Nintendo Renews Eternal Darkness Trademark as Hopes for Successor Remain Alive

The story of Eternal Darkness is a bleak, mysterious journey of psychological torment that stretches through the ages– the same can also be said for the game’s plot. The mystery of what will happen with this cult classic in the future has continued on this week, as Nintendo has once again renewed its trademark and the original’s creator, Denis Dyack, has sounded off again on his attempted spiritual successor.

Renewing the trademark for the Eternal Darkness brand always tends to get people wondering what Nintendo has planned, though the simple act of renewing it doesn’t necessarily indicate anything is being done. Technically, a company cannot continuously hold onto a trademark without actually doing something with it; however, the rules and regulations for this aren’t necessarily set in stone. While this might be third time that Nintendo has renewed its ownership of the Eternal Darkenss name, it could simply be an effort on the company’s part to prevent others from profiting from the IP’s reputation. Then again, maybe Nintendo does, in fact, have some sort of plan. In other words, I guess we’ll once again have to keep our fingers crossed until E3.

Of course, it has become hard to talk about Eternal Darkness without also mentioning its director, Denis Dyack, who has not only been outspoken in his love for the project, but is also working at making its spiritual successor. Dyack and other Silicon Knights veterans founded Precursor Games and launched a Kickstarter campaign for Shadow of the Eternals, a game that borrows heavily from Eternal Darkness’ formula of Lovecraftian horror spread across numerous time periods. The game failed to reach its funding goals, and though Dyack suggested work on the project would continue in some way, not much has been heard about it for nearly two years.

However, in a recent interview with Niche Gamer, Dyack did reveal that the project was in fact alive, though it is unclear when more details would be available. First, he stated that the project has shifted from Precursor to his new company, Quantum Entanglement Entertainment, and the team is “viewing it not just from a game perspective, but also from a television and a movie perspective. We’ve been working on it with that perspective for a while now, and we’re super excited for it and the potential in the future.”

As for funding for Shadow of the Eternal, Dyack stated he couldn’t go into specifics at this time and said that his team would likely remain “quiet” about the project, though there will be some sort of announcement in the future. When asked if anything might be said soon, he replied, “Well, it all depends on what your definition of soon is.”

Perhaps it would be better to open up about Shadow of the Eternals sooner rather than later. The last few weeks have shown us that gamers have been more than happy to open their wallets to crowd funding big name developers trying to make spiritual successors to franchises their former studios have left dead in the water. Former Rare developers founded Playtonic Games and announced Yooka-Laylee, a 3D platformer modeled after Rare’s successful yet stagnant Banjo-Kazooie franchise, with a Kickstarter that reached its goal in 38 minutes and is currently sitting at $2,644,309 in funding with 21 days remaining in its campaign. Then Koji Igarashi, the former Konami developer who led the Castlevania team, launched a Kickstarter for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to the series that made him famous. With 17 days to go, that Kickstarter is currently sitting at $2,730,736, more than five times it original $500,000 goal. And let’s not forget the phenomenally successful Kickstarter for Mighty No. 9, the Keiji Inafune-led spiritual successor to Mega Man.

Shadow of the Eternals might have fallen short with its initial crowdfunding efforts, but it’s entirely possible that the zeitgeist has shifted even further to be even more advantageous for Dyack and fans of Eternal Darkness. Even though the cult classic doesn’t have quite the same name recognition as Mega Man, Castlevania, or Banjo-Kazooie, the title definitely demands a great deal of respect for those familiar with it. Considering the fact that I’ve written about Eternal Darkness once, twice, or maybe three times, you could probably guess that I would like to see something done with the ideas that made that game so great, even if the title is different.

Source: Nintendo Life