I agree with Ivan, I tend to be a realist too and the only way I can think of the Golden Sun to rise is if for some reason Sakurai decide that Assists can now be promoted to playable. That's not impossible, it's his game, he can make whatever he wants as long as Nintendo headquarters agree.
As for the series itself I also think remakes should come first to gather new fans. But from a business standpoint would it be profitable for Nintendo atm, I don't know.
There's a ton of depth to that question. And in order to get to the bottom of it, I have to give you a summation of how Golden Sun almost certainly fits into the sphere of game production. I have a lot of experience with game sales and analysis thereof. So follow me. This will be a long comment.
The first golden sun game sold 1.7 million copies. That would suggest a high profit margin. But the problem we have to consider there is A, the games development cycle, which given it started as a 64 game, is fair to assume was troubled getting off the ground. And the standard MSRP of a GBA game at launch (30 dollars, if I recall) [However, the studio is not making 30 per game, as the publisher takes a cut, as well as the stores where games are sold, it would be more like 15] was a formula for commercial disappointment. While far from an outright flop. It's suffice to say that commercial turn around was not as strong as Nintendo corporate was hoping for with a shiny new IP, that was was initially pitched as Nintendo's reply for Final fantasy and other PlayStation rpgs. And given it's visual style, which was boundary pushing given what was capable on GBA. This game was probably a pretty penny when compared to the average production of a GBA game. They made money, but not as much as they wanted.
That's where things start to go downhill. Usually when you have a lukewarm commercial victory, the publisher will allow you to do a sequel, under the pretense that said sequel MUST sell even better to compensate for under performance of the first title. If Sales increase, that is indicative of a brand with massive staying power, as that would mean word of mouth carried the title, and hype continued to grow title over title. The Lost age sold 1.2 million. This was likely a big disappointment for Nintendo. The lost age's production was likely no where near as expensive as the first game, due to asset re-use and not have to program an engine from scratch. But this decreased cost did not make the difference necessary for Nintendo to green light further sequels.
Dark Dawn is an industry example of what is known as developer bet, and or passion project. These are often spurred by a combination of fan demand, developer passion, and sometimes proper timing. These are typically games that corporate really didn't want to do, but devs on high in the studio had to push really, really hard for it. Staking both credibility and reputation on the line in order to achieve. Nintendo would reluctantly give the go ahead. However, the bar for entry of a DS game production is leaps and bounds higher than that of a GBA game. So the already dwindling staff of the Original two titles was essentially boned from the start. Dark Dawn sold 850K copies. From there, nintendo corporate puts the IP on ice indefinitely. The sales have trended downward from the first title onward, and Dark Dawn actually lost the studio money. With this loss, it's suffice to say people at Camelot lost a lot of creative freedom as punishment for their gamble.
This isn't all supposition. This is plugging Golden Sun into the time tested and time approved formula by which the whole of the game industry operates. The almighty dollar is the dictate by which everything is ran. Golden Sun would have likely fared better as a Nintendo Gamecube game. As the high production values, in combination with excellent design would have led to a more sustainable formula. As the higher values would be offset by the higher standard cost of a video game. 1.7 million copies sold at 50 dollars a game, is a massively higher turn around than that of 1.7 million at 30 dollars a game. Even in scenarios where the GBA game costs 2 million to make, and the Gamecube game is more like 8 million. (these are estimates, cost on both sides can go far higher or lower depending on marketing push)
The ideal for Nintendo right now is to go cover every IP in the catalog. The Switch is a rare kind of platform. It has caused a significant boon in the raw sales data of nearly every franchise that nintendo owns to touch it. While on ice IP's haven't been tested yet. It's suffice to say this would make for a massive boon as well. Nintendo would be most interested in a remake of Golden Sun 1. As it is both the most commercially, and critically successful title in the series. We have seen a very significant increase in sales RPG's on switch specifically. This is a rare opportunity for Nintendo to actually consider the production of a new title. As the timing is ripe. However. This where a problem is presented. The vast majoirty of the Golden Sun team no longer operates at Camelot. And Nintendo is not going to make the mistake of placing a shattered team on a new production once more. This time, and even MORE shattered team. And given the historically shakey commercial history of the series, Nintendo's best interest would be to oversea the external production of a new title under a new development studio.
The studio in question will need large experience with RPG's. So Nintendo's first order of business would be finding a developer who can work cheap enough, where if the new title fails, there is no huge loss incurred. This is where things get very murky. I say it's suffice to assume that some things have been considered internally. Merely on account of the golden sun series new trademark. However, finding the proper team that has both the talent, and works cheap enough, in order to avoid risk, is key. If a developer is found that would be willing in the next year or two, expect a remake of Golden Sun 1.
Golden Sun 1 is statistically the most likely to sell. Most likely to review well, and in this day and age, first parties are starting to care more about quality than raw game sales. but nintendo is still fickle, don't expect a new custom robo or F-zero verry soon. An extremely good game is lfar more likely to move consoles to more niche audiences. This for instance, is how Xenoblade can remain a strong force despite questionable sales. Xenoblade fans will buy consoles to buy new xenoblade games. And even if those games sell poorly, the first party in question will make the money back in sales of games like Mario Odessey, and other titles. As a Xenoblade fan who wasn't interested in the console for Mario Odessey, is still likely to go back and buy it now that they own the console. and by extension, the only place to play it.
It's an "every console matters" approach that we are seeing adopted more and more, especially by Sony, who fund's small games just because their bigger games will pay for them, and the overall critical and variety based aspect of the library is increased. If Nintendo wishes to move this policy to more IP's, Golden Sun stands out as a prime candidate. I wouldn't hold out hope to fiercely. But I would argue that Golden Sun is a series that's true commerical potential has never been seen. The closest would be the first title on GBA, which was drastically bottlenecked on account of being an unproven IP at the time, and the standards MSRP of a GBA game holding the end numbers back severely
