[Various] Populous

[icycalm]

A souped-up DS version is coming out on the 21st, in Japan only:

http://insomnia.ac/news/populous-ds/

[RyanDG]

It's kind of interesting to see EA resurrecting some of their "sim"-franchises they've purchased over the years (via studio acquisitions) through the oversight of EA Japan or a designer from EA Japan. This is the third by my count (Sim City DS, Theme Park DS, and Populous DS), but this is the first that seems to have more than superficial changes to the formula. Sim City DS received a release in Japan a few months before its western release so I'm expecting Populous DS to probably follow the same "guideline".

I would love to see a Dungeon Keeper DS next if they are going to continue down this path... But that may end up being a bit too graphically intensive for Nintendo's little handheld.

[icycalm]

Theme Park DS was released everywhere almost simultaneously, but yeah, I see the US version of Sim City DS took a few months. I wonder why they've made no announcement for this yet though. In any case, I don't get the reason for the Japanese involvement. Why not just get a Western developer to make these ports?

It's kind of interesting to see EA resurrecting some of their "sim"-franchises they've purchased over the years (via studio acquisitions)

All these games were originally published by EA, so you know, they are theirs already, no need to purchase anything.

I would love to see a Dungeon Keeper DS next if they are going to continue down this path... But that may end up being a bit too graphically intensive for Nintendo's little handheld.

It's a 3D game. They can just scale down the engine until it fits.

[RyanDG]

For some odd reason, I was working off the impression that the rights to the Maxis and Bullfrog Productions franchises were retained by the development studios. I know EA handled almost all publishing for them, but I thought prior to their acquisition in the mid-90's both companies could have shopped around had they not felt satisfied with EA's treatment.

Regardless of the above, what I find more interesting about the whole EA Japan thing is the fact that as of last year, most major media outlets had confirmed the studio was closing. Now I don't know the inner workings of the company, but I know back in September EA Asia was basically trumpetting the fact that EA was viewing Japan as a priority for the company. Despite their early "failure" (one game developed over how many years?), this may all be part of an effort to really re-focus on the region for EA.