DS money on the table

[nijimeijer]

I know this has been brought up before, but it still surprises me that so much money is being left on the table with the DS.

There are so many classic games that could be ported to the DS, creating new audiences for old IPs that could then be resurrected -- either on DS or not. So much opportunity that seems missed to me. It's probably just me thinking about what I want and imagining that there's a market, but I just can't imagine why companies aren't taking more advantage of that little machine. It's huge!

Just today, me and my friends were thinking of carts that could come out like:

Ultima Age of Darkness -- Ultimas I - III
Ultima Age of Enlightenment -- Ultimas IV - VI

Lucasarts Classics - Maniac Mansion, Zak McKraken, Secret of Monkey Island, LOOM

EA Classics - Crusader No Regret, Command & Conquer, Wing Commander

Bullfrog Classics - Populous, Magic Carpet, Dungeon Keeper

This is just off the top of my head. Any of those up there would make excellent combo carts.

Like I said, I'm probably thinking there's a market where none exists, just projecting what I want that others wouldn't buy. Ah well.

[Charles]

Licensing issues, followed closely by "Does the code and assets for the game even still exist?" Are probably what stops this.

Plus, a lot of those games will be of no interest except people who've played them before.

[malkav11]

Interface issues, suitability for portable gaming, and whether the game would be suited to play on a ~2 inch wide screen would also be important. You might be able to port some old mouse-driven adventure games to DS (I mean, there's a ScummVM port), but I'm not convinced much of the rest of that would work.

Maybe a DS remake or sequel, but then you'd have to have a potential market and I suspect your market for such things would be pretty PC-centric.

[Rod Humble]

"Bullfrog Classics - Populous"

This is coming we announced it at TGS.

[Other Brendan]

Anyone else notice the flood of compilation releases dried up real quick once companies realized they could get away selling these games for $5 a pop on Xbox Live?

[Geo]

Killzone: Liberation (isometric shooter which was the system seller on PSP for me) is about as good a proximation to Crusader: No Remorse/No Regret (I love em too and occasionally dig up a DOS emulation thingie so I can still play them on PC) as you can get right now.

I'd love to see some of those oldies (whether revamped say, to use a stylus, like the upcoming Ninja Gaiden game for DS, or straight ports) on DS or PSP for sure. :) It's just, casual gaming is really driving the DS market right now, so I don't know if EA or the like is really looking to move those classics to handheld (Gametap seems a more likely home for them at the moment).

[Sam Jones]

Elite!

For God's sake, somebody port Elite to the DS.