14 DAY TRIAL // There was a time when Microsoft was very proud of its Blinx franchise. The first game featuring the cat mascot was released back in October 2002 and received quite decent reviews from the media.
Blinx: The Time Sweeper was Microsoft’s answer to Nintendo’s Mario and Sony’s Ratchet & Clank, which is why it was only available to play on its Xbox consoles.
Given the rather positive feedback from players, Microsoft has decided to release a sequel two years later, which materialized into what we know today as Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space.
Only the second title in the series is still playable on Xbox 360 through backwards compatibility, so if you had to choose to play one and you own Microsoft’s previous console, this is the one to play.
The bad news is Microsoft did not feel confident that a third game featuring Blinx, the time-traveling cat, is worth the trouble so it dropped the trademark entirely, TheGamesCabin reports.
Phil Spencer hinted at a possible third installment last year
The trademark’s page on the USPTO website confirms that the registration of Blinx name has been cancelled, “did not file an acceptable declaration under Section 8.”
This means that effective December 26, 2014, Microsoft does not own the Blinx trademark anymore, so it’s free to grab for anyone wanting to revive the series.
However, Blinx is closely related to Microsoft, we doubt anyone would want to pick it up and continue releasing games from a franchise that did not really get that popular among console players.
So, after owning the Blinx trademark for more than 12 years, Microsoft decides to drop it and focus on other franchises and new IPs with higher chances of becoming smash hits.
Here is hoping that Microsoft will at least have some other platformer game in the works that would replace the now defunct Blinx series.