Capcom Files for Trademark Renewal for Deep Down
Awhile back when PlayStation 4 was revealed in 2013, Capcom gave us a tease of an upcoming game called Deep Down. It seemed to be Capcom’s answer to the famed Dark Souls series with daring dungeon-crawling and a brooding atmosphere to boot. Since then, being a hopeful fan for that game is harder than any death-dealing demon in Dark Souls as there’s been scant details on its progress. However, it’s been reported that Capcom has filed for renewing the trademark for the troubled game on February 9th this year.
For those keeping count, the single and multiplayer game has had a turbulent development with most of the updates in media to be about its dead-or-alive status. Back in 2013’s Tokyo Game Show, Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono announced that the game would be a free-to-play game with a release date alongside the Japanese release of the PS 4. In an interview with Gematsu in 2015, Ono affirmed worried gamers that the Deep Down was not dead, but that work on the game was still happening.
During the game’s MIA status, the industry has gotten a myriad of Dark Souls-ish games. From Software were able to release Dark Souls 2, 3, and Bloodborne to sate fans of the genre. If Capcom was planning to fight them in that space, it might be a little late as From Software is intrinsically tied to that genre at this point.
However, it’s not impossible for newcomers as the industry lit up for Grasshopper Manufacture’s Let It Die and Koei Temco’s Nioh. There’s always room for iteration and hope that Capcom can bring a new take on the genre. Afterall, Nioh was widely praised and cut out a healthy chunk of change in sales for itself too.
At the moment, Capcom has yet to give an update on the series since the trademark’s renewal. There’s nothing tying to renewal to an E3 showing, but doing so would be a smart move. If there’s any time left for Deep Down to make a splash once again, Capcom will need to drop some new info at this year’s E3 Expo.