Ubisoft silent on Shadowbane trademark

By Robert Purchese Published 11 November, 2009

Unforgiving MMO turning single-player?

A recently-filed trademark suggests Ubisoft may be working on a brand new version of Shadowbane.

The filing, spotted by Superannuation, protects the game name when used for videogames on any format, including console.

Ubisoft, when approached by Eurogamer, declined comment.

Shadowbane was an ambitious MMO that focused on open player-versus-player combat and a world that would be affected by it. Most MMOs of the time (2003) - and even today - are static, which means the world as a whole stays the same no matter what players get up to.

Shadowbane servers closed this July after six years of operation.

Wolfpack Studios made Shadowbane and was acquired by Ubisoft in 2004. The publisher closed Wolfpack two years later, at which point veterans of the team formed to make Stray Bullet Games. Ubisoft contracted Stray Bullet to maintain Shadowbane.

But Stray Bullet also had another game in development, an unnamed MMO revealed in 2007 to sound rather a lot like Shadowbane.

Could Ubisoft and Stray Bullet be working together on a new version of Shadowbane?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (1) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Psy-Q #1 2 years ago

    Be careful with that: At least according to Swiss trademark law, trademarks can expire or be challenged 10 years after they are first registered, and registrations aren't automatically renewed. Maybe the same is true in France, so Ubisoft will have to renew their trademark on the name if they don't want to lose it.
    Edited by 1 at 11/11/09 @ 16:01