Edit: Sorry..don't mean to be too harsh..I just strongly disagree here.

You mention IP. If there wasn't money to be made for both parties, Beamdog would not be in business and there would be no re-releases of classic titles ever. To use the verbiage like "parasite" is to engage in sophistry. The IP would only be surrendered if the action was mutually beneficial. It also turns out that the original makers of these games care about the genre and their creative contributions, and probably feel better knowing that their games are now in good hands (meaning that these old classic titles have a chance to continue to grow and be known). You also mostly ignore the rapid commercialization of games, and the rise of small and less known studios that fill niches. Categorically, Beamdog cannot compete with the likes of Activision and Bethesda. Small fish and all.

You then imply that the games being re-released are the same. I'll be sure to parse all of the patch notes across every title to demonstrate that they have done a not-so-insignificant amount of work enhancing and perfecting these classics.

Finally, you mention running on someone else's brand. The market for Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights is so utterly tiny that it is but a blip on the radar of Activision, Ubisoft, EA. Let's be 100% clear that the vast majority of gamers EVERYWHERE have absolutely no idea what Black Isle Studios is or was. The brand that once was, is no longer. Beamdog does not run massive advertising campaigns on the internet and TV to sell their games. They just let the demographic grow organically- and if you are truly the fan you imply yourself to be, will agree this is a good thing. To be clear, there is a business in maintaining older games that still have a demographic. But his market is so utterly niche that to see any (even somewhat) competent developer attempt to widen the audience is laudable.

Thanks for being informative.

I'm with you. I haven't played NWN in a loooooong time. The few hours I've played lately have been great fun. Everyone usually rag's on the story / campaign, but I'm really enjoying it this time around.

Going with a half-elf ranger. I've never been into magic and spells can get complicated to keep track of (minus the occasional healing spell I always keep handy). Very simple, stand back and shoot. When I get far enough I'll probably hire the Monk and let him be a wall for me.

Ha ha ... I'm running an Elven ranger!

60% off that's a fab price...nice.

It's not all about you. Did you know that there are people that don't care at all about these modern "top notch AAA games"? Me, I'd rather pay too much for an "Enhanced" old Bioware RPG than get something like Battlefield for free.

Ok,I'll try again since the thread ate my post.
I never implied that they didn't do any work. I said they were parasitic (they are) because they don't create anything of their own, but rather make their living updating other games. How good those "enhancements" are is a matter of opinion, I think BGEE was pretty bad, especially since they messed with the game by trying to add inferior content.

I didn't imply the games were the same, but the changes are minimal on the surface. Like I said, they do a lot of work to make he games more viable on modern systems. The problem is when they take the originals away and charge an extortion to get the games. I compared them intentionally to CDPR and GOG because that is who they were, and who Beamdog is to a lesser extent now.

As for the brand argument, you offer false equivalency. Just because the brand isn't as big as EA or Ubisoft doesn't mean it isn't recognizable, and it certainly doesn't mean those brands aren't bigger than Beamdog's own. I've heard of plenty of games I never played. Planescape:Torment was one of those until fairly recently. People may not have heard of Black Isle or Obsidian, but they sure as Hell have heard of Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights. Those games are legend in the RPG field, even if many have never actually played them. If I heard a great game I've never played was getting a remaster, I may be inclined to give it a try. That's their target audience. Again, I'm not against them, but let's not pretend like they reinvented the wheel or anything. They are like the RPG equivalent of Telltale (if Telltale hadn't been run by a team of monkeys who couldn't figure out that buying too many IPs would bankrupt them).

Edit: I kept saying Obsidian. I obviously meant Bioware...

Oldie but goldie. Thanks for digging this up, I wasn't aware of this thread before.

Really? how you can compare investment to create AAA title and investment to repack something with little changes? why it should cost the same? Only very limited fan base can throw money at Beamdog just to show their appreciation.

How is the investment some company does relevant to me? Is the fact that a game was more expensive to make more important to you than your enjoyment of the game? (mind that I still think that this EE should be cheaper)

You are engaging in a false dichotomy fallacy, by stating that there are only two possibilities in game development and that one is good and the other is not: creating new games (good) and maintaining legacy games (bad). You are vastly oversimplifying game development, and additionally the burden is on you to prove why Vicarious Visions (maker of Crash Bandicoot Remastered), QLOC (maker of Dark Souls Remastered), Forgotten Empires (maker of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition) are all "parasites." If the fruits of their labour were so worthless, why would they all exist? If you espouse the view that all developers who remaster titles are parasites, you must provide a bit more evidence. To be 100% clear, my view is that a mutually beneficial contractual arrangement on intellectual property with stipulations of royalties would not be considered a "parasitic" business arrangement by any entity nor any court.

My argument on brand is not a false equivalency. Black Isle Studios is a defunct gaming company whose members dispersed across Bioware, Obsidian Entertainment, and Beamdog. These games are not released with marketing that suggests Beamdog is in any way related to these organizations. Beamdog is not piggybacking off the names of other developers. The name of the game is not the "brand" and it is in fact your misuse of the definition that leads to this flawed argument. My point is that the value of the name of the game is so tiny that you could not possibly make a reasonable case that it contains tremendous growth potential. Neverwinter Nights, while very popular for its time, is not worth nearly the same as say Call of Duty. Just having the name "Call of Duty" in any title is enough to generate a known and predictable amount of profit regardless of the particulars about which developers are implementing the game. I think this stigma against remastered titles, while well-founded, is misplaced on Beamdog...

"How is the investment some company does relevant to me?"
It does in other places:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45832657
It also has knock on effects to others doing the same, or in cases (Simon?) a worse job.

And this is exactly the problem. Most people aren't interested in MP, and as you wrote yourself, for SP only the upgrade isn't worth it.

What makes people angry is the taking down of the DE, and I can understand it. People love choice and hate choice being taken away. I'm pretty sure if Beamdog had decided to keep selling the DE for $10 and the EE for $20 (with maybe $12 for upgrading) most existing owners would have eventually upgraded and most new customers would have gone EE anyway (people simply want the best version, unless it's prohibitively expensive like some "Royal" editions).

Removing the DE from sale makes is look like Beamdog isn't really convinced of their own product, and it makes them look greedy (I don't say they are - I'm sure they put a lot of work in it). I think it's really a bad business decision because the outrage harms them. Now many people will refrain from buying the EEs even at 80% off in a sale because "we boycott the parasite".

From my personal view I think the asked 50€ for the "all-inclusive" version is way to high, compared to what you already get with the base game. I took it, because with all the discounts 20€ seemed ok. And I only bought it because I've been planning to finally play SoU and HotU some day and I hope the visuals are improved a bit (IMO NWN is really the ugliest DnD game since Gold Box, I even like Eye of the Beholder better) because it can your all help it can get...