Ubisoft silent on Shadowbane trademark
Unforgiving MMO turning single-player?
A recently-filed trademark suggests Ubisoft may be working on a brand new version of Shadowbane.
The filing, spotted by Superannuation, protects the game name when used for videogames on any format, including console.
Ubisoft, when approached by Eurogamer, declined comment.
Shadowbane was an ambitious MMO that focused on open player-versus-player combat and a world that would be affected by it. Most MMOs of the time (2003) - and even today - are static, which means the world as a whole stays the same no matter what players get up to.
Shadowbane servers closed this July after six years of operation.
Wolfpack Studios made Shadowbane and was acquired by Ubisoft in 2004. The publisher closed Wolfpack two years later, at which point veterans of the team formed to make Stray Bullet Games. Ubisoft contracted Stray Bullet to maintain Shadowbane.
But Stray Bullet also had another game in development, an unnamed MMO revealed in 2007 to sound rather a lot like Shadowbane.
Could Ubisoft and Stray Bullet be working together on a new version of Shadowbane?