Sometimes it happens that the Japanese company gives the intellectual property back to the game developers, and that’s what happened a little over a month ago…
On the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office), we read that Nintendo’s US subsidiary has relinquished one of its IPs. This is rare, as the big N is usually the company that protects its property tooth and nail! A fan game? That’s fine if there’s no profit behind it. A fan remake of a published game? (Such was the case with Metroid II: Return of Samus, which became AM2R.) It gets wiped from the Internet, and the company’s lawyers show no mercy!
And yet, in a document dated August 19th at the USPTO, we see that the rights to The Wonderful 101 have been transferred from Nintendo to PlatinumGames! This is of course a very strange decision, because although the game, which was originally released exclusively for the Nintendo Wii U, was remastered and released not only on the Nintendo Switch but also on many other platforms, there was not much interest in the game, so it cannot be called a blockbuster.
The other interesting thing is why did PlatinumGames just get the IP? The creator of the game, Hideki Kamiya, is no longer with the studio, and since it would be very difficult to continue the franchise without the original director, we don’t understand the logic. Sure, there have been previous examples of Kamiya only directing the first part of a franchise and then going on to make several successful sequels (Hideaki Itsuno, who directed the IP from Devil May Cry 2 to 5, but he’s since left Capcom too!), but this doesn’t seem like a very logical move.
So maybe PlatinumGames wanted to own all the rights, but that doesn’t mean they would automatically make a sequel. If they do, it won’t be the real thing without Kamiya…
