Nintendo has requested a new extension of the Eternal Darkness trademark registration at the US trademark and patent office. This is the fifth extension of this registry and, therefore, it is the last one that can be requested if the company does not make use of the trademark or justifies enough renewal before the US public entity.
This does not mean that the right to the trademark can be lost, as a new application could be initiated. In any case, we still don’t know if Nintendo really plans to do something with this Silicon Knights title that came to GameCube in 2002 and that quickly captivated the public for its playability, ambience and lovecraftian theme.
Eternal Darkness wanted to make players suffer with a curious effect of madness: users witnessed how their save file slowly disappeared before their eyes, in one of their curious sanity effects. It didn’t really happen, but it was terrifyingly effective. Perhaps many more than other effects such as reversing controls, decapitating the character or suddenly killing him … but they were all illusions to affect the user.
The truth is that the renewal of rights on this brand is almost an annual tradition that revives the longings of much of the community to recover the game or wish that Nintendo decides to make a continuation.
Although over the years there have been rumors about a continuation or a remake of this game, none of these speculations have come true. There has also been speculation about the redistribution of the game in digital format, first on Wii U, and in recent times in relation to a Virtual Console for Nintendo Switch that has not materialized at the moment.
This type of rumor gained special force in 2013, when the trademark protection was introduced in relation to digital and electronic distribution products. For now, Nintendo Switch receives only classic NES and SNES games.
There is nothing official so far so there is nothing left but to wait for news related to this classic GameCube that terrified fans in the distant year 2002.