Wait, what?
When a video game publisher decides to remaster a game for new platforms, the company often decides to append the word "remastered" to the game’s original title. Whether for the sake of simplicity or brand recognition, or both, that strategy usually works better than something as "I see what you were going for, but it doesn’t quite work" as, say, "Deathinitive Edition."
That is not the case here.
Rocksmith 2014 Edition, the music learning game from Ubisoft San Francisco, is being re-released Oct. 4 with a facelift and new features, publisher Ubisoft announced today. The package will include "a customizable learning curve, expanded practice tools, stat tracking, improved menus and more," according to Ubisoft.
That’s all well and good, except for the fact that Ubisoft’s official title for the re-release is Rocksmith 2014 Edition – Remastered, which is comical to the point of absurdity.
Sure, you could make the argument that anybody who sees that on the shelves will understand that it is a "remastered" version of a game that was originally called "Rocksmith 2014 Edition." But when something already has a year on the end of it — which seemed silly for Ubisoft to do in the first place, since Rocksmith was never an annual franchise à la Madden or NBA 2K — it becomes ridiculous to leave the year in the title for a re-release.
That’s to say nothing of how confusing the name could be for customers who see the product on shelves this October. After all, 2014 was a while ago, and Rocksmith 2014 originally launched in November 2013 on Mac, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.
Rocksmith 2014 Remastered will be released for $59.99 on Mac, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One; it will be available as a free patch to folks who already own the game on any platform. However, only people who buy the full-priced product will receive the following six downloadable bonus tracks at no additional cost; existing owners will have to buy them separately:
Source: Polygon – Xbox One
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