Skies of Arcadia has been given a fresh trademark by Sega, raising fan hopes for some kind of revival.
Fresh trademarks for the beloved Dreamcast and GameCube RPG – including for the game’s original Japanese title Eternal Arcadia – were filed on 16th January and made public on 24th January, Final Weapon reported.
The future of Skies of Arcadia as a series has long been dormant, after Sega ditched plans for a PC port and a full-blown sequel. But fans of the game have never quite given up hope – and Sega is currently busy reviving many of its other past franchises.
Skies of Arcadia was originally released on Dreamcast back in 2000 – making this year its 25th anniversary. Hey, that would be a good time to launch some kind of remaster or remake! Its enhanced GameCube port Skies of Arcadia: Legends launched two years later.
Neither of the game’s releases sadly set tills ringing, but the colourful air pirate RPG has maintained a core fanbase ever since, and Sega has occaisonally referenced the game in other titles – such as hero Vyse being a playable character in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
Many of the game’s original development team have now been scattered to the winds but, back in 2020, Skies of Arcadia developer Kenji Hiruta made a push for Sega to bring back the RPG via a fresh entry.
Sega is currently going back to its roots to revive a swathe of classic franchises, including Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Fighter and Sonic Racing.
Here’s hoping this trademark isn’t just leading to another Sonic Racing cameo.
Last month, Eurogamer sat down with Sega president Shuji Utsumi to hear more of the company’s plans, and how the company wants to return to creating video game “rock & roll”, compared to Nintendo’s “pop music”.
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