In 2013, Nintendo published PlatinumGames’ The Wonderful 101, a unique and stylish action game that slowly became a cult classic. For many years, the IP belonged to Nintendo, but fans recently noticed that PlatinumGames acquired its trademark from the publisher earlier this month.
Reddit user r/Joseki100 recently discovered that on August 19, PlatinumGames filed a document in the United States Patent and Trademark Office requiring the transferal of the Wonderful 101 trademark from Nintendo, which was successfully completed by September 9, ultimately confirming that the studio fully owns the rights to the game now.
This is quite an unprecedented event, since it is extremely rare for Nintendo to give one of its IPs to someone else. Although this acquisition isn’t much surprise in retrospect, considering that PlatinumGames has been trying to become independent since 2020, not to mention that Nintendo hasn’t done much with the Wonderful 101 IP, aside from allowing PlatinumGames to remaster the game and port it over to other consoles in 2020.
The potential future of The Wonderful 101 franchise
News of the acquisition made some fans speculate that PlatinumGames may have plans of developing a sequel to The Wonderful 101. It all depends on the studio that created the franchise now, as it no longer needs to rely on the funding or approval of Nintendo. It’s possible that PlatinumGames may even do another crowdfunding campaign in order to develop a new The Wonderful 101 game, similarly to what it did for the 2020 remaster.
There’s only one problem: the director of The Wonderful 101, Hideki Kamiya, left the company in September 2023. Some fans believe that his departure means that making a new entry in this series is almost impossible, since his signature style was a big part of the original game’s identity. However, there still are many other talented people working today at PlatinumGames who may be able to take over from him and successfully direct a solid sequel.
Published: Sep 24, 2024 11:42 am