Remember Ecco the Dolphin? I’ll be honest, as someone who was born a year before the most recent new release starring him came out, I don’t. However, it seems SEGA does, as it’s filed trademarks for both “Ecco the Dolphin” and “Ecco” in Japan, triggering a bunch of speculation that it’s got its sights set on bringing the classic series back to life.
As spotted by Gematsu, the trademarks in question were filed on December 27, with the listings seemingly offering no additional info as to what they could mean, aside from having been done by SEGA and being related to video games.
Given the publisher’s currently on a bit of a kick of reviving old frachises that it’d given a bit of a break, having surprised us all during 2023’s Game Awards by announcing that it was working on new entries in Golden Axe, Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Streets of Rage, and Jet Set Radio – as well as a new Virtua Fighter more recently – people have immediately started thinking about an Ecco comeback.
In amongst some chatter about Ecco’s return potentially being a mystery fourth game that’ll be part of this month’s Xbox showcase, the trademarks have also had a slightly weirder consequence. People on the internet are discovering just how bloody smug Ecco looks in some of the series’ existing official artwork.
“You just know his LinkedIn bio is unbearable,” wrote one user in a ResetEra thread on this very important topic, while another categorized Ecco as: “The guy she tells you not to worry about.” Others pointed out that the smug Ecco artwork is actually by legendary fantasy, sci-fi, and erotica artist Boris Vallejo, whose portfolio features paintings of whatever this is and ones where bare bums are front and center.
Anyway, we’ve got no idea if there’ll be any bare bums in a new Ecco game, if that’s what these trademarks result in. Though, to be fair, there was more to the original games than first met the eye, so you you never know. Here’s hoping if it does happen, SEGA and Ecco creator Ed Annunziata – who’s previously tried to put together his own Ecco spiritual successor – are on the same page about it.
Are you hoping to see Ecco make a come back soon? Let us know below!