robin2099

So far in 2017 we've had the following major milestones for VG franchises.

Street fighter turned 30.

Resident Evil turned 20.

Mega Man turned 30.

Double Dragon turned 30.

Tomb Raider turned 20

Mortal Kombat turned 25.

Punch Out became 30.

Contra turned 30 and Castlevania turned 30 last year.

Some of them not being remembered I can kind of see like Double Dragon or Punch Out since its a Nintendo IP.

But Resident Evil had nothing done. No big rereleases, no documentary, no books on the franchises history, nothing. Same with Mega Man, and Mortal Kombat. Tomb Raider had a 20th anniversary book but no real rereleases. Street Fighter seems to be doing better with the relase of Undiputed Street Fighter and the 12 game collection.

So why don't game companies make the most of these achievements instead of basically ignoring them or doing the bare minimum?

K&AJones

Well I cannot speak for the Devs and companies in general but in many cases it's a case of the old saying...."Out with the old and in with the new"....where resources are thrown toward the latest & greatest while the old stuff has been sent to storage with maybe a few just keeping it alive.

There are some where Anniversary Events pop up...Diablo with Blizzard and Warframe where you can obtain special event items but these are more current games and not the 20+ year old stuff on that list. Be nice itf that were not the case but in years to come someone might be asking the same thing with names like Halo, Gears of War, Destiny, etc.....

Michael Corvin

Could be because most of what you listed are still popular franchises. I see anniversary editions as a marketing ploy to get people talking about you again, or to just hold you over until the next release.

stingermck

Double Dragon 4 was released this year as part of their 30th.

DthRdrX

Tomb Raider had that 20th Ann. Edition on PS4

Capcom finally announced a new Mega Man game.

I do think Capcom was intending something for Resident Evil, the RE 2 remake, but it's taking time.

fujishig

I'd say they probably have difficulty lining up the schedule to coincide with anniversaries.

Dan

Scheduling, resources, ROI...

Rob V

It was? On what platform?

Dan

According to wikipedia, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch.

milo bloom

It's already like pulling teeth to get them to do backwards compatibility, they would probably rather have us forget about the old stuff and just buy new.

fujishig

Nah, they'd rather have us rebuy the old stuff than have backward compatibility... which does beg the question why they just don't throw together a remaster or even discount the older games during the anniversary.

I'm sure there would be some interest in, say, a Contra collection. Though maybe they just don't want people to expect a new game later.

Drexl

Capcom licensed a re-release of the SNES port of SFII on a red cartridge. But I really don't think they should be commemorating the original anyway; SFII was the real classic.

Tomb Raider Anniversary was sort of a remake of the first game for its 10th anniversary.

Dan

A cartridge that may set your SNES on fire, no less.

Mike86