Last December, Sega filed trademarks for the long-dormant IP, Ecco the Dolphin. Read on to find out what this may mean for the franchise!
Sega Revives Ecco IP With Trademark
Ecco The Dolphin Returns
As reported by Gematsu, Sega filed trademarks for Ecco and Ecco the Dolphin in late December last year, fueling rumors that the IP might see a revival after being dormant for 24 years. The news was made public today after being filed back on December 27th, 2024.
First released in 1992 under the Hungarian game development studio Appaloosa Interactive (previously known as Novotrade International) and published by Sega, Ecco the Dolphin follows the titular Ecco, a bottlenose dolphin who battles extraterrestrial alien threats and prevents them from taking over the planet. The series saw four installments up until the year 2000. There was supposedly a sequel to the 2000 title, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, called Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe, but the project was scrapped after the Sega Dreamcast's decline and the overall cancellation of the console’s production.
Currently, Sega is a well-known game developer and publisher, while Appaloosa Interactive became defunct in the mid-2000s. However, its staff remains active within the video game industry. For instance, Ecco the Dolphin’s creator, Ed Annunziata, released a game called Space War Arena back in 2019. In an interview with NintendoLife in 2019, he expressed hope for an Ecco sequel, stating, "One thing I can say is in the future, people are playing this game. I never give up!"
As of now, there have been no other concrete developments about the future of Ecco the Dolphin, so stay tuned for more updates. Nonetheless, it may soon join the long list of IPs being worked on by Sega. In the past two years, Sega has announced an impressive number of projects, many of which are classic franchises like Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, Shinobi, and Virtua Fighter. They are also developing new IPs such as the mysterious Project Century and the new "RPG-like" Virtua Fighter.
