Yeah I know. But it's really full of nods to the old pirate movies I grew up with.

Part of the problem is that companies spend too much money making games ya know. How much of what they pay for is really necessary for the experience/polish? Just to end up getting an 8/10 score or even less and having to bank on hopeful sales over quality. It's a tough market. :P

This is actually similar to a different reason, namely IP ownership.
Let's say that toxicTom does have the coolest idea for a new movie ever, with a new hero and everything. He goes looking for funding to make the next blockbuster, and he does find someone willing enough to fund the movie. He gives toxicTom full creative freedom, but makes him aware that the movie IP will be owned by the funder. Movie is a huge success, but toxicTom no longer has control of his creation, the funder does.

10 years later, toxicTom has struck gold (again), and has another new movie script, with once again a new IP. Why would he willingly go looking for funding, when he knows that his creation will then be lost to him?

The original article I had read about this was about comic book heroes, and why there are so few new ones. Any new characters introduced in a story line become property of the publisher (Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse etc), so the writers are quite reluctant to add new people to their story arcs. So the publishers have to use the ones they currently own.

Nowadays it's easier (read cheaper) to insert hi-rez textures and import top notch lighting systems than designing/testing whole levels.

So you buy/take one thing that was successful at some point in history, you put a bit of shine for meeting modern standards, and you sell it for the new generations (that wasn't born at the initial release) as a renewed experience. Cheap and sound.

If you push the reasoning a little further, given that we have enough raw videogame content to fill a backlog for a life, maybe the industry can just roll through recycling past designs with a bit of shine at every turn. Ouroboros all over again.

For every cynical fan who pledges never to be burned again and turns to reading Shakespeare by the fire, there's literally millions of unwashed, slightly moronic fish in the sea just waiting to see Ultimate Amazing Spiderman 47... now in HD/3D/IMAX/HOLYGODOHWOW/...

I dabbled in screenwriting a few years back and worked with some fellow writers in the industry. You wouldn't believe the talented material being put out by amateur spec writers. Don't see those awesome stories in theaters? I wonder why. It's for the same reason that actors get type cast. It's hard to sell an audience on something new and exciting. It's also financially risky. No, it's much easier to spoon feed the public the same goop over and over again. The only variable that could change that equation is the public not willing to fork over its dough for said goop. So long as people buy crap, they'll be forced to eat crap. It's really a very simple thing. Don't like what is being offered? Don't give them your money. With something as greedy as Hollywood is, they'd be shelling out awesome indies, dark comedies, and documentaries by the truck load if people would show interest and let the Michael Bay pond dry out. Unless and until that happens, nothing will change.

Starship Troopers needs to be rebooted if they would do it right. Agree with VABlitz to a large degree. The movie should focus on the tactics and the motives behind the tactics that the army uses. Why send in Grunts with bombs, instead of just the bombs. They also have to establish that we have already conquered one alien race, and the powered armour needs to be kick ass from the very start. They will mess it up no doubt :(

New ideas are hard.

Had anyone played "Game Dev Tycoon" on Steam?

I can see a couple of reasons:

1) It's inexpensive if all the assets are available immediately (or with minimal work). If you set out to do a HD remake for a game, you only need to focus on the graphics: the gameplay, level design and the writing and all that will have been cut out for you from the word go.
2) This also means that you need relatively few people to do the work.
3) Because it's cheap, the game can be sold at a price lower than most other new games but higher than what you could realistically get away with if you just sold the original.
4) If your game series has been going on for a while and the first game is a bit old and (perceived as) hard to access, giving it a facelift might lower the guard of more cautious gamers. With a bit of luck, they'll like you remake and buy other games on the series as well, giving you yet more money.
5) The franchise name is already out there, as is some kind of established fanbase (i.e. potential customers), so you don't need to blow so much money on marketing the bloody thing. Seriously, marketing is expensive, whereas just implying that you might have a team working on an HD remake of MechWarrior 4 would immediately catch the attention of all the customers that you need.

Do reboots if you want (not HD remakes with only Steam added and absurd pricetags, though) but please don't name them exactly the same as the originals. It makes things confusing.
Even more here on GOG. If someone tells you he plays Shadow Warrior, Thief or Tomb Raider then you have no idea if he speaks about original or modern remakes and you need to ask for clarification.

About today's remakes, that's true in some cases, but definitely not all. For instance, I feared very much that this would be the case with the new Robocop movie, but was extremely pleasantly surprised by it. It is very much an "old-school" reboot, where they take the same basic concept, but approach it from a whole new angle with a new story. I love both Robocop movies, the old and the new (What's that you say? Old sequels? No, there were never any sequels to the old Robocop. I can't hear you! LA-LA-LA-LA-LAAAAAA!)