The soul still burns? Namco Bandai registers EXCALIBUR trademark

by Andrew Yoon on Mar 11th 2009 11:05PM

Companies like to keep secrets, hiding their upcoming projects from the general public until the marketing and PR stars align. However, leaks can come from a variety of sources: ESRB database listings, early achievement reveals, and trademark registrations. NeoGAF's Stormbringer has compiled a list of new Japanese trademarks and one entry in particular caught our attention: Namco Bandai's EXCALIBUR.

While the trademark in question could be a reference to the classic story of King Arthur, we can't help but remember another popular Namco Bandai franchise: Soulcalibur (yes, it's one word). Could Namco Bandai be looking into creating a spin-off series of the popular fighting game? An even more dramatic possibility: the franchise will be donning an entirely new name. Let's not forget, the first game in the franchise was called Soul Edge, not Soulcalibur.

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Tags: excalibur, namco-bandai, soul-calibur, soulcalibur, trademark

Reader Comments (35)

King Arthur will be the PS3 exclusive, and Merlin will be the 360 exclusive. Then a month later you can spend more money and have both.

I suspect you're jumping to conclusions a bit... Yes the series began as Soul Edge; but the thing about Soul Calibur/Soul Edge is, well, they're both swords in the franchise and have been a part of it since day one. The game's storyline revolves around these two swords.

The Excalibur on the other hand? Famous mythological sword that has never appeared in or even been hinted at in any of the Soul Calibur franchise.

took the words right out of my mouth.

personally, i'd rather see an Excalibur jrpg or an Excalibur 3rd-person game, than some fighting-game marriage between Soulcalibur and Excalibur.

There was no Soul Calibur (I refuse to accept Namco's changes) until Soul Calibur 1. They could add an Excalibur for Excalibur 1.

If it is the next game in the Soul series, I wonder if they'll do what they did between Soul Edge and Soul Calibur and change the basic mechanics a lot.

As a fan of the Soul series, I sincerely hope that a name change is not the case. Maybe a spin off. I say this because the series has always been about the twin blades, Soul Edge and Soulcalibur, and the existence and form of the human soul. Changing the name to anything other than Soul (something) would demean it.

...is anyone else hoping that EXCALIBUR is a DOA Xtreme-esque spinoff? Sophitia in a bikini? YES, PLEASE.

But then it would be Xcalibur.

I like the ring of Soul EXCALIBUR. It's not like the story in fighting games is all that important.

Soulcalibur's story is interesting, though...

SPAM COMMENT

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/file/533008/26537

Could be anything, really. Though Namco did heavilly announced the last SC as a series finale of sorts. Maybe they are moving to something else.

Actually I think it's written SoulCalibur® in print, with the C capitalized. So no it isn't Soulcalibur, it's SoulCalibur.

Same with xbox live being properly written as Xbox LIVE in print. I know I'm being /that guy/ but you went out of your way in the article to say "Soulcalibur (yes, it's one word)" so you brought it upon yourself.

really? did he?

Soulcalibur is one word. It's written as that on the side of the game cases (in PAL territories), in the game itself, and on the website.

No my friend it is SoulCalibur or SOULCALIBUR in print; check any official print from Capcom or credits in the games. It is a title and if one is going to correct a group of people publicly they better do it right (referring to the author of this post.)

The C is capitalized. I would have said anything at all if Alex didn't make a point to say it is indeed written as one word.

Again, try playing the actual game, the first two games story modes inparticular mention the blade by name many times, and it is *always* Soulcalibur, with no space or capitalisation on the C.

You can also check the info page on the official website.
http://soulcalibur.uk.ubi.com/

And if you still don't believe me, I'll happily take some pictures of the spine of the games box, once I get home :)

Snowblind,
Anticrawl is right and your link also proves the C is capitalized; i'm not sure why you dispute that since you provided the link.

http://www.soularchive.jp/

Also I meant Namco Bandai haha, had the news of Capcom's release annoucement tomorrow on my mind.

I have no idea what you guys are talking about.
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h203/WinterSnowblind/untitled-9.jpg

And again, I'll be more than happy to post the games actual case when I'm home.

I think everyone is talking about the game's logo, not what some guy writes in the local language about the game even on an official website.
Tell me you can't see the capital C in the logo on that picture on the top left hand corner!?

Yes, the logo itself uses a capital C, but that appears to be for artistic effect rather than anything itself. Like I already said, the game itself calls it the Soulcalibur and all the trademarks and copyright information, etc, are registered that same way.

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h203/WinterSnowblind/DSCF2891.jpg
Game box.

If you really want to be anal about this:
http://www.soulcalibur.com/archive/ (which is a link from the official US site)
Go to story and it says "Soul Calibur" which is the name of the sword so that would imply that they are never consistent. Not to mention that the same applies to Soul Edge from the Soul series.
At the end of the day, the logo clearly shows capitalization so that will do for me considering McDonald's, StarCraft and WarCraft to name a few, I see nothing wrong with SoulCalibur.

HERE WE GO!
Excalibur
Excalibur
From United King
I'm looking for him
I'm going to California

Excalibur
Excalibur
From United King
I'm looking for him
I'm going to California
Excalibur
Excalibur
Excalibur!

Fool!

Do you wish to hear of my legend?

It begins in the 12th century. Fool!

Every morning, I have a cup of coffee.
Every afternoon, I have a cup of tea.
In the evening, I put on my pajamas.

(yeah, I read this joystiq article right after watching soul eater)

Don't know why you guys are trolling GAF for news when they put Joystiq on the wordfilter...

Oh hell I hate that Excalibur game. It was one of my first PS1 games and it just blows! Its almost as bad as ET >:0

My namesake.

Pre-emptive grammar nazi says: It's "ExcalibUr".

@Giroro & R:// The SoulEater references are hilarious!
I hope this announcement is not relating to the Excalibur game released on the PSone because that game was godawful.

"Ex-Cal Ibur"
Its about a guy named Ibur who was from California, but got sent back to the middle ages when he dropped the lighting bolt on the radioactive sandwich.

While the David Cross Reference was welcomed, the rest was pure fail.

Namco, I'm not speaking to you anymore. You absolutely RUINED my favorite fighting franchise.

Surely it's basically Soulcalibur (I'll do it in one word if you insist) transposed to dark ages Britain, with boobtastic Guinevere, scantily-clad Morgana, heroic Arthur, treacherous Lancelot, etc.

Man, I'd love a game like that to be made, just to see the reaction from history/mythology buffs.

Rampant Speculation Theatre, starring Andrew Yoon! : )

Please note... Namco's record is extremely spotty... for every Soul Calibur 2 there is a Soul Calibur 3... for every Katamari Damacy there is a Hellgate London. Think about it.

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The soul still burns? Namco Bandai registers EXCALIBUR trademark

Reader Comments (35)

Posted: Mar 16th 2009 8:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 11th 2009 11:14PM AoE said

Posted: Mar 12th 2009 12:00AM atrimus said

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Posted: Mar 12th 2009 12:51AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Mar 12th 2009 12:56AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Mar 12th 2009 1:39AM ShadowOp said

Posted: Mar 12th 2009 7:15AM Snowblind said

Posted: Mar 12th 2009 7:24AM Anticrawl said

Posted: Mar 12th 2009 7:55AM Snowblind said

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