" of a title already available previously on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. So why all this fuss if it is an older title?
The answer seems to be more obvious than expected: the new graphics certainly help, but the most powerful effect is certainly the nostalgic one. When the first remastered ones came out, they were adaptations related to still fresh products but now that the development houses have changed the target audience, that is, they aim at adult players, the reaction has totally changed. I will try to explain with a simple sentence what the nostalgia effect is: do you remember that toy you slept with as children? Now, just for a moment, imagine being able to hold him in your arms once again, this feeling, or an unstoppable whirlwind of disturbances, is 100% nostalgia. This feeling is rooted within each individual and is stimulated by marketing campaigns that emotionally engage the user 100%. How much would you be willing to pay to try again the same intense emotion you felt in the past? A lot, I guarantee you!
This special technique is called Nostalgia Marketing: this modus operandi is particularly effective on social media, even if it does not work the same for everyone since, being different people, we have different feelings from each other. In video games, however, the discourse is globalized, as there are entire generations that have been marked by memorable events, maybe the historic films of the 80s like Tron, or songs that marked the 90s like that of the Titanic movie or concerts that have united millions of kids from all countries like the last of Freddie Mercury together with Queen in the '86. Precisely for this reason, involving an impressive number of people through the same experience is easier and faster than rather than addressing the individual, so nostalgia is the most practical example for various advertising campaigns.
Applying the nostalgia effect is therefore practical, simple and effective, it can even be applied to the narration of a brand to strengthen the sense of belonging of a slice of consumers. Using nostalgia both to narrate the storytelling of a certain item (perhaps retracing the glorious past of PlayStation), or simply to remember that a product is still alive, aims to awaken dormant feelings in the hearts of all children who have become too old to remember. Sony had already launched the hashtag in 2013 #PlayStationMemories on Twitter, so as to make users participate in sharing the various experiences lived with the "ancient" versions of the Japanese home console.
Here is the statement that Sony released a few months later:
"The tens of millions of views we got showed the love for the brand that has remained dormant until now."
With a few simple words, here's how to awaken the positive emotions of a gone past, thus convincing users to buy a PlayStation product again.
Here is explained in a nutshell why the sales of Crash Bandicot N. Sane Trilogiy, or to stay in the current period Shadow of the Colossus, they held up well. Respectively they are two titles completely opposite to each other, in common they only have a marketing campaign that has known how to involve users in that flavor of "time gone" that we will not be able to recover due to age and the responsibilities that advance. Also Medievil will be part of these Remastered / Remake in a few months that will literally drive fans crazy, probably to follow will also Spyro and on a regular basis others will arrive. In the end we are human beings and, as much as before we hated the concept of remastered as it was presented to us, now that it affects not only personal tastes but also our feelings, we all let ourselves be lulled by this new wave of second childhood, albeit fictitious.
