It's quite boomer-coded to say that games were better back when we were younger, but as we see nostalgic projects like re-released classics and remastered hits continue to sell well, it's clear gamers have a fondness to return to their old favourites. Recently, the publishing company SNEG helped launch Warhammer Classics, a new label that brought a bunch of nostalgic Warhammer titles back to Steam, or debuted some on the platform for the first time.
We recently got the chance to chat with SNEG's co-founders Artem Shchuiko and Oleg Klapovskiy about what makes people want to return to older games, even when age has done a number on them, and what developers today can learn from classic titles.
"I think what many players are really responding to is not just nostalgia, but originality. Older games were often less polished by modern standards, but they were also full of unusual ideas, bold mechanics, and creative solutions that felt fresh. A lot of that has been lost over time," Klapovskiy said.
"Players do not always want another game built from an established template or designed too safely around what has already worked before. They want new experiences. Sometimes older games still feel more exciting precisely because they were willing to take risks. That is also one of the reasons so many indie games are successful today. The best indie developers still dare to experiment, dream, and innovate. I think that is the real lesson for the industry. If you want a new game to succeed, it has to give players something they have not seen too many times already."
It seems Klapovskiy has hit the nail on the head, as a lot of the recent success stories in games come from titles that give us something we've not seen in a long time, if at all. Baldur's Gate III brought CRPGs back, Astro Bot delivered a phenomenal, non-Nintendo platformer, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 combined a mix of beloved genres into one unusual whole. There are still major successes in older franchises, but sometimes we do see a bit of fatigue in certain formulas today.
For more information on Warhammer games, game preservation, and nostalgia bait done right, check out our full interview here.