It was announced today that Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition will come to the Nintendo Switch later in the year, thanks to developer KAIKO and controversial publisher THQ Nordic.

The cheekily titled remaster of the 2009 original first released last year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Guerrilla was originally a departure from previous titles in the series- instead of being a first person shooter, it took the action to third person. Its more notable feature was its highly destructible environments, which the trailer below highlights well, something not nearly as common a decade ago as it is now. The Switch version will see the same upgrades to the game as the versions from last year, with additional optional motion controls for improved aiming in handheld mode.

Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition will release on the Switch July 2^nd and will retail for $ 29.99 / € 29.99 / £ 26.99. You can see our review for the game here.

The release date for Red Faction Guerrilla Re-mars-tered has finally been revealed and you will be able to get your hands on the game soon enough. The game is set to release on July 3 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Along with the release date, a new announcement trailer has also been revealed. Furthermore, details regarding the game’s performance of the PS4 and Xbox One consoles have also been shared by THQ Nordic.

This remastered edition will feature fully reworked graphics, improved shadow rendering, and other such technical changes. On the PS4, the game will run at 1080p at 60 fps. On the PS4 Pro, the game will run either at 1500p at 60 fps, on the Xbox One, the game will run at 900p at 60 fps and on the Xbox One X, it will run at 1800p at 60 fps.

You can check out the new announcement trailer below.

Red Faction Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered, the funnily named remaster of the beloved action game, has received a brand new trailer showing us a whole lot of gameplay footage that primes us for exactly what we can expect from the remaster. You can see the trailer for yourself below- make sure to do so, especially if you are a long time fan of the game. I think you will recognize the song that plays during the trailer if you do.

We also finally have a release date for the remaster- it’s less than a month away, because it will launch on July 3, for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. As has been previously indicated, the game supports 4K resolutions for PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, as well as PCs that can handle that resolution.

Hopefully if the remaster does well, we can get a brand new game in the franchise some time soon… it’s been way too long since we got the last good one.

To learn more about all of the changes incoming with this new version, Gamingbolt reached out THQ Nordic whose Business and Product Development Director Reinhard Pollice provided the following answers.

"We did a Steam Edition of Red Faction Guerrilla in 2014 which was already a great success and showed us what potential is still in the franchise. We hope the Re-Mars-tered version will even expand on that and also bring it on the radar again for console players."

Red Faction Guerrilla did a lot of unique things which its contemporaries didn’t, but failed to garner much attention. Do you think this remaster will help the game get the recognition it deserves?

We certainly hope so. We believe the game is still relevant and its signature feature – the destruction – is still unmatched.

Are you hoping that this game will do well enough to help re-launch the series?

We did a Steam Edition of Red Faction Guerrilla in 2014 which was already a great success and showed us what potential is still in the franchise. We hope the Re-Mars-tered version will even expand on that and also bring it on the radar again for console players.

What are some of the main changes that are being made with this remaster?
We really focused on two things: First the visuals. We reworked all the textures which makes a huge difference and also the rendering engine. Secondly we developed it in a way that it works on modern gaming platforms like Playstation 4, Xbox One and of course the PC.

What made you decide that this was the right time to bring back Red Faction Guerrilla?

When we did the Steam Edition back in 2014 we already thought a lot about consoles but back then we didn’t know how to approach it. Now we’ve gathered a lot of experiences with the remasters of Darksiders and felt like now it’s time to get back Red Faction as it’s still very relevant as there is no game that does better destruction than Red Faction Guerrilla.

Have there been any particular challenges faced by the team when working on this remastered edition?

There has been a few very technical challenges. After all the codebase was huge, grew over time and we had high goals in terms of performance. Secondly the way the art was built was not very compatible with modern techniques. For example most graphics didn’t have specular maps so we had to add that and change the renderer in a way that this will be visually a serious upgrade.

How would you say these visual upgrades will help define a player’s experience of this game?

I think the visual experience is part of the overall entertainment of a game. A game need to look somehow appealing to be attractive. We feel the destruction was a core part of the moment to moment gameplay experience in Red Faction benefits a lot from those visual upgrades.

"I think there are ton of cool directions a next Red Faction game can feature but I feel like the Red Faction Guerrilla open world experience stuck the most with fans."

Are there currently any plans to remaster other games from the Red Faction series?

No currently we don’t have any plans. Although I still love the Red Faction 1 approach of a destructible world but that wouldn’t be a remaster project but rather a full remake.

What will the game’s performance be like across the different platforms?

We are right now doing a lot of efforts with performance optimization as we want to guarantee a smooth experience at all times. For example we change currently a lot about the use of threads.

What are some things you would like to include in a future Red Faction game?

Push destruction to the next level – that’s the base line. I think there are ton of cool directions a next Red Faction game can feature but I feel like the Red Faction Guerrilla open world experience stuck the most with fans.

Is there any reason why this game hasn’t been announced for handheld platforms such as the Nintendo Switch?

The Switch is a great gaming platform but it has even more challenges with regards to optimizations. We felt like we had enough on our plate.

The game is now confirmed for the PS4 and Xbox One, which also means it will support the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. Can you please let us know the resolution and frame rate it will run at on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X?

I would love to but we are still optimizing and haven’t locked that in.

And the resolution and frame rate on the base PS4 and Xbox One versions?

Our goal is 60 FPS at FullHD resolution but we are still working on optimizations.

"I really hope the way communities and online experiences can be served to the player make a big step forward and as a content provider there is more flexibility with regards to doing releases and updates."

Given that you are now working on both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, what kind of technical differences did you found between the two?

The Xbox One X is just even more recent and has better hardware.

What is your take on the recent trend of Games as a service model and the possible controversial monetization practices arising from it?

It’s always a question of whether a game offers enough value. This can be actual perceived value from one of these offerings or as an overall experience like the entire community that’s part of a games’ ecosystems. In the end the core game loop also need to support such models so that they are not awkwardly tied in or the gameplay was castrated to fit the monetization model. Players will quickly recognize both and pass on a game.

The current generation of consoles will probably end in the next couple of years. What is your biggest expectation from the next PlayStation and Xbox?

I think those pieces of hardware will be again more powerful but that’s rather a standard thing. I really hope the way communities and online experiences can be served to the player make a big step forward and as a content provider there is more flexibility with regards to doing releases and updates. Here Steam is still the clear number 1.

From a developer perspective, do you think the next-gen console era will be the 4K/60fps era?

Probably but when pushing the limits in terms of graphical fidelity that will not be easy to achieve.

Is there anything more you’d like to tell our readers?

Take your hammer and swing it on the battle fields of Mars – It’s worth it!

Games as a service, microtransactions, loot boxes… in spite of how prevalent these have all become in video games over the last few years, it is indisputable that they remain very controversial. In fact, as far as loot boxes go, they have been deemed outright illegal in countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

All of this is to say, it’s a hot and sticky topic of discussion right now in video games- among gamers and developers alike. One such developer is Business & Product Development Director Reinhard Pollice, working on the upcoming Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered. Speaking to GamingBolt, Pollice noted that ultimately, how accepting players are of monetization will come down to two things- whether the base game itself offers enough value, and whether the game was compromised to enable, for example, microtransactions.

“It’s always a question of whether a game offers enough value,” he said. “This can be actual perceived value from one of these offerings or as an overall experience like the entire community that’s part of a games’ ecosystems. In the end the core game loop also need to support such models so that they are not awkwardly tied in or the gameplay was castrated to fit the monetization model. Players will quickly recognize both and pass on a game.”

That’s a surprisingly cogent line of reasoning, and one I have no issues with whatsoever. In fact, seeing how much players are okay with microtransactions in something like Warframe over something like Star Wars Battlefront 2 only seems to reinforce his point.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered launches on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC later this year.

At this point, it is pretty evident that a new Xbox and a new PlayStation are coming. They may still be a few years away, but the successors to the PS4 and Xbox One are inevitably coming, and they will join the party with the Nintendo Switch.

But what can we even expect from the upcoming consoles? What’s left to do? According to Business & Product Development Director Reinhard Pollice, who is working on the upcoming Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered, online flexibility is still something both new consoles could stand to work on.

“I think those pieces of hardware will be again more powerful but that’s rather a standard thing,” he said. “I really hope the way communities and online experiences can be served to the player make a big step forward and as a content provider there is more flexibility with regards to doing releases and updates. Here Steam is still the clear number one.”

I can’t disagree with him- Sony, and especially Microsoft, have made massive strides in these departments over the last few years, but there are still many significant ways in which they lag behind the openness afforded by something like Steam on PC. Whether or not Xbox and especially PlayStation are willing to open up, as Pollice seems to want, however, is something that remains to be seen.

Stay tuned for our full interview with Reinhard in the coming days.