On the most recent episode of the Waveform podcast, the hosts talk about two new announcements in the MMORPG world (relevant bit starts at 1:21 and goes on for 14 minutes):

The context is this:

• RuneScape launched in 2001, and World of WarCraft in 2004,
• each game already had a “relaunch”: RuneScape via Old School RuneScape in 2013, and World of WarCraft with its Classic edition in 2019 – both revisiting and perhaps straight replaying the respective original game, but with some new improvements.

The new announcements are yet another revisit for each universe:

• RuneScape announced RuneScape 4 – an old game engine but with more modern graphics,
• World of WarCraft announced World of WarCraft: Forever, which feels like a cross between “reboot” and “rewind” – going back to the original, but creating brand new events and universes within.

I haven’t played either game, but the segment made me think: why have we never seen non-game software do this kind of stuff? I can think of multiple reasons, but at the same time I am surprised I can’t come up with even just one example of a software company doing something similar – I mean, rewinding the clock – with one of their bloated apps.

We have seen companies reboot their software – the most (in)famous examples in recent times I can think of would be Apple’s iMovie ’08 and Final Cut Pro X, Sonos software refresh in 2024, and Digg redesign in 2010 – but that feels different. Of course, time and again, we also see competition take another crack at a problem and steal the market from an incumbent afraid to cannibalize itself, but that’s also a different thing.

In a post not long ago, I wrote:

I think that kind of push and pull is important, especially today. I don’t love using Google Sheets, but my favourite spreadsheet is not Excel 97, either. My favourite spreadsheet is some hypothetical anachronistic version of Excel 97 that also has modern high-dpi typography, and a ⌘K command palette, and today’s trackpad gestures, and support for AVIF and HEIC.

…and I still think I would love to see “Excel 97 Revisited” today. But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like it.

Please let me know if I am missing something obvious!