There’s a new rumor about 2K working on an unannounced remake.
As reported by Eurogamer, a motion capture animator working for 2K Games listed that they were working on an unannounced remake on their LinkedIn.
Of course, the dilemma between game developers and the games they are working on has long been a contentious topic on LinkedIn. What game developers don’t want to happen is for them to be working on a game for months, or even years, only to have that game be cancelled.
If the developer worked on an unreleased game, it means the potential value of their work will never be seen. If game companies hide their unreleased projects from the public, how much more so would they hide it from each other?
But that’s the reason that we see developers doing this. We don’t believe the industry has come up with firm rules on this, as sometimes we learn more about unannounced projects from LinkedIn. But mainly, in balancing the need to keep unannounced projects secret, but also to reveal that you had unreleased work in your CV, many developers will simply list that they have unannounced projects.
The 2K Games library is certainly not lacking for games that fans would love to see get remade. We’ll review some of the big titles below and which ones would be worth giving the remake treatment.
Bioshock – Bioshock is the big franchise that hasn’t seen any remakes or new games, though 2K has worked to keep the games available across three console generations now. Notwithstanding that some gamers are unsatisfied with Bioshock Infinite as a whole, depicting Rapture in Bioshock 1 and 2 could benefit from a real generational jump into current generation hardware, with the lighting and graphical effects that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X is capable of. The Coalition’s specialty could make these games look photorealistic the way that Hellblade 2 does, but of course we wouldn’t know if 2K would greenlight such remakes that may not make it to PlayStation.
Borderlands – like Bioshock, the Borderlands franchise has seen several rereleases, with the goal of keeping the games available, even with the multiplayer component intact on platforms like the Nintendo Switch. 2K produced Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, a remake of the first game with multiple technical and QOL improvements. That version of the game made it to multiple platforms.
However, an argument could be made that 2K could do a full remake of the first Borderlands. This would not just be about improving the graphics, but to retell the original story in such a way that it could match what Gearbox was able to achieve with Borderlands 2. While it retains a somewhat timeless cartoony style, a remake could also improve how the game is paced and structured on a design level.
The first Mafia game received a remake in 2020, with generally favorable though not exactly glowing reviews. It’s probably too early to try a remake of this game again, but Mafia 2 might be up for that treatment. It was remastered and bundle with the 1st and 3rd games, but again, the case to remake this game is to improve on its fundamental game design.
Of course, those who have played Mafia 2 know that it’s not a true open world, and that’s what 2K can improve on. In fact, imagine if even some of the people at Rockstar were given an open hand to reimagine this title in their hands. That’s something worth the effort to remake.
