So, in this article, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about if Bloodborne is actually going to get remastered, remade, a patch, or anything. It’s not 100% clear, right now, exactly what a remaster of Horizon would look like, but common sense, as well as reports, suggest that, no, we’re talking about a Last of Us Part 1 scenario. This would not be a remake. What we’d be looking at is essentially a PS5 patch released as something of a ‘definitive edition’ instead of as a patch. This would include new graphics modes, of course, alongside a few optimizations, accessibility choices, and quality-of-life features. If that sounds like a patch for an older PS4 game finally getting some PS5 love, that’s because it is, or what it sounds like, at least. The only unique thing about this rumor is that we’re expecting this to be coming as a ‘new’ game rather than an update. Plus, Sony’s PS5 game pricing suggests this would not just be launched as a full game but launched as a full-fat $70 game, too. For a patch. This is important to recognize because, while amazing that Horizon continues to do so well and get the love that the franchise definitely deserves, Horizon: Zero Dawn isn’t getting remastered in any real sense of the word. Its PC release brought far better graphics than even PS5 will be capable of, so really, such a move would just give PS5 owners a chance to play Horizon: Zero Dawn at over 30FPS, in a higher resolution, and with a few new nice features. None of this really suggests that Sony is willing to put the work in on actually remastering other first-party games over Bloodborne. Though, Sony does continue to put out PC releases of its first-party games, and even truly remaster other games like Uncharted, while skipping out on Bloodborne entirely in this regard. In short, Zero Dawn rumors may, indeed, be true, but don’t really expect a ‘remaster’ and don’t get too angry that Horizon is getting ‘remastered’ before Bloodborne. A Bloodborne remaster would take significantly more work than a Zero Dawn one would, considering it’s an older game with its whole own host of technical problems. Recently, rumors have spread around, courtesy of an industry insider making comments, that Bloodborne isn’t being remastered because it’s such a coding mess that it would take too much time away from supporting Elden Ring for FromSoftware. Comments about FromSoftware not being likely, as a studio, to return to Bloodborne have been making the rounds for literal years, and the response has always been the same: FromSoftware doesn’t own or control Bloodborne, Sony does. And just like Sony totally independently had Demon’s Souls entirely remade without FromSoftware, Sony can have Bloodborne remastered without FromSoftware. Now, is Bloodborne a coding nightmare? This is harder to answer definitively, as few people have had their hands inside the source code, and fewer still have access to it that could truly understand it. However, famed Bloodborne modder Lance McDonald had a few things to say about this general idea. According to Lance, Bloodborne is not a mess in terms of its code at all. In fact, Lance says that there are “two lines of code that need changing” that control whether or not Bloodborne can run at 60FPS, which would be the most essential improvement fans are crying out for, while Lance doesn’t just stop there. He also says “there are literally zero technical barriers between a Bloodborne and a PC/60fps PS5 port/re-release” going on to note that he knew Sony’s Japan Studio had a version of the game running on Windows 7 and that he had seen it. Obviously, this is a far cry from Bloodborne being in such a terrible state that only FromSoftware could ever hope to remaster it or port it in any way. Of course, though, it’s important to understand that the process wouldn’t be as simple as just changing two lines of code or pressing a button to release a PC version. An in-development build running on a PC is far from unheard of, and it’s also likely far from a release state, not to mention that a lot has changed in computing since Bloodborne’s development in the early 2010s, too. Then, many other fixes would also need to come to a remaster, like better textures and higher resolutions, etcetera. Not to mention that while unlocking Bloodborne’s framerate may indeed be as simple as changing a few lines of code, optimizations would be needed for stable performance, which would also take time and resources. For a while now, former IGN editor Colin Moriarity has been reporting that a Bloodborne remaster courtesy of Bluepoint Games is in the works. Plus, at times, he’s also relayed information he’s heard from sources that say Bluepoint is also working on a Bloodborne sequel, too. It has long since been theorized that the developers of the Demon’s Souls remake would be the natural pick to develop a Bloodborne remaster, especially since Sony has just recently purchased them a few years back. However, more recently, Moriarity has relayed some new information. According to a different but reliable (according to Moriarty) source, now Moriarity is being told that Bluepoint is not actually working on anything to do with FromSoftware, which Moriarity can’t verify one way or the other, though he notes he still believes a Bloodborne remaster is coming. So, what are you to make of all this? Well, the case for a Bloodborne remaster is still strong. Many folks want it, even more after the success of Elden Ring, and Sony continues to show that they’re willing to bring older PlayStation games to PC as well as remake or remaster its first-party titles as appropriate. Common sense would suggest we’ll see a Bloodborne remaster eventually. What’s less clear is why Sony has been so radio silent about Bloodborne. Sure, COVID might have pushed back its release, or there could be unknown technical or legal issues there. Maybe Sony simply doesn’t want to saturate the FromSoftware game market after Demon’s Souls and Elden Ring. There are many reasons why the game isn’t out yet, but why nothing has been announced is still an open question.
