Sega has filed trademarks for 'Ecco' and 'Ecco the Dolphin' in Japan, triggering rumours that the time-travelling aquatic mammal might be making a comeback 25 years after his last outing.
The trademarks were spotted by Gematsu, and were filed in Japan on 27th December. The filing was subsequently made public recently.
The series began in 1992 when a team at Hungarian studio Appaloosa Interactive (previously called Novotrade International) led by Ed Annunziata created Ecco The Dolphin for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear and Sega CD. The original game was later ported to the Nintendo 3DS as part of Sega's excellent 3D Classics series.
A commercial and critical success, the game was followed by 1994's Ecco: The Tides of Time, which also launched across all of Sega's home systems. A Mega Drive exclusive, Ecco Jr., arrived in 1995. 2000 would bring Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future to Dreamcast, which was later ported to PS2. A direct sequel to that outing, Ecco II: Sentinels of the Universe, was cancelled.
Original creator Annunziata tried to crowdfund a spiritual successor to Ecco with some of the original team back in 2013 called The Big Blue, but only raised $55,764 against a funding goal of $665,000. It's not known if he's involved with Sega's plans for the series, but we've reached out to him for comment and will update this piece when we hear back.
On the topic of Ecco, late last year, UK publisher Read Only Memory revealed that it had removed references to Ecco from the upcoming reprint of Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works at Sega's request.