Why aren't there any remakes of the classic Ultima games?

The right question is: Do they think it will make them lotsa mulah?
The answer is another question: Have they released an Ultima remake yet?

Well, apparently you need to make a "spiritual succesor" MMO.

He did. Been in "in development" since late 2014:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shroud_of_the_Avatar:_Forsaken_Virtues

edit: Link broken due to the forums.

Yes, that's exactly why I said that. But apparently it's not "in dev" anymore, it's out:

https://wccftech.com/shroud-of-the-avatar-launches-today/

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/

Richard Garriott still has full control of the characters. I'm assuming they can't create a remake without his permission.

MMO? I don't like too many trolls in my RPGs. :-)

After the remake of Ultima IV by EA (Ultima Forever) as a free to play microtransaction fueled crap I don't think anyone wants EA to remake anything Ultima ever again...

They will of course if they smell money :( They can, they just can't use the characters he still retains the rights to - which is why Ultima Forever has a Lady British.

What do you want in terms of "remake"? U5 was redone in dungeon siege engine (from memory) called Lazarus. U7 is fine without one. U8 had a major patch (can't remember what it was called, but can find out) which made it fine on modern systems and fixed things. 9 was a bit of a disaster. And the ones prior to 5 are too old to be made I to anything resembling a modern game, so better left as is.

Ultima 4 and 5 received releases on the NES that are quite different from the original versions; Ultima 4 NES might be worth checking out. (There's also a Sega Master System version of 4 that is more faithful to the original that's also worth checking out.)

Ultima 4 NES is good. Ultima 5 NES, however, is not.

Something a bit more modern (well, late 90s level of modern) in terms of interface, world interaction and balancing, but with retro aesthetics aka mid- to low-res pixel art and something like SC-55 or MT-32 midi music. Think Dragon Quest 1-2 (SNES) or Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls (PS1/GBA) but a PC equivalent.
Edit: I mean isn't it odd that those series' classics have been milked to death but neither Ultima nor any other WRPG series has (to my knowledge)?

The fan stuff and the console versions mentioned above are cool in their own right though.

It's mainly 3-6 that I'd like to see redone, but 8 could certainly be improved too.

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are still active series that continue to get new games every now and then.

Ultima and other WRPGs from back in the day are not active anymore. In fact, the earliest game from an active WRPG series I can think of is The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and even then, I note that Skyrim was released in 2011, making it over 6 years old. (Also, this is assuming you count first person games that play in real time as RPGs; under what I would consider a reasonable definition, the most recent RPG in the series might actually be Morrowind, which was released in 2002.)

The Wizardry games (except 8) have received remakes in Japan. The Super Famicom version is probably best for Wizardry 1-3 and 5 (if you don't mind the fact that Wizardry 5 SFC/SNES neutered the conversation system), while I would go with the PlayStation version if you want to play 4. (Note that SFC Wizardry 1-3 uses the Japanese console numbering, which switches 2 and 3. Also, the Knight of Diamonds scenario has been remixed to make it playable for new characters.)

Sometimes (subjectively of course) that's just meaningless. Warcraft is still an active series - I loved 1-3, though I wouldn't want to be found dead on a WoW server.

Sure, although the remakes I mentioned were made in the mid 90s and like the other guy said those series are something very different now (well, idk about DQ).

I forgot about those Wizardry remakes, maybe I'll try those. But I'm less interested in FP dungeon crawlers.