I'm a million percent sure that WoTC&Paizo wouldn't allow this, but I'd want a BG remake to be done by Owlcat.
Let's wait and see. Wrath of the righteous is only owlcat's second game. If it will be good perhaps they will be able to do more ambitious project. That is if they can release it in an acceptable state (unlike they did with kingmaker)
My reasoning is that since Paizo and WotC are competing companies, they wouldn't allow Owlcat (thus far only associated with Paizo) to work with both. Either WoTC would never offer a contract or, in the unlikely event they do offer one, accepting it would ruin Owlcat's relationship with Paizo. I guess WotC could offer Owlcat an incredible amount of money to swap, but that'd probably anger their Pathfinder fans.
I'd remake them using the AD&D2e rules personally to make it as faithful as possible, BUT making more QoL changes and implementing missing pieces to make it still accessible, as well as conveying information a bit better.
Do you think that these changes would be enough to bring in new players though? Or would such a remake be primarily for those who already are familiar with BG1&2/AD&D2e?
One the one hand, it's a video game so players don't have to care as much about the nitty-gritty game mechanics since the computer does much of it for you. On the other hand: THACO, low AC is better, multi- vs dual-classing, etc are...not the most straightforward.
But the fundamental question is: why waste resources on a remake when you can just make a completely new game? <snip>
I mean, the fact that many companies already make remakes implies they're financially successful. Most often the same studios are remaking their own games, but it's not uncommon to remake a game originally developed by a different studio. You trade creative freedom & licensing issues for the ~guarantee of a base level of success based on the popularity of the old game.
You make a good point though, in that it's probably better to create your own game at that point...unless you already have the framework for a ruleset and could ~quickly churn out a remake. This is a reason to remake BG1&2 with an updated D&D edition. Owlcat would find it easiest to remake BG1&2 using D&D3.5, and Obsidian would find it easiest with D&D4e(?).
