Nintendo renews Eternal Darkness mark

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 February, 2010

Housekeeping or something more?

Nintendo of America has renewed its claim to the Eternal Darkness trademark.

The new filing (thanks Kotaku) was made earlier this month.

There's no suggestion that this means a new Eternal Darkness game is in the offing, but Kotaku speculates that it may mean the GameCube original is in line for "New Play Control!" treatment on Wii.

Silicon Knights developed the enjoyable original, which messed with players' heads by hiding the contents of memory cards and other impolite antics in amongst hacking and slacking.

Studio boss Denis Dyack has previously spoken of his appetite to return to it, but not in quite some time. According to the internet, he last mentioned the "strong chance" of returning to the game in early 2008.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Tonka #1 2 years ago

    ED isn't very suited for "New Play Control!" though is it?

  • the_dudefather #2 2 years ago

    vitality sensor enabled! your character's health is effected by your heartrate

    bathtub is an instant kill

  • ryandsimmons #3 2 years ago

    "hacking and slacking"

    Surely "hacking and slashing". Does no one proof read these articles?

  • MORZTAN #4 2 years ago

    @the_dudefather

    My friend and I sat quiet for about one minute after that happened. We were scared shitless :D

    Let it be Eternal Darkness II.

    After the first two chapters of ED on cube, the game became an epic classic.

  • spekkeh #5 2 years ago

    I jizzed in my pants a little.

  • bushwod #6 2 years ago

    Love this game, still have it in fact.

    Would I buy it again with new play controls? Hmmmm.... tempted!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #7 2 years ago

    Really good game; Hopefully it will be a new game and not a New Play Control remake because I doubt that would add anything. Unless they really redo the graphics as well because in some areas you could clearly see that it started out as a N64 game. Brilliant soundtrack as well.

  • telboy007 #8 2 years ago

    Was a great game, became even greater when I stumbled across the extra type of (what was it magic? power?) special thingy behind a hidden wall on my second play through.

  • triarii #9 2 years ago

    Yeah the bath tub terrified me first time round. As did walking into the room with the piano & hearing an unusual creaking sound I hadn't heard in there before.

    Guy hanged himself & when you interact with him his eyes open, I squealed like a girl & turned my cube off.
    Edited by 3 at 17/02/10 @ 10:01

  • Malek86 #10 2 years ago

    ED was an okay game, although it relied on its sanity novelty most than anything else. Otherwise, you were left with some meh acting and slightly clunky controls. Still, it was somewhat similar to the old Alone in the Dark games, which is always a good thing. The story was nice enough. But once you saw all the tricks the sanity system had to offer, the game became much less entralling. And the last levels were downright boring.

    Anyway, like someone said, you can't really add anything with NPC. They need to either do a new one, or simply don't bother.

  • Rufus #11 2 years ago

    I sincerely hope there's some sort of sequel in the works. I still own and love the original!

  • kinky_mong #12 2 years ago

    Didn't quite get the Eternal Darkness love. Got as far as the chapter with the Archaeologist but got fed up the clunky controls and the sanity effects, while novel the first time, got overused far too much.

  • ChrisS #13 2 years ago

    May the rats eat your eyes! The darkness comes!

    @ the_dudefather - Spot on, sir.

    That said, I'd surmise that the sales of the NPC games so far would dissuade Nintendo from releasing any more. And Silicon Knights have been rather quiet since Too Human...

  • dr_shambles #14 2 years ago

    ED was a great game. It oozed atmosphere, and the voice acting was sheer class. Sequel please.

  • stevetuck #15 2 years ago

    i freaking loved this game :D

    I actually leaped off my seat to yank my memory card out when i thought it was deleting my save files GENOIUS!

  • Nadir #16 2 years ago

    Just chiming in with the ED lovin - it was an outstanding game - original, well-made and feckin scary.

    Let's hope any sequel is as worthy.

  • OldK1ngCole #17 2 years ago

    Eternal Darkness has to be one of my favourite games of all time. Weather it's a new play control, a remake of the original or a proper sequel (fingers crossed) it's an insta-purchase for me.

    @ the_dudefather - Man, that is one fantastic idea. They could also use the Vitality Sensor to check reactions to the Insanity effects and increase/make them worse as your heartrate goes up.

  • Hexagon #18 2 years ago

    I would much prefer a sequel. May there be a sequel. Now.

  • FogHeart #19 2 years ago

    I liked the fake-me-out bit with the promise of a sequel.

    This....isn't....really....happening!

  • Eraysor #20 2 years ago

    If they're renewing it for no reason, I hate them. if not, hurrah!

  • Sharks #21 2 years ago

    I jizzed my pants too. Anything's good really, if they're redoing the game under New Play Control! they'll have to renew bits, specifically some insanity hallucinations, so it'll be a new game in parts, but that's just my optimistic view of it. It's such a great cult classic, it really deserves more exposure. Golden Sun, now Eternal Darkness, good to see Nintendo at least holds some of their best long forgotten franchises in a relatively high regard. Now let's hear something about F-Zero please.

  • azazel_fallenangel #22 2 years ago

    I would like to see the vitality sensor implemented, the problem is that if you are playing throughthe second or third time, you know what will happen, you know when not be scared, where the jumps are. This as always a problem with survival horror games in my opinion.
    Was a great game though, massive Lovecraft fan, and loved seeing the homages.

  • Diomedes #23 2 years ago

    Now this was a great GC game,I hope Nintendo resurrects this game....

  • Gunzberg #24 2 years ago

    I loved ED. Felt like the total shiznik casting 7 point spells and stuff ;). Also sanity effects rocked

  • GodofGamblers #25 2 years ago

    My name is Dr. Edward Roivas, I am a clinical psychologist, I am also dead.

    ED, the only game i clocked 4 times in a row! (Although that probably had more to do with the Cube's dodgy release scheduling!)