Sega has some of the most popular gaming characters in the world, and of late has not shied away from bringing them back to life.
Sonic the Hedgehog, while never truly having gone away is now the biggest the blue hedgehog has ever been, complete with a massive Hollywood franchise and a host of new games to help and it looks like Sega has realised that some of these old characters and games might be worth revisiting.
At the start of the month at The Game Awards, the gaming giant announced it was working on new games for some of its best-known IPs – including Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and Golden Axe – all classics, but that might not be all.
Gematsu reported on X that Sega had, in fact, registered trademarks around some of its other major releases of the past including classic arcade racer Outrun, puzzle game Super Monkey Ball, and zombie shooter House of the Dead.
This information came from the Trademark Watchbot X account.
出願日：2023-12-06
出願人：株式会社セガ,SEGA CORPORATION
区分：第9類(機械器具),第41類(教育・娯楽)
商品役務：家庭用テレビゲーム機用プログラム ほか108
OCRテキスト2：OUTRUN
続き https://t.co/ycR7gMdCxi pic.twitter.com/s9IUbhVqQb— 商標ウォッチbot (@tmark365) December 15, 2023
The trademarks were filed on 6th December but only just made public. What is slightly confusing is that it could be assumed that Sega already held the trademarks to these iconic gaming franchises, so this could just be a technical move. While certainly not definitive proof we have a new Outrun game on the way, it shows that the game is at least in the thoughts, somewhere down the line.
The original Outrun was released in September 1986 in the arcades before finding its way over the years onto virtually every system imaginable.
It was Sega’s most successful arcade game in 1980 and is still considered to be one of the most influential racing games ever created.
Its iconic soundtrack is still remembered fondly and has been remixed many times. (I may have the original as my iPhone’s ringtone, but that is just a rumor.)
Featured image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
