---
title: 'Why Are All These 10+ Year-Old Games Suddenly Getting Updates & DLC?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mfu7wi-CiMY'
video_id: 'Mfu7wi-CiMY'
date: 2026-09-20
duration_sec: 583
channel: 'Mortismal Gaming'
---

# Why Are All These 10+ Year-Old Games Suddenly Getting Updates & DLC?

> Source: [Why Are All These 10+ Year-Old Games Suddenly Getting Updates & DLC?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mfu7wi-CiMY)

## Summary

The video discusses the recent trend of 20+ year old video games receiving unexpected patches, DLCs, and remasters. The creator examines possible reasons behind this phenomenon, from industry economics to passion projects, while acknowledging that the answer varies by game.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to the Trend** [00:00] — The creator introduces the topic: why many old games are suddenly getting updates, patches, and DLCs. He notes the trend has been prominent over the last year or two.
- **Examples of Updated Games** [00:29] — Examples include Planescape Torment's enhanced edition update (cloud saves, UI scaling), Lord of the Rings: War in the North re-release, Pillars of Eternity 1 turn-based mode patch, and Temple of Elemental Evil's Steam return.
- **Wizards of the Coast's Role** [02:18] — Following Baldur's Gate 3's success, Wizards of the Coast partnered with publisher Sneg S to update and re-release many old D&D titles on Steam, making them playable for the first time in years.
- **Witcher 3 Remaster and DLC** [03:23] — The Witcher 3's upcoming remaster and DLC are attributed to the game's popularity and a passion decision, as the remaster is free for existing owners.
- **Mysterious Cases** [04:08] — Less clear cases like Lord of the Rings: War in the North (Aspire Media) and Pillars of Eternity's turn-based mode raise questions about internal estimates and motivations, possibly influenced by industry trends or passion.
- **Neverwinter Nights DLC** [06:12] — Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition's DLC 'Doom of Icewind Dale' was a passion project by a single developer, fitting the game's custom module system.
- **Industry Economics** [07:06] — The struggling gaming industry, with layoffs and high development costs, makes updating old games a safer, cheaper bet than risky new projects.
- **Creator's Enjoyment** [08:23] — The creator enjoys the trend, having played War in the North for the first time, and appreciates the availability of classic CRPGs.

### Conclusion

The trend of updating old games is driven by a mix of industry economics, passion projects, and strategic moves by publishers, offering players a chance to revisit classics. The creator invites viewers to share their theories in the comments.

## Transcript

What's going on everybody, Mortem here, this time bringing you a discussion about a question that I admittedly do not fully have an answer to, but the question itself is, why are all
these 20 plus year old games suddenly getting patches and DLCs all at once? Now interestingly enough, I actually do think there is at least one segment of these games that have been getting that treatment that we actually do have a pretty concrete answer
for, but the rest are much more ambiguous. And yet, I suppose it's possible that unless you are glued to the video game space, you might not be aware that I would say over the past, like, last year or two, just a ton of old video games have been getting updates, patches, DLCs, etc. And they
are of, I would say, varying levels of complexity. Some of these games are simply being re-released on Steam, where they were previously unavailable or were only available for a while before being pulled. Others are getting like full patches to be made playable on modern hardware. Others are
getting proper remasters and still yet more of them are getting DLCs all of the sudden. Just to rattle off a couple of recent examples, the thing that actually spurred me to make this video was that on September 15th, Planescape Torment's enhanced edition got an update giving it proper
cloud saves, UI scaling, some improved stuff for the mobile side of things. Also pretty recently, We got essentially a re-release of The Lord of the Rings War in the North, which was a lot of fun.
But to go back a little bit farther, Pillars of Eternity 1 recently got that big patch that brought its turn-based mode with some updates that actually make it a better version of that game's turn-based compared to the sequels version. In December of last year, we saw the release of the, I would say, patch version of Temple of Elemental Evil
that was brought back to Steam with a bunch of changes and additions to make it much more stable. And I give you all of those examples when there are honestly just tons and tons of others just to point out that this is happening a lot.
And a lot of it has been within the last couple of years. And I suppose what makes me curious about that in particular is just how it all seems to have lumped up at the same rough time period. So let's talk a little bit about that.
Starting with honestly the most easy thing to point to here and that because it the thing we actually have an answer for which is that following the release of Baldur Gate 3 Wizards of the Coast finally decided to take the video game side of D seriously all of a sudden and they got with a publisher known as Sneg S
to basically update and revamp a lot of their old unplayable titles and release them onto Steam. They have done this with a ton of games. Temple of Elemental Evil was done by them, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. They have done countless more, such as Demon's Stone, and in so doing,
actually made all of these games available for people to play, potentially for the first time, even if they are certainly products of their era, let's say. So, in that particular situation, we know exactly why it was happening. Though, just to throw it in here before I get the inevitable
deluge of comments about it, yes, obviously Wizards of the Coast has also done plenty of other things that have been less consumer-friendly as well over the past couple of years, But in the instance of these games, we can basically point to a thing and be like, this is why.
In a slightly different, but still somewhat related instance, with stuff like the upcoming remaster for The Witcher 3 and its sudden DLC after all this time, the answer there is pretty obvious.
That game is wildly popular. They wanted to do that DLC, which was born out of some other stuff anyway, and then in order to, I would say, really do that well, they wanted to provide a remaster for The Witcher 3, which is already pushing 12 years old.
Though in that instance, I'm inclined to simply think it was more of a passion decision, given just how much they gave away for free there. Like, everybody who owns the game already is just going to get the remaster, and as a result of that, because of The Witcher 3 being one of the best-selling single-player RPGs of all time, that's a whole lot of free copies.
But you don't exactly have to be a scholar to figure out how they arrived at those decisions. Where things get decidedly less clear, really, are with the stranger titles that got these remasters and updates, like the Lord of the Rings War in the North, for instance.
It was a cool game. I'm glad that they did that so I could experience it. That was not something I had played previously, and this gave me an opportunity to do so. But this one was developed and published by Aspire Media, that is to say the sort of patched version that got the theme re-release.
And I do find myself just really curious about how they landed on that as an agreement. Like, what were the internal estimates put at? Like how much work should we put into this compared to how much we could realistically expect to make off of all of this work especially given how old the game is Now I sure there was probably some number punching in there anyway They may well have seen all of the other games getting exactly this
given that this was a more recent one, or any other number of things and just decided to pull the trigger. Maybe they just really loved the game, for all I know. Where things get much more interesting, or at least complicated, is stuff like Pillars of Eternity. So, if you just happen
to have missed it. The original Pillars 1 got an update that added turn-based mode, and it was pretty fun. It gave me a reason to re-review that game with the turn-based mode specifically, but I do find myself wondering why they chose to do it at all. There were certainly some rumors
flying around when they were doing that, like maybe they were gearing up for another Pillars project, but that ship seems to have probably failed, given that we know they're working on Fallout and stuff now. But more baffling still is that the sequel, Close of Eternity 2, Deadfire,
also got a turn-based mode update, and yet the changes that they made to turn-based in the first game, from what they learned in Deadfire, I would imagine, make it, I would say, the better version of that turn-based mode,
which is certainly an odd position to be in overall. But as you can see, when you start digging into some of these situations, it's like, why is this a thing that happened, for instance? Now, to go even more niche than that, some people might remember that
Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition got a DLC called the Doom of Icewind Dale not all that long ago, at like the beginning of 2025, and while that seemed a little strange on the face of it,
that fit with that game a little more naturally than you might expect, because of the way Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition handles like custom modules, so to speak, and that DLC was made primarily by one person who had done work on like other modules and stuff,
So clearly just more of a passion project than anything else, I would imagine. But as you can see from hopefully that, you know, pretty sizable amount of examples, which really don't even cover all of the things that have been revamped and redone,
there's a pretty strong trend of this going on right now. And I don't have like an official answer, especially considering that the actual answer probably changes from studio to studio. But I could hazard a couple of guesses, which is exactly what I'm going to do right now.
And to kick that off I would say straight away it should probably be noted the stakes that the gaming industry is in at the moment as is I would say much of the rest of the world for various reasons And that state is struggling more so than usual It never exactly been the most let say forgiving industry
But with all the layoffs and everything going on right now, I don't think it's terribly surprising that some companies might want to turn to things that seem a little more guaranteed, like breathing a little life into a beloved entry in a series
and making that updated and playable for people, and it's also inevitably going to be cheaper as well as a result, which means more people might actually play it in a world where people aren't spending nearly as much money on this stuff as they have in years past.
Combine that with the fact that it seems to be difficult, or at least more difficult than usual for some of these companies to get a project greenlit, it probably looks better on paper to do a smaller project and again try to work with less risky business
as opposed to pumping tens of millions into a project only for it to not pan out. Because that seems like the safest bet, in my opinion, at least to trying to understand why this might be happening, outside of, of course, things just like regular old passion projects.
Those are certainly a thing. But I will tell you that, regardless of the reason, I'm certainly enjoying it. I enjoy going back and playing these games. Like I mentioned, the Lord of the Rings one, that was the first time I had ever played it,
and it was genuinely a good time. I can see why people enjoyed it back in the day, even if it wasn't exactly a blockbuster. I've been known to enjoy a good CRPG, and you're never going to hear me complain about them getting updated and making them more available and ready to play for people.
But mostly I just wanted to make this video because it's just kind of like a weird situation that just keeps happening over and over again in the past year or two, and it felt like an interesting subject to talk about. But with that, I will kick it over to you, the audience,
and see what you guys have to say about it down in the comment section below. Please let me know your thoughts about it. I'd be curious to hear any theories people might come up with. But that's going to do it for me today. Certainly hope you enjoyed the video,
which naturally means like, comment, subscribe on YouTube Jazz. But regardless of any of that, truly, just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.
Thank you.