Nintendo saw immense success with the releases of the NES classic and the SNES classic edition. Both versions saw huge sales numbers and have been met with excitement from Nintendo fans all over the world that got hit with waves of nostalgia. The NES classic edition sold so well that it is actually going to see a re-release on June 29. With the success of the classic devices, it would only make sense for them to try and replica this success with other classic consoles that they have, and guess what Nintendo just trademarked, the Nintendo 64.
The trademark was spotted by JapaneseNintendo and he has stated that the purposes of the trademark include “video game program, controller for game machine, joystick for video game machine, TV game machine and more”. This trademark does make it look like Nintendo is planning to do something with Nintendo 64, although we obviously don’t get too many hints from this trademark alone.
A further trademark that was already registered last year bring more evidence to the table. Last summer Nintendo filed a graphical trademark for multiple controllers that also included the extremely recognizable N64 controller. The other controllers were the Switch controller, and the controllers for the NES and SNES classic editions. Out of all these 4 controllers, only the N64 one has yet to be used for something.
One of the main issues that a Nintendo 64 classic release might run into are the rights to video games. A lot of the successful N64 games that Nintendo fans would want on the device were created by Rare, a company that is now owned by Microsoft. An N64 re-release without GoldenEye or Banjo-Kazooie would certainly be a shame and potentially hold back the N64 classic edition from achieving the success it’s NES and SNES counterparts have.
All of this is information should be taken with a grain of salt though as it is pure speculation at this point. It could be that Nintendo just re-registered the trademarks in order to protect their products and intellectual property. However, with Nintendo’s recent passion for re-releasing classic consoles and games, it’s certainly a possibility to see an N64 classic edition in the future.
