Sega has filed trademarks for Skies of Arcadia and Eternal Arcadia in Japan — and plenty of Dreamcast and GameCube fans are going wild worldwide.
The trademarks — one for the game’s English name, and the other for its Japanese name — were made on 16th January, and then made public on 24th January (thanks, Gematsu).
As with all trademark renewals and refreshes, this may not mean anything and is simply a case of an IP holder putting a stake in the ground. But in Sega’s case, it’s in the midst of reviving a number of its classic franchises, with a new Crazy Taxi, Shinobi, Golden Axe, and Streets of Rage all on the horizon, among other franchises.
Skies of Arcadia first launched on the Dreamcast in 2000 and is often considered one of the best games on the system. It got an expanded rerelease on GameCube titled Skies of Arcadia Legends in 2002 (2003 in the West) which added new quests and discoveries, and that remains the only port of the sky pirate turn-based RPG.
Back in 2020, one of the game’s original developers, Kenji Hiruta, said that a rerelease or sequel depends on Sega. Could this be the spark that sets the ship sailing? A few weeks ago, Sega also filed a trademark for Ecco The Dolphin, so maybe we’re getting a new slate of revived Sega franchises.
Sega has never really forgotten its history, and Skies of Arcadia has made numerous appearances in different Sega games. Vyse, Aika, and Fina all appeared in the strategy RPG Valkyria Chronicles, and Vyse was also a playable racer in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The game’s characters also popped up in the Archie crossover comic Worlds Unite, and Skies of Arcadia can also be spotted in the Sega logo at the start of the Sonic the Hedgehog movies.
We’d love for this trademark to mean something — and we’d love to see Skies of Arcadia make a return on Switch 2 — but for now, we’re trying our very best to stay grounded. Deep breath, everyone…
Do you think we’ll see a rerelease of Skies of Arcadia? Let us know in the comments.
