Atari Renews Alone In the Dark Trademark, Is a New Game Coming?

You may recall a few years ago, well before the days of Resident Evil, a horror game called Alone In the Dark. It actually inspired the likes of survival horror games for years to come, though it's seen better days, especially when Atari tried -- and failed -- to revive it a few years ago with the misguided Alone In the Dark: Illumination. And don't even get us started on whatever that Uwe Boll film adaptation was.

But that apparently isn't stopping the publisher from giving it another try. A recent trademark has popped up, indicating that Atari may show interest in revisiting the franchise once more.

The trademark, which can be found here, doesn't offer any specific details, like intended platforms, a storyline or even any given title for the game. But it does indicate that it was filed back in February, which means Atari has been at work on this for a few months. Could an announcement at E3 be right around the corner?

Of course, the publisher hasn't said a word and likely won't until, at the very least, that big trade event rolls around in June. But it could make for another interesting chapter in the company's comeback, which includes titles like Tempest 4000, the Atari Flashback series and the forthcoming Rollercoaster Tycoon for Nintendo Switch. Not to mention its return to the gaming hardware market with the Atari VCS, which will hopefully get some presence (and hey, a working unit) at the forthcoming event.

The Alone In the Dark series has seen its ups and downs over the years. It got its start in 1992 and was followed by a number of sequels, only for Darkworks to attempt to revive it with The New Nightmare in 2001. After that, we got Atari's Inferno, which had good intentions, but was met with average reviews at best. Finally, Illumination tried to restart the series, but it too failed to live up to the hype.

Hopefully, the company learned from its mistakes and is ready to make a game that uses the franchise to its fullest -- especially since horror survival games have changed for the better over the past few years. (Again, let's forget that Uwe Boll dreck, yeah?)

We'll let you know whatever the company reveals as soon as it becomes official. In the meantime, revisit the classic games. They're actually pretty good.