Nintendo Renews Eternal Darkness Trademark as Denis Dyack Re-Affirms Continuing Work on Shadow of the Eternals

I never played Eternal Darkness. Think I'll look for a copy at some point this year.

I remember wanting to try this game back then, but kept forgetting about it.

Never played it before, but a friend of mine did and really liked it. When i watched him play it, it wasn't really interesting to me, so I'm probably the one person that hopes nintendo is doing something other than a sequel to this

Just beat the game today...what are the odds?

One of my favorite games of all time!
Great story. Great variety and never a dull moment.
First and only game that ever scared me.
Really messes with your head in ways that had not been seen before.
I actually thought something was in my house.
If you've played it you know what I'm talking about.

O man this could be great news!

I really hope they can make it; just imagine every Sanity Effects they could do just with CEC (if the Wii U added compatibility with an update)!:

System Standby: "Enables users to switch multiple devices to standby mode with the press of one button". - This could be used to actually turn off the tv, and "blind" the gamer, who could only hear the monsters in the gamepad...
OSD Display "Uses the OSD of the TV set to display text" - This could be used to display creepy messages...
Routing Control "Controls the switching of signal sources" - Used to switch back to the TV signal. See first point.
Device OSD Name Transfer "Transfers the preferred device names to the TV set" - Can be used to name the Wii U input on your TV something like "your worst nightmare" or "ERROR".
System Audio Control "Allows the volume of an AV receiver, integrated amplifier or preamplifier to be controlled using any remote control from a suitably equipped device(s) in the system" - This can be used to mute the TV or crank up the volume for those Scare jumps things.

File this with Beyond Good and Evil 2 and The Last Guardian in both my Really Really Want It and Believe It When I See It folders. I just don't think the audience is large enough for this to be likely. And no matter how passionate a fan is, they represent only one potential sale.

Would be cool for Wii U

One of the best games I've ever played and the first and possibly only game to genuinely scare me.Resident Evil made me jump,Eternal Darkness had me checking other rooms to make sure I was alone.If I could choose between Retro making a new Matroid or this ,ED would win every time.

At first I misread "ripples" in that first paragraph and was stunned by the phrase lol

@PanurgeJr I thought The Last Guardian was cancelled sometime last year.

On another note, with the renewal to the ED trademark, and the still hurting loss of Silent Hills, why not see if Del Toro could make an official sequel to ED. I keep hearing people say how they want to see what happens with him at the helm of a video game, here's as good of a chance as any.

I am glad they are keeping the mark, but I would be happier if they actually did something with it. Even despite my dislike of the horror genre, Eternal Darkness was a unique entry and a positive step for Nintendo at the time. It was part of their initiative to create more mature and western properties.

I remember it sort of flew under the radar when it came out.
Those who played it really liked, but in typical Nintendo fashion, the game just wasn't advertised properly...

"This Isn't Really Happening!"

awesome!

Nintendo better do something with the IP this year, there's no use in renewing it and then do nothing with it all year long. A crossover horror title between Eternal Darkness and Fatal Frame would be awesome too considering Nintendo own both IPs now.

Video game companies are always renewing trademarks for their IPs.

However, even though Nintendo failed to attract that hardcore mature audience they wanted with this system, they're still aiming to make more mature games I feel. And I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo have been secretly making a sequel to this game behind closed doors just perhaps not for the Wii U but NX.

This better happen. My Wii U is starving for horror games

@DarkAngel_17 Fatal Frame is coming west later this year. So that's one horror at least.

People were excited when Nintendo renewed the trademark five years ago too.

My guess is nothing will come of this, but I wouldn't be opposed to Retro making a new Eternal Darkness.

Sweet!

Now just bring the game out already and maybe for Wii U...

Actually; get Nintendo on board too, as like a support developer/advisor or whatever, just to help make sure the game is really polished to that Nintendo level of all-round quality.

Ahh, I really hope this happens.

Now; to be clear; the original game isn't perfect. It was a shame they removed the full realtime dynamic shadows that were seen in early builds. Some of the designs were a bit rough, both monsters and environments (like that big temple blob thing that I can't remember if that's just "The Eternals" or whatever), although most of them were pretty high quality. The controls were sometimes a little clunky although still leagues ahead of the likes or Resident Evil. There's a few other small niggles here and there that I have. All in all however, it was just a brilliant game with some great ideas and gameplay elements. I mean I don't usually care about managing inventories and stuff like that, such as having to faff around with all your items in Resident Evil for example, but the rune and magic system in Eternal Darkness was genuinely brilliant imo; even just the chanting as the magic was performed was so cool and atmospheric. Playing as multiple different characters across different time periods with interconnected/intertwined stories and fates etc was very cool too. Also; obviously the whole insanity stuff was just a touch of genuine genius. Basically; a new Eternal Darkness game, if done right, could be something truly special as far as I'm concerned.

@Pod. Why would retro make it? Obviously this guy's company in the article is going to make the game.

I've been teased WAY too many times. Dyack and Nintendo (Dyack and the Industry, really) had a blowout a few years ago, which resulted in Nintendo pulling the funding from an "Eternal Darkness" sequel. That caused Dyack to split off and try to get crowd funding for "Shadow of the Eternals", then a spiritual successor.

I'll wait until I get an official announcement from a large publisher before I get excited again. Even then, I'll retain my skepticism. Being burned will do that to you.

My love of "Eternal Darkness" runs deep. It was the second game that I purchased for the Gamecube, and one of the main reasons that I bought the system.

I'd love to see the original get a remastering

I own the original. I've probably played it through most of the way but I never completed it. It failed to suck me in, although I really liked the "unique experiences" that the game had. A better looking game on the Wii U might be very good though.

@OorWullie Best Gamecubecube game of all time better than Resident Evil

I never got around to playing this way back when. Would be great to see an HD remake if not an original sequel/reboot. Or just a standard VC release would be equally welcome.

Eternal Darkness remains my all-time favorite game, and I would love nothing more than to see Retro Studios truck out the brand at E3 this year. But, I don't think that's going to happen because Nintendo is just keeping control of their brand, here.

I do, however, hope Dyack and company eventually give up on the bastardization they've been trying to cobble together. Dyack has gone to great lengths to show that he is incapable of making a game without Nintendo's strict control.

My god YES ~

@hobthebob
Denis Dyack is working on a spiritual successor that he owns personally, as far as I am aware.

Nintendo owns the IP Eternal Darkness, the game that Denis made thirteen years ago. When Nintendo renews the trademark for Eternal Darkness, as they have done several times, they are free to let who-ever they want work on it.

With Denis being busy on his new game, I don't think he's working on anything with Nintendo. At least not Eternal Darkness.

And personally, I'd really like to see Retro do something Lovecraftian.

@Pod Yeah, he's working on a spiritual successor that from what I read in the article is not currently active. Neither is there any reported activity for the actual eternal darkness ip, other than Nintendo stating vaguely that they plan on using the ip for some unknown purpose.

It's not much of a stretch to think that Denis made a deal with Nintendo, and is now developing a new eternal darkness, rather than completing his original work on a spiritual successor.

Anyway, any good new game would be welcome on the Wii U, certainly.

Also consider this point made in the article: "Speaking to Niche Gamer, it was made clear that Shadow of the Eternals could re-emerge in some form, but Dyack is keen to avoid promising timelines or further details at present."

It was made clear that shadow of the eternals could re-emerge in "some form". What does that mean exactly, and why are both the spiritual successor and the renewal of the older ip mentioned in the same article?