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Classic ‘Airline Tycoon’ Franchise is Coming to Mobile, But Don’t Celebrate Yet

Airline TycoonWho doesn’t love playing some of the classic PC franchises on his or her mobile device nowadays? Well, all those who’ve been burned by games like EA’s Dungeon Keeper Mobile or any other similar F2P translation of classic games. However, to be fair, we’ve also had some great ports of PC classics like Transport Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon, but those decided to go the premium route. So while I’m not ready to make a sweeping generalization, I’ll make an almost-sweeping generalization and say that classic ports do much better critically when they come over wholesale rather than “re-imagined" as F2P games. Still, whether they do better financially, that’s a whole different discussion since The Sims Freeplay is currently 25th in the App Store’s Top Grossing apps and SimCity Buildit is 45th.

So, perhaps it isn’t too surprising that Kalypso Media Mobile (of Crowntakers fame) has announced today that its bringing the Airline Tycoon franchise to iOS and Android in collaboration with Norsfell Games Inc., a studio with “Free-To-Play expertise" and “strong game design and monetization skills" according to the news release. If you haven’t played any of the Airline Tycoon games, the first in the series came out in 1998 and a few sequels followed in the next decade. However, there’s not much sense in talking about the PC version because as the new one will be a F2P game with, from the looks of it, an emphasis on multiplayer, I’m expecting a very different game. Perhaps this re-imagining will break with tradition and give us a great F2P multiplayer game. Well, I’m pretty sure you are all very hopeful for the mobile version of Airline Tycoon, aren’t you?