Let’s review. Nintendo released a Classic Mini NES. It released a Classic Mini SNES. And now, a new Japanese trademark for the Game Boy has been filed in Japan. Hrm…
[Image: Evan-Amos | The Vanamo Online Game Museum]
Ninten-Switch.com reports that the trademark was recently discovered. It’s been tweeted out by a Japanese trademark bot.
[商願2017-123766]
商標:[画像] /
出願人:任天堂株式会社 /
出願日:2017年9月15日 /
区分:9(家庭用テレビゲーム機用プログラムほか),14(キーホルダーほか),18(かばん金具ほか),21(化粧用具ほか),25(被服ほか),28(家庭用テレビゲーム… pic.twitter.com/noRhof6vF1— 商標速報bot (@trademark_bot) October 6, 2017
The trademark was filed on September 15, and included this Game Boy image.
Here is how the trademark listing appears on website Japan Platform for Patent Information.
[Image: J-Plat Pat]
It doesn’t specify the name on the trademark, but it covers a variety of “home video game console” programs as well as “programs for smartphones”, “smartphone cases” and “smartphone covers”, as well as “key holders”, “necklaces” and “watches”. Some of the trademarks could be to protect the “Nintendo Classic Mini Game Boy” brand or they could simply be to protect the Game Boy brand. Full stop.
Back in 2005, Nintendo released a smaller version of the Game Boy Advance called the Game Boy Micro.
Gizmodo Japan is one of many Japanese sites wondering if this means a Nintendo Classic Mini Game Boy is coming and pointed out (via US Gamer) that this past winter, Nintendo Europe also filed for a Nintendo 64 trademark. With the success of the NES Mini and the SNES Mini, it would be surprising if more Minis were not in the works.
Kotaku reached out to Nintendo prior to publication, but had not heard back at time of writing.
Comments
8 responses to “Nintendo Just Registered A New Game Boy Trademark In Japan”
The more minis there are, the more compelled i will be to catch them all. Having lost my original 64 collection to thieves i am totally down for one of those.
Damn, they got me like they did with amiibo!
Also, is this where the switch VC went?
Uovote for the VC comment. I didn’t get a Wii U but I have purchased a switch. One of the reasons I did was for the VC. Hopefully & eventually.
Because of the small amount of processing power needed for Gameboy this system could be killer. Presumably the original design is mimicked but pretend for a minute the original case housed a phone with about 150p resolution on a small screen with no wireless connectivity. You’d fit about 8000mAh of battery in that hefty thing and it would last a week.
They will slim this down but it can still have astonishing battery.
For real enthusiasts the game selection is going to make or break this. Will they have ~15 locked in, permanent Gameboy titles or a faux cartridge system with around 3 collectable carts holding 15 games each ?
Looks more like they are doing this to go after the case makers and other people using the gameboy image in products.
I’ve never played a gameboy game, I was a Lynx guy 🙂 so I don’t know how well the games would hold up for a new retro console release, but I’m guessing they would look pretty awful now.
I had a Lynx too, and I’d kill for a “Classic Lynx” release with all of the good games for the system.
I also had a Gameboy though…so if it’s true they are doing a “classic” version of it, I’d be interested. Unlike the SNES and even NES though, I’m not entirely sure how well those monochrome 8-bit games have aged.
Weaponized nostalgia, gotta love it? More than happy for them to just modernize the old libraries onto their current platforms, guess I’ve been spoiled with PC.
I guess the advantage of something like this is that it’s a permanent, physical thing you can keep. Releasing the old games on Virtual Console etc is fine, but if you’re like me, you probably get rid of your old consoles when the new ones come out. Even if you keep them all it’s unlikely you keep them hooked up to your TV at at the very least you’ll need to pull it out of storage, dust it off and hook it all up. With these classic systems though, they are small enough and portable enough that you can take them pretty much anywhere, hook them up and immediately start playing.
That’s the value I see in them. Yes, I can download the majority of the SNES classic games on the Virtual Console if I wanted to, but just having them all together in that one neat little package that is essentially a plug and play device is just so damn convenient and easy.
another facet of this is that the virtual console is shutting down completely for the Wii.
So whatever one has purchased for it becomes moot as they won’t be able to re-download the game if they need to. i have lots of vc games on the virtual console and now i don’t know how to preserve them if things go wrong 🙁
so again it lends itself even today that the physical copy is worth a lot lot more than the virtual copy (which is now more likely to disappear) especially as time goes on.
I want a Game Gear classic. Give me that sweet Slider, and Columns, and Batman Returns on the go nostalgia, without having to work my ass off around the house to pay for the 6 AA batteries that last like 2 hours.
They have already released a Game Gear classic about 5 years ago