Square Enix has been surprisingly active in 2020 with the launch of half a dozen remakes from Final Fantasy 7 Remake to the reworked Trials of Mana, as well as announcing new titles like Final Fantasy 16 for future release. However, a recent move by the company might be hinting at the revival of a Final Fantasy spin-off game form 1999 titled Chocobo Racing, within the larger Chocobo series.
A series of trademarks filed by Square Enix were made public today, being first reported on by Gematsu, that seem to indicate that the company is looking at diving into the series again after an extended break. So far, the trademarks have only be registered in Japan, but at least one filing within the set has been made in English, suggesting that the developer might be priming for worldwide release with the relatively small title.
The exact phrases being trademarked are "Chocobo Grand Prix" and "Chocobo GP", with the latter being the filing that was done in both English and Japanese. It isn't quite clear why "Chocobo Grand Prix" didn't get the same dual-lingual treatment, but it's possible that Square Enix is planning to release whatever connected title comes out of the trademark under a different title in the west. However, some fans do believe that it is clear that this new trademark is pointing to some sort of planned follow-up to Chocobo Racing, although that is speculation at this time and this could be equally related to Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2 or other related projects.
As for the original Chocobo Racing title itself, this was a one-off, cart racing title that was made as part of a much larger Chocobo series, including Chocobo's Dungeon and Chocobo World, which all launched in 1999. There was a planned sequel to the cart racer for the DS, but the game was eventually canceled only a few years after it had been announced. The series has been mostly dormant since, with the most recent release being a remake of Chocobo's Dungeon launching in 2019.
Considering that the original game was developed in part to compete with the success of Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing, it is possible that Square Enix has a revival of its own cart racer after the recent success of CTR Nitro Fueled. Of course, there is no further evidence to confirm that these trademarks are intended for any new titles that haven't already been announced, so the information does come with a grain of salt. Regardless, it would be interesting to see how the developer might handle a revival of a spin-off series dedicated to Final Fantasy's mascot with new Chocobo led games.
A new Chocobo Racing game is rumored to be in development.
Source: Gematsu (via nintendsoup)