So, Japan has seen a string of trademark filings, for prospective new games and IPs, from Kadokawa Game Studio, Square Enix, and Nintendo. Nintendo's filing stands out in particular for its peculiarity. You can check out a rundown of each dev and filing below.
Kadokawa’s trademarks are for Gods War Frontier and The Lost Child, both filed March 28. While parent company Kadokawa Shoten actually dallied in video games in the Famicom / NES era, Kadokawa Games was only founded in 2009, and have made their name collaborating with other famous designers for their games. They are well known for Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer Is Dead, but the Metal Max series is actually their most prolific franchise. Neither of these names hearken to earlier games they made, so they may be entirely new IP, and more collaborations with other developers.
Square Enix filed trademarks for Mechanical Apartheid and Journey of the Cursed King, both on April 1. We know that Journey of the Cursed King is actually the subtitle to Dragon Quest VIII, the onetime odd Dragon Quest release outside a Nintendo platform. It originally came to the Playstation 2 on November 2005, and subsequently came to iOS and Android late last year in Japan. This port may be slated for a Western release. Of course, Mechanical Apartheid is entirely new, and we can only grasp at its genre.
Lastly, and more interesting and surprising, is Nintendo’s filing on April 2. Nintendo’s trademark is for Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace. The name’s a little too long, and a bit generic, for sure, but one can’t help wondering exactly what type of game this is. It totally sounds like a new FPS (a silly name for one, too), but we should not get ahead of ourselves with assumptions.
Trademark filings do not always lead to games being made, but as a matter of public record, it is one of those odd instances where developers are compelled to tip their hand and share with us what they have brewing behind the scenes. We’ll let you know if we get more information on any of these titles as they come out.
