Microsoft has filed a new trademark application for "Battletoads," implying, but not confirming, that the Xbox company may be planning to revive the classic series in some form or another.
The trademark application, spied by the ever-watchful eyes of NeoGAF, was filed with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on November 5. You can view the actual filing here. As you can plainly see, it covers "game software" and "online video games."
The "Battletoads" series was created by British developers Rare, and was originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. Microsoft bought Rare in 2002, and the "Battletoads" series has been basically ignored for years.
Could this trademark application indicate that Microsoft wants to bring "Battletoads" back to modern consoles in some fashion? Possibly...but there have been no whispers from Microsoft of any such title to date. Filing a trademark application isn't indicative of a future game release, as Microsoft could just be protecting the name/trademark, should it want to make a new, "Battletoads" game at some point down the line.
That being said, a Microsoft representative told GameSpot, "Microsoft often acquires various trademarks as part of its ongoing business strategy, but beyond that we have no comment." So there you go.
I for one would love to see the "Battletoads" series make a grand return, as I have many fond memories playing both the NES and SNES versions of the game back in the day.
Stay tuned for more if/when it develops.
