Eternal Darkness Trademark Renewal Increases Hope of Franchise Return

Eternity Darkness? Typo?

Why not both?

A 3ds remake could be quite nice, a WiiU remake also, but less refreshing maybe. I'd say: do a Bayonetta 2, Nintendo. Make a superb sequel, remaster the first with some extra's, put them both on discs in an amazing collector's edition, and... profit. It's one of my favourite games ever, but even I am getting tired of the constantly renewed false hope... And since we're not hearing anything about Project Zero / Fatal Frame 5, missing out on the REmake remaster, or only see speculations about a possible ZombiU sequel, I really want SOMETHING within the horror genre to look forward to...

I would love both a remake and sequel.

If they remake or re-release it I hope they update the psychological scares to match current hardware. The 1st few play throughs were torture on your mind

@Captain05crunch That would make a great name for a sequel but it's probably to close to the original name. Yeah, that's a typo.

Wii U fans in the west have missed out massively in terms of the horror genre. Outside of the first Resident Evil Revelations and Zombi U there's been nothing with games either being Japan exclusive (e.g. Fatal Frame 5) or exclusive to all platforms except Nintendo (e.g. RER2/GC RE Remaster).

I personally hate the.horror genre but I still think it needs to be represented well on Nintendo consoles to give the great variety of genres many have been asking for.

Give eternal darkness a "bayonetta" treatment. Hd port with a sequel. That would sell consoles.

@Shambo I would love to see a zombiu 2 as well. It's a great game to just pick up and play occasionally, but gets boring too quick. It's almost a good game, and I know I've almost enjoyed it since launch. But left for dead is just so much better.

I'd play a sequel. I don't see anything coming about from this, but it'd be cool.

Can you imagine a first-party psychological horror game on a current-gen Nintendo platform? It would be mind-blowing, and it would help to further diversify the Wii U's library. I sincerely hope they decide to make a sequel and really show us what the system can do graphics-wise.

If they're going to do anything with the IP though, they should start with a relatively low-budget HD remaster of the original game to gauge interest. It was pretty darn ugly, and that's definitely one of those games not everyone wants to have to hunt down and play on a Gamecube.

I can't believe Nintendo hasn't made a sequel to this game; even if it would mean signing an external team. The guys behind the failed Shadows of the Eternals Kickstarter would jump on the opportunity and on the Wii U I think they could really do some pretty amazing sanity effect stuff with the GamePad.

Maybe they are finishing Shadow of the Externals, i question why Precursor didn't team up with Nintendo in the first place then they wouldn't have to face all these problems putting this on development hell. At least they recognize how much Nintendo gamers need this as Silicon made Darkness for Nintendo. Of course this could be a new game but i'm hoping the original idea is revised

Three words: Eternal Darkness amiibo.

Dang id love this to return

Edit: I'd like a Bayonetta type package except with the first game getting remastered , but I'll buy each one seperate if they released a remaster and the next entry in the series !

@Donutman I bought the ZombiU pack on launch day, and a few issues aside, it's one of the greatest survival horror games ever, imo. Because it's just that: survival, and horror. Left 4 dead is a fun arcadey game, but I much more enjoyed the slow pacing and the whole nerve-racking 'one bite and it was all for nothing' tension. And then there's the parts where you run for the helicopter, with shaking hands on the edge of the seat... or the nursery, where I actually had to gather my courage to continue, and in the basement, I personally went in sort of the blind rage mode from the Scarface game... Most intense horror game, from quite creepy to quite all-out run 'n' gun, but always on the edge.

I hope this game is cross-play with the 3DS. That will be cool, along with a cross-play "amiibo" cards.

A franchise that will never appear on a Nintendo system ever,great.

I am not interested in the genre but I do think the Wii U should have more diversity. (ZombiU is technically flawed which I am not interested in).

Eternal Darkness is one of those games that haven't aged well. The sanity effects are cool but the game overall and the story is pretty mediocre. Have you guys forgot that his game bombed? nobody cares anymore but fanboys.

I don't expect to see the greatest gamecube game ever made to show up. Nintendo likely renewed the franchise so no one else picks it up.

$150 to keep the name copyrighted on all game software products.

a really good remaster would be just fine on it's own, I don't have faith any sequel would repeat that glory.
it's a brand now that's all, I don't see why that name would ever make it repeat a somewhat of an anomaly of cool ideas. It was groundbreaking at the time and still cool but not anything that hasn't been done maybe even better since. Trying to ape the same feel over again probably wouldn't come out well. just remaster it to shut us old fans up or dump some money into a truly NEW, interesting horror title.

oh and anyone who hasn't played it still? just get a gamecube from your nearest thrift shop, ebay the game and play it; you CAN'T be disappointed, it still holds up now and the scares are real. not to be missed.

I bought this the day it came out for GC. And it was a good game but not good enough for me to hold on to it. I traded it in and never missed it.

I always wondered why Nintendo never got behind Shadow of the Eternals. Maybe that's what this is? If Bayonetta 2 and Devil's Third are any indicator, perhaps Nintendo has picked it up and decided to finish it? One can only dream. It would certainly add some diversity to the Wii U's library... and we all know that because of the lack of third parties, Nintendo has to find a way to fill those gaps.

Or maybe they intend to bring GC games to the VC?

Dear Nintendo...
I personally would purchase a physical boxed deluxe "HD remake/remaster" of the original, especially if it was part of a combo package that included a sequel, as well as purchasing an E-shop download. My reasoning would be that the boxed version goes on shelf NEVER TO BE OPENED, E-shop version gets played until my Wii U dies from pure HD sanity effects. Make it happen. Now. Please.

Just a remaster would be nice. There are not enough fans of the title to take the risk in the development costs and resources for a new game. Just my 2cents.

Pious Augustus as DLC for Smash Bros. Now. Then a remake next.

@Shambo a wholly new game is needed. A HD rerelease of the original would be good, similar to the bayonetta release package this year

I'd love to try Eternal Darkness on virtual console since I missed it when it was first released. Wouldn't say no to a sequel either. I hope Pious returns, he looks cool.

The trademark keeps getting updated. Yet nothing is happening. The only thing that happens is a article like this keeps coming up. So I will care when nintendo does something past that don't think about this update to the trademark to much. They must do it to keep ownership from others.

Would love a sequel to Eternal Darkness. That was such a unique experience.

Would love to see improvements to the sanity meter, so you don't have to adjust your sanity level by performing those killing blows to enemies. It sort of broke the level of immersion a little that you'd sometimes intentionally pass killing blows on dead bodies in order to get to experience some cool sanity effects.

Also, a sequel developed by Nintendo (Retro Secret Project?) would really put the nail in the coffin for Shadows of the Eternal, which would probably be good for everyone to just move on from.

Well, I'll admit it straight away: I'm one of the fans of Eternal Darkness and although it definitely wasn't perfect and did have some annoying flaws, it's still one of my favorite GameCube games. There, I said it.
Having said that, I personally think this extended trade marking probably means nothing other than preventing others to take the title and run, so I'm not getting my hopes up just yet unless Nintendo comes with an official announcement.
I would certainly welcome both an HD remake and a sequel, but if they do, I don't know if Nintendo should do the sequel themselves.
They should just scoop up the whole Shadow of the Eternals team and the stuff they have developed so far. People may have ignored or downright bashed their previous attempts at publishing their game, but to me the first impressions were quite positive and really nailed the Eternal Darkness vibe, so I was sad to see this fail because of truly pathetic people that apparently couldn't get over their ridiculous hatred of Denis Dyack. I could care less what kind of a person a games director or programmer is. As long as he or she brings me a game that offers me a great experience, then by all means: bring it on.
And the GamePad could finally be shown as something with true potential instead of the ball and chain that some people seem to think it is. Besides the obvious sanity effects there could be one that says that the connection to the GamePad is lost, screen on the Pad going black, moving the GamePad around your room to see things that are invisible on your TV screen, flipping controls, scary noises/whispers from the GamePad's speaker and I could go on and on. So much potential for a truly great experience. Oh well, a man can dream...

This needs to be done Bayonetta style.

A Roivas amiibo... insanity effects in SMB would rock...

Such a fun game. This is the best news of the day for me.

@primeris Read that name backwards to see just how out of inspiration they were for naming the family after they came up with all these great sanity effects...

As much time has passed, a remaster would be a great idea, but I still hope for a glint of hope that I can play 'Shadow of the Eternals' or 'Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Redemption' some day.

I just wish Ninty would stop sitting on these great IP's and get some 2nd party dev to put them together.

If Nintendo makes a new one, please keep Dyack far, far away from it.

And funny hearing HD remake instead of GCN VC which means more games and more use for that rare adapter. That could force them to manufacture more of them.

@sinalefa Sadly, you just confirmed the point I made earlier...

@TheRealThanos

Ridiculous hatred you say? A guy who lied to his producers, who denied credits to workers who left the company and that made shady kickstarters that scared away support, effectively sinking the project.

I don't hate for the sake of it. Dyack has done wrong and ED does not need him to continue as he does not own the rights or is the 'creative genius' without whose ideas the IP would die.

@sinalefa A lot of that is based on conjecture or hearsay, by no means proven. And the point was, to make it even more ridiculous, I don't care if Hitler made this game: if it's a good solid experience, then it is so regardless of who is behind it. The beta of Shadow of the Eternals that they already made under the co-guidance of Dyack (who was indeed responsible for part of the story so arguably he isn't completely replaceable) was already quite elaborate and rock-solid and showed a lot of promise. Either way you look at it, with or without Dyack, it is a shame that this beta is possibly lost forever without ever having the chance to grow into a full blown game.
Have you even seen the extended footage? Very nice graphics and effects, great story line and a rock solid frame rate, so a lot of good work has already gone into it.
For the sake of everyone who has missed or forgotten it, here's the first 9 minutes:

@TheRealThanos

Thanks for the link. I admit it looks good (except for Poe's misspelled name at the beginning), so if Dyack knows people do not trust him/like him he should really step aside for the greater good of the game. At least that is how I see it.

I still want Shenmue 3 more than this, though.

@sinalefa Have you watched the second one too? Obviously it's not on Wii U but compare the two and the difference is hardly noticeable. What I like about the second one is that they move freely through the engine to show all of the effects that they were able to switch on without loss of frame rate.
By the way: very astute of you, noticing that misspell. But concerning Dyack: (who was Chief Creative Officer and designer on Shadow of the Eternals; I looked it up because you made me question that) that is exactly my point. Even if he was a first class A*hole then it still shouldn't matter one little bit, to no one. F*** public perception, it's oftentimes uneducated and based on nothing. I've looked into it at the time and now I've looked into it again, but I can't for the life of me see the supposed evil in this man. In my line of work (Account Manager Sales & Marketing) I have to deal with a lot of people that talk out of their backsides, so I like to think that in the 14 years that I've been doing that, I should be more than able to smell the bullsh*t if someone is trying to pull a fast one on me.
After having read and watched several interviews with Denis Dyack, and also taking into account that some of Silicon Knight's most important people such as Shawn Jackson (Chief Operational Officer) and Kenneth McCulloch, the chief designer from the original game, stayed with him during the transition into the new company, (he has since been arrested for some rather disgusting sex offender charges, but that is besides the point) I have to truly wonder if Dyack's reputation hasn't at the very least been partially tainted by some of the angry employees that had to leave Silicon Knights after it got disbanded.
They may have been slightly biased and wanted to lay blame somewhere. From what I've read, Dyack certainly was a strict director, so he may not have been the easiest man to work with or for, but he was always very goal-minded and creative, so all in all that sounds like a positive thing to me.
Otherwise just judge the man for yourself by watching the interview on IGN. Either he isn't nearly as evil as his reputation now makes him out to be, or he is a damn good actor and I definitely don't see that last quality shining through there; he comes across as fairly genuine and as a director, which for all intents and purposes he still is.
But make up your own mind if you want, by watching the Shadow of the Eternals interview:

Having completed Eternal Darkness 100%, this looks like a gorgeous sequel. A very mature and deep horror game just like the original. Or like Project Zero 5, also on Wii U but only in Japan. Both Project Zero 5 and Eternal Darkness 2 (Shadow of the Eternals) create an immersive atmosphere and deliver a creepy goosebump inducing story, while also featuring innovative mechanics in the gameplay.

Unfortunately the only horror games we get on Wii U (in our region) have a throwaway plot and focus on dumb gore. I'm calling you, ZombiU and Resident Evil Revelations that have no goosebumps effects included. For me that's when a horror game fails.

@TheRealThanos: Thanks for all the background info and cool video running the Wii U version. I hope it's still in development.
Also, I think the haters just snap up every rumour on the internet and obviously don't like good games. I personally wouldn't want to argue with them, especially when they can not know all the facts or the truth about the matter but act as if they do.

@SKTTR Well, if you meant sinalefa: he is no hater, we were just having a normal discussion.
As for the game itself; apparently it is indeed still in development:
http://www.que-ee.com/ (scroll down for their projects/games)

So long as it has nothing to do with Denis Dyack and Precursor/Silicon Knights and everything to do with Retro Studios, this would be fantastic. But then, it's just a trademark renewal, and it doesn't necessarily mean anything except that Nintendo is protecting anyone from stealing the brand name.

This is gonna happen everyone keep their fingers crossed . You know they need a gap filled. Let's speculate it is good to

@TheRealThanos yeah they need help completing this, looks very promising . Big Red Button probably didn't have a lot of creative freedom and resources from Sega when shifting to Wii U so it ended up being terrible. Hope the voice acting changes in the final release (it's fine for a placeholder in a beta) but it's one of those games with overly dramatic voices making narration sound awkward. Like the book part

@Quorthon Aw man, you too? I just chiseled three walls of text to explain why it shouldn't matter who's behind it. I do agree with you (obviously, since I already stated exactly the same in one of my previous comments) that it's probably just a renewal to prevent anybody else walking away with it.
Having said that, and although I love Retro and they have done nothing but respectful things with the two existing series that they took over from other developers, I don't know if they would be the right studio to take this one on.
And personally I loved the look and feel of the beta demo that I posted a video from in comment #45. It truly does have that Eternal Darkness vibe, and if a new studio picks this up, it is always the question if they can nail that. How would they go about it? Play the first game themselves and then go from there, or reverse engineer a remake of sorts? Can they even make a good horror/psychological game? They don't have any experience in that field.
Dyack and his new team got a lot of work done already and from reports the storyline is also as good as finished so it would be a shame to let that go to waste.
I know that tons of games fail to release numerous times for whatever reasons, so this one wouldn't be an exception in that case, but still.
Maybe Nintendo should just buy up everything made so far and let Retro finish it, maybe use Dyack as an advisor where the story is concerned. It would be really weird by the way if Nintendo did decide to make this and Dyack is also still continuing with his version. Then there will be two sequels and my money is still on the original creators since they have laid down the foundations and know where the story is supposed to go.
@Mega719 I don't know if Sega is the big evil-doer here. Big Red Button had the CryEngine 3 at their disposal and besides the fact that we know that the people at Crytek themselves have said that it ran just fine on Wii U, you can also see that in the Shadow of the Eternals gameplay video. And in the second link underneath that the developers talk about how easy and user-friendly the engine is with applying several complex effects, so why Big Red Button wasn't able to make a really beautiful game with that is beyond me. Although some of the graphics were okay(ish) and had some more advanced effects, most of the textures could have been done on a last gen system, which makes me think that they only upscaled them. And don't get me started on all the octagonal shapes and rings, something that should be outlawed in current gen games.
As far as Shadow of the Eternals is concerned: I think that's a case of personal taste. I recently checked a playthrough of the original game and the voice acting was sort of similar there, and it was also praised as being good in that regard, so I guess it depends on the individual if it comes across or not. I also watched the video I posted earlier once again to see which parts bothered you. There's a book part at the beginning and one at the end. Neither one came across as overly dramatic to me, at least not any different than the original game. It has also been said that they had even recruited some of the very same voice actors, which seems like a good thing to me.

@TheRealThanos maybe that was a bad choice of words, i just mean most lines said sound a little awkward with these voices as the protagonist seems to narrator everything he sees. Yes i know that was the style of early horror games. I'm officially with you on this, i don't care about the guy in charge he wants to make a great game and people should be more supportive. Nintendo may be the only hope to save this project

@Mega719 I don't know if you own or if you have played the game, but If you truly want to have a bit of fun laughing at bad voice acting, look up the intro trailer for Disaster: Day of Crisis for the Wii...

@TheRealThanos i was actually talking about this game not the first Eternal Darkness. Let's just forget i said anything about the voices i want this to succeed just as much as everyone

@Mega719 I understood that, I just compared the two to see if the voice acting in the older game was different or not. I do have to admit I was also a bit puzzled by "the protagonist seems to narrator everything he sees". But I'll go along with you so we'll just skip that one and hope that Nintendo really picks up on this instead of just preventing the name from being used by extending their rights over it.

@TheRealThanos

The only way I'd tolerate Dyack doing it would be if Nintendo took complete control of the project, which I don't see happening for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is Nintendo's apparent "anything goes" policy on accepting game software these days--and their noted "hands-off" approach to Bayonetta 2.

The only reason Eternal Darkness was so utterly amazing was because of Nintendo. They funded the game, they own the game, they patented parts of the game, and they published the game, and they were the largest investor in Silicon Knights at the time. Nintendo was not going to let that game be a dud.

Outside of that, Dyack has proven himself to be a parasite in the pantheon of gaming. He latches onto publishers looking to stream money into the company to maintain employment without regard to quality work, and Silicon Knights as a whole was notoriously unfocused and delay-addled. Eternal Darkness? Originally an N64 game. Too Human? Originally a PS1 game! He was noted far and wide for having no interest at all in X-Men Destiny, and unfortunately, it shows. On a personal note, I was actually employed by Activision at the time, and one of the games I tested was X-Men Destiny. I was so thrilled to be testing a Silicon Knights game due to my fanboyism for Eternal Darkness, but ultimately I had to admit, the company was not who they either used to be or they were not who I thought they were. The game never seemed to get any better, and indeed, is one of the worst-reviewed X-Men games ever made.

THEN there's the whole debacle with Epic games, where Dyack reprogrammed chunks of the Unreal engine, then decided because he'd changed so much, he didn't need to pay for it, and after some back-and-forth with Epic, Dyack launched a lawsuit against them that was pretty much guaranteed to fail--which it did. They were court-ordered to return everything they'd been doing on the Unreal engine to Epic and all their unsold games were recalled. Now, during the time they were developing X-Men Destiny, it came to light (if you haven't seen this, it's a fascinating read: http://kotaku.com/5955223/what-went-wrong-with-silicon-knights-x-men-destiny) that Dyack was secretly diverting resources to work on a sequel of sorts to Eternal Darkness--bizarre enough in that Nintendo owns the brand, so it could never actually be a sequel, but it heavily impacted X-MD.

Here's where I have some of my most serious issues with Dyack. What were they most likely using to develop this bizarre sequel? Odds are incredibly high that they were using the Unreal Engine, which literally powered every other game they'd released and were working on at the time. After the lawsuit, they were supposed to return all of this stuff to Epic, and yet, months later, this "new studio" called Precursor opened up, and was basically "across the hall" from Silicon Knights and staffed entirely by former Silicon Knights employees. The shadiness here strongly indicates that Dyack & Co started a new studio as a work-around from their lawsuit with Epic, sent over all the stuff they wanted to keep concerning Shadow of the Eternals, and then rework it for the CryEngine so they could actually keep it.

There is so much shadiness around Dyack and Precursor, it might as well be the backbone of a movie about organized crime.

My confidence in this company, and Dyack himself, is utterly and quite possibly irrevocably tarnished. I simply do not see how he or his company could ever amount to much of anything going forward.

Per Retro maybe not having the tastes for making an ED sequel, I think there's no way to say conclusively one way or another. I'd like them to because I think the company is one of the most talented in the industry, and would likely do the game justice. Nintendo should just put out an HD upgrade of Eternal Darkness, helmed by Retro, just to ensure the trademark remains in the public eye. Retro, for anyone who sees this and didn't already know, was somewhat formed from the ashes of Iguana Entertainment--which the overly-informed of you will recognize as the guys who made the original, good, Turok games for the N64. Those games featured quite a wealth of Lovecraftian themes on their own, though clearly not as thickly as Eternal Darkness.

Alas, I don't think anything is going to come of this, and while Nintendo is more than happy to publish games like Eternal Darkness, Bayonetta, Geist, or Devil's Third every now and then, they clearly are still apprehensive around M-rated properties, and are terrible at promoting them. I don't think Nintendo will invest in this, and indeed, they didn't seem interested in saving the ill-fated Shadow of the Eternals, though it was strange that they allowed the Eternal Darkness logo to be used on Precursor's website. After all, Precursor was not the company that made the game. And if Precursor is no different than a new name for Silicon Knights, then they probably owe some assets to Epic.

I'd love to see Nintendo properly revive the IP. I don't trust Dyack to do it, and I don't think anyone should, unless Nintendo took complete control of the project. Outside of that, the best option Nintendo has for reviving the game would be giving it to Retro. No other Nintendo developer is close, in my view.

Maybe it takes a very shady creepy man to make a very shady creepy game.

I don't think Nintendo can develop a good Eternal Darkness game without a few people from the original game directing the story and providing the art for characters, monsters, areas, and overall Eternal Darkness lore.

Putting Eternal Darkness into Nintendos hands is as good as putting Zelda into Microsofts hands: Microsoft could make a great Zelda game, but it won't feel the same.

The story, characters, gameplay, graphics and music is already there, done, at Precursor games. And it feels right. And it looks great. Nintendo needs to collaborate with Precursor if they ever want this series to be at its peak again. But if they do not, well, there's still the chance that Precursor self-publishes and that would be great as well.

Precursor Studios has all the assets and the whole game. They are the original creators after all. Nintendo has only the name and nothing else. Without Precursor there's no hope for a real Eternal Darkness sequel.
Without Precursor all Nintendo is able to do is remaster the original in HD or put Eternal Darkness on download for Virtual Console.

For people that never played the original, a remake, but for ALL of us, a new one.

@SKTTR

You're forgetting that Precursor is also fewer than a dozen people at this point, so it's safe to say that almost the entire team that worked on the original game is long gone. Putting the game in anyone else's hands at this point would hardly be any different.

I don't think it matters any more if or what assets Precursor has any more than it mattered what assets 3D Realms had for Duke Nukem Forever before it went to Gearbox.

There's another major issue here that bothers me about Dyack & Company--they have quite literally used the success of Eternal Darkness to get money from companies like Microsoft and Activision to fund half-assed development on other games. This is a company that has proven that they are either incapable of making a solid product or don't want to, and Dyack himself complained about the stern controls Nintendo had him under--you know, the exact controls that helped him make the only truly note-worthy game in his history.

So when it comes to assets, who cares? I could have all the assets to make a new Zelda game, but that doesn't mean I'm the right person to put them all together. Nintendo owns the name, characters, and story--and they own the Insanity system. Which means that without Nintendo's full say-so, and without being an actual Eternal Darkness game (as Shadows of the Eternals was only ever going to be, at best, a spiritual successor), it wouldn't even have the core mechanics that helped define ED.

Shadow of the Eternals, without Nintendo, is nothing. It would not even have insanity effects. Nintendo patented the insanity system. It wasn't even going to be in this new game.

I do agree that, at the very least, the original Eternal Darkness should see a re-release, or an HD upgrade, if for no other reason than to maintain the brand.

For Eternal Darkness itself, I'd say an entirely new game, perhaps with a Virtual Console release besides. The trick it pulled just don't mesh with modern tech, and I wouldn't want just the traditional parts of the game retread with modern-era psych-outs. A follow-up would do nicely, the carry on the spirit of the aged gem of its predecessor.

(All this said by someone who's hardly familiar with the game, especially first-hand.)