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Real answer: usually, such large amounts of people returning to an older game can stem back to one event related to the game or an influential person/establishment talking about it. Like how people started playing the New Order again when the second game was revealed. Or maybe a bad game comes out in an established genre or series that has people going back to the old one. Otherwise it usually is a influential person or establishment writing about the game or a making video on the game.
But what drives an individual return to an older game? Well, thatās an incredibly broad question, but as for myself itās usually I start thinking about a game mechanic or design or listen to some game music at work and think ādang, that game rocked.ā Like just earlier I was listening to Dungeon of the Endlessā score and thinking āI gotta go back and play more.ā
In my own circles a ton of people started playing Bloodborne for the first time because it was part of the PSN holiday sale right after Christmas. Always awesome to see that game get some new blood. 
Iām having a lot of trouble with the premise that Bloodborne is an āolderā game.
Itās canon, the DLC is literally called The Old Hunters.
(I had a lot of trouble with it too, I clicked the link expecting to see like Windjammers or something).
Regarding going back to something thatās a few years old, but not quite retro enough to really be nostalgic, the main thing that comes to mind is Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The reason I like going back to it is because Relic really nailed how I imagined that universe looks and sounds and feels. And unlike the Dawn of War series, Space Marine is a very accessible third person shooter thatās super easy to jump into for an hour or two, say, āyeah, this is still rad,ā and put back down again for six months. I really wish theyād revisit the idea of an action game in that universe again. Ugh, Eternal Crusade was such a disappointment.
The thing thatās been making me want to go back to 8- and 16-bit generation games lately has been my 4-year oldās odd fascination with pixel art games. Despite the wealth of graphically impressive games out there that heās seen and played, he is just as fascinated with Mega Man as I was when I was his age.
Also Rock Band, because itās the best.
Oh man, Space Marine! that was a game for sure. So many jump packs, so casually discarded.
There are several reasons for me.
The biggest one right now is money: I donāt have much disposable income so replaying older games is a good way to save some money.
Aside from that, there a lot of different reasons why I decide to go back to certain games.
I played through the original Dishonored last October, because after playing the Sequel, I felt like replaying the first games again. I also played through Fallout New Vegas, because I saw someone else on twitter talking about it (incidentally me talking about my own playthrough then got someone else into replaying it). I also play a bunch of older games for research purposes. Usually those are games that I havenāt played before and I also try to focus on titles that havenāt been already talked about a lot.
I tend to go back to old stuff when I get a craving for something very specific that only one thing has done well. Like, bringing up Space Marine again, that game has a very specific blend of shooting and smashing that is distinctly memorable, and every now and again Iāll just get hit with a sudden, āYo, I Want That Againā. Usually because something else tried it, but didnāt do as well.
More recently I played Sonic Forces, enjoyed it enough, but got hit with a real hard desire to play through the good version of what that game does, so went back to Generations. Then at some point I ended up playing basically every mainline Sonic game going back years, because nothing else really does what Sonic does and Iād really been missing out for ages without realising it.
And Iām going back to Bloodborne in a bit because frankly nothingās really surpassed that game yet and itās worth reminding yourself of that once in a while. Gonna use my NG+ Blade of Mercy Arcane build and grab the Rakuyo.
Every genre has its diehard fanbase: those who play that type of game almost exclusively, who dissect and discuss that type of game endlessly, who extract perfect routes and methods, and who analyze their systems to pinpoint what defines them. Some fanbases are inundated with games of their chosen genre; a pile of games to sift through, rigorously test the gameās mettle against their own standards, and decide whether or not to dig into them or, more likely, toss them aside and move on to the next.
I see it on my Steam friends list, those RTS fans who are constantly playing the new offering, or those survival fans who give every Early Access entry a fair shake. However, if one were to step back and examine their timeline of play, theyād notice these gaps between new games - but these āgapsā arenāt downtime, they are just all the same game, the one they return to endlessly. They are the One True Game of that personās favorite genre. They are Crusader Kings 2, or Donāt Starve, or Civilization 5.
I think what we see with games like Bloodborne is that they represent a genre whose fanbase is as hungry as any other, but are sorely underfed. There just arenāt that many fully-realized entries into the Souls genre. As with other fanbases, there are favorites of the genre, the One True Game that best represents it and offers the most depth, complexity, and replayability; however, unlike other genres, there isnāt much to test against this fanbaseās high standards, let alone those that are good enough to meet them.
I think thatās why large swaths of people tend to all gravitate to the same āoldā games from time to time: in between major releases of their favorite genre, these are the games which still have meat on the bone.
Slow release schedule, discounts because of Holiday sales, also newsworthiness (Dark Souls: Remastered just announced, FROM teased next game (Many speculate being Bloodborne 2) at Video Game Awards) often means time to dip into the backlog.
But yeah, mostly January is when people have time to dip into old games, no Holiday stuff anymore, generally stuck indoors because of winter, basically a non-existant release schedule of new games, etc.
I actually am playing Bloodborne right now myself. I only got a PS4 in mid-2017 because I had been waiting for the library for the console to fill out with games I was interested in. I mentioned Bloodborne as a potential Christmas gift to my family and lo my brother bought it for me. I had been wanting to play it since it came out and I have been loving it so far.
Current events can offer new context and meaning to old game worlds. When confronted with Elon Muskās freshest plans to stroke his ego in space, itās 2009ās Red Faction Guerilla that sates my thirst to shatter (into useful scrap 
) a zoo of interplanetary imperialist/corporatist/capitalist structures (bases, mines and pipelines; oh my!). Seeing my Mason use a sledgehammer to send a private security drone smashing through the wall of their own checkpoint has particularly potent meaning to me in these times, ones that increasingly point to the seedlings of fascism bring planted on Mars soon. Perhaps as soon as 2024.
Iāve also been playing through Bloodborne for the first time since I got a cheap ass Ps4 on black friday. Iām almost done at this point (just have Orphan of Kos and Gerhman left), and Iāve been having a complete blast with it. Dark Souls 3 is still my favorite, especially for its near perfect co-op, but Bloodborne def comes in second on my personal ranking of souls games.
Iāve been surprised at how active BB is 3 years after launch but I think thatās a testament to just how deep and replayable these games are. Thereās so many different builds and playstyles that making different choices on a replay can totally change how you play. My girlfriend has also been playing through BB, and where I made a skill and arcane build and ended up using the Reiterpallasch and the Blades of Mercy, she focused on strength and is using Ludwigās Holy Sword and the Whirligig Saw. The ways we approach encounters have two totally different rhythms because of that, which makes it even more fun to watch each other play. The multiplayer also adds a whole other layer of things to do. The other souls games are even better at this than Bloodborne, Iād say.
I do think the combo of sales, AGDQ, and FromSoft teasing a new game that may or may not be Bloodborne 2 is whatās bringing many back to Bloodborne, but I also kinda think people may have just never stopped playing it, itās only 3 years old after all.
The blood vial mechanic was actually something I was dreading due to all the criticism Iāve heard about it from Austin and others, but it hasnāt been a problem at all for me. Iāve found that as long as I use the rally mechanic whenever possible, and use whatever blood echoes are leftover after leveling up to restock from the shop in the hunterās dream, I never had to grind almost at all after Gascoigne.
Another thing thatās better than expected is the chalice dungeons, people generally seem pretty down on them but Iāve been enjoying them a lot. Thereās way more to them than I expected and I am honestly bummed they didnāt carry that whole mechanic over to DS3. I hope they bring it back in future games cause it adds something to do to make progress or at least get echoes and items when you donāt feel like throwing yourself against a boss over and over.
Personally itās usually someone or something kicking off a memory combined with ease of access. I was talking to my brother about his new iPhone and he mentioned that it broke compatibility with Phoenix Wright. That got me thinking about Ghost Trick, so I played all of Ghost Trick on my phone, remembered I also had Phoenix Wright on my phone, and now Iām halfway through replaying those as well. Iāll probably dig up my 3DS and play those tooā¦
Man, I fell back into Bloodborne HARD around Christmas. Iāve got ~50 hours on a new character and just made another new one yesterday, both going for builds I never really experimented with on my initial playthroughs. For this specifically, I feel like thatās part of the reason why Iām going back now, itās one of my favorite games of all time and there are so many ways to play it that I just never really explored before. I also never really messed with the multiplayer and have been digging it a lot recently. I hit a wall at the last two DLC bosses before putting it down previously, so Iām sure that part of me felt that I hadnāt truly completed the game and wanted to find some closure in that regard (which I have thankfully, 100% trophies bayby).
It makes sense that this has been a widespread thing due to the From tease, holiday sale, and AGDQ run all stirring up memories, but I prefer the theory that From pulled some Manchurian Candidate stuff and we were all innately programmed to go back in winter 2017/2018.
I like both of these a lot too. I like the way the flasks work in the Dark Souls games also in Bloodborne I prefer the less predictable approach, plus you CAN run out but itās almost impossible to. There are a couple of enemies in each area that always drop some (who conveniently are often placed not far from lamps). I do wish the āsorceryā items you could get were a little more effective though. If you got the cannon firearm, when the game first came out before some updating it only cost 10 blood to fire which meant you could use it twice per life and, with the right items and stuff do some hilarious stuff to it like killing some bosses in two hits and of course some fun times with the multiplayer. But you can sort of tell they didnāt really develop it enough to make you ever have to stop and think ādo I want to heal myself or shoot stuff moreā because of how the game plays.
I love FromSoftwareās old Kingās Field games so the chalice dungeons were a nice nostalgic redo of those in a way with the bigger emphasis on being underground and having lots of traps around. I understand why some people werenāt crazy about them though, they got extremely repetitive if you wanted to actually fully complete them, though at the same time thatās kind of the point of keeping them optional. I like how people still share specific dungeon codes that guarantee certain items will be found and stuff. And youāre right they really are an awesome way to keep playing the game even if youāre āstuckā so you can keep seeing rearranged places instead of dying to the same boss or tough spot in the main game repeatedly.
This may be a superficial answer or a cop-out butā¦ what makes people interested in older books? Or older films? Maybe games arenāt old enough to have a āclassicsā section yet (though I somewhat disagree with that), but hey, there are books from the 1970s or 1980s that no one would call classics but are still worth a read. Sometimes, they might just be good enough to, as cliched as it sounds, stand the test of time.
Iām saying that a bit flippantly but I do honestly think that a lot of older games are worth going back to because, well, theyāre legitimately Good Gamesā¢. As a further justification, a lot of us might not have been old enough to play them when they first came out. Iāve recently been playing the heck out of Super Metroid on my SNES Classicāa Great Game that existed a year and a half before I did.
Maybe itās because Iām an English major and am used to reading books that are twenty times older than I am, but Iām not sure thereās a form of media besides games where the thought of going back to older entries at all even raises questions. And yes, one might explain that with technological evolution and old games being ātechnologically outdatedā or something like thatā¦ but itās also not like watching black-and-white films (or even silent films) is seen as particularly strange. In truth, I think the question of why games are so invested in novelty is just as interesting a query as what makes people interested in older games.
Did Bloodborne ever get a PS4 pro patch?
Nope. It does still run a bit better if you turn on what ever setting it is in the OS menu though
