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Is a Game Boy Classic Edition on the way? Alleged Nintendo trademark application sparks rumors

Casey Baseel Oct 10, 2017
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The word “Game Boy” doesn’t appear in alleged document, but there’s no mistaking that image for anything else.

With the recent release of the Super NES Classic Edition, Nintendo is once again in the surreal situation of having its hottest new product actually be a collection of its old products. Coming roughly after a year after the launch of the NES Classic Edition, the miniature Super NES further confirms that people are willing to pay for a curated, self-contained sample of landmark Nintendo system titles, and with the large pantheon of Nintendo hardware, the big question now is which system will be the next to get the Classic Edition treatment.

Nintendo’s PR department is mum on the subject, as the company is still publicly basking in the limelight of the Super NES Classic release. But the Japanese Twitter account @trademark_bot, which posts Japanese trademark applications, thinks it knows Nintendo’s next retro move.

[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

According to the account, on September 15 Nintendo filed a trademark application that included an image of what’s unmistakably a Game Boy, even if the name of Nintendo’s first portable system doesn’t actually appear in the image. Among the trademark categories applied for is “video game system or program,” which would fit perfectly with Nintendo’s Classic Edition lineup of consoles pre-loaded with games.

While the Game Boy may not have reached the same level of cultural significance as the NES or Super NES, it still enjoyed an extremely long life. Released in 1989, the Game Boy was Nintendo’s sole portable platform until the release of the Game Boy Color nine years a later. That’s a longer period of time in the top-dog position than the NES/Famicom, which was on the market for seven years in Japan before Nintendo released its successor) or the Super NES/Super Famicom, which had six years on the non-portable Nintendo throne.

Part of Nintendo’s standing Classic Edition strategy is to scale down the dimensions of the original system, which may seem strange to do with the already-portable Game Boy. However, the Game Boy, especially in its first-generation form, is pretty bulky by modern standards, and so something smaller and lighter, and with such modern givens as a back-lit screen and rechargeable battery, would be a major improvement on the original.

Still, Nintendo itself is yet to officially announce a Game Boy Classic Edition, and it’s also worth noting that the trademark application @trademark_bot cites is also for categories such as key chains, clothing, and cosmetics, so it might just mean that Nintendo is looking to pump out some nostalgia-tinged lifestyle merchandise. If the application does turn out to be for a new mini system, though, a look back shows that Nintendo filed the associated trademark applications for the Super NES Classic Edition in April of last year, ahead of a late September release, which would suggest that a Game Boy Classic Edition would be coming sometime next spring.

Sources: Jin, Danshi Hack, Twitter/@trademark_bot