A recent batch of trademarks filed by Sega suggests another classic video game series could be set to make a return.
As spotted by Gematsu, Sega filed two trademarks towards the end of last month. Those trademarks? “Ecco the Dolphin” and “Ecco”.
The filings were made in Japan on 27th December, before they were subsequently made public yesterday.
Ecco the Dolphin was released all the way back in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis, for those over the pond).
As I am sure you have no doubt figured, the game stars a dolphin by the name of Ecco. Our poor lead gets separated from his pod at the start of the game, and as such must find his way through the waters to reunite with his pod. This sees (or seas) Ecco negotiating underwater cave systems while booping jelly fish and such out of his way. Ecco eventually comes across other unexpected areas and creatures, but I will keep those as a surprise for those who don’t already know.
Ecco the Dolphin was developed by Novotrade International and published by SEGA. A sequel – Ecco: The Tides of Time – was then released in 1994. Two spinoffs in the Ecco Jr line were released in 1995, before a reboot known as Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future was then released in 2000 for the Dreamcast. This is the last game in the series, as development on another instalment was cancelled back in 2001.
More recently, Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time were delisted from Steam, as Sega set about removing over 60 of its classic games from virtual stores.
So, could we see the return of Ecco in the near future? I shore am excited to find out.
As for what’s in store for Sega elsewhere, its Crazy Taxi reboot will be an open-world, massively-multiplayer game, which the developer said is “AAA” in scope.
This project was one of five fresh titles in classic franchises announced in December 2023, alongside new entries in the Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage series.
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