The possibility of a Glover sequel would have shaken five-year-old me to the core. It would have annihilated my world and exploded my brain, then a delicate little organ still recuperating from the experience of knowing that Super Mario 64 exists. So either I’m telepathically linked to the version of me still living in 1999 or I’ve yet to grow up, because Glover 2 was announced and I’m shook.
Well, it was “announced” by a new studio that doesn’t own the IP, but who plans to become the owners, but have yet to license the property from its current owners.
If you’re confused, let’s start from the beginning: what the heck just happened?
Glover 2 was cancelled nearly two decades ago. The financial circumstances of the original’s release – an initially large order of N64 cartridges were met with low consumer demand – led Hasbro to can the sequel, despite being 80% completed. A ROM hack of the prototype leaked in 2011, and mum’s been the word ever since.
Enter 2018.
A new studio, Golden Mushroom, announced on Reddit that they were in the process of licensing the Glover IP, which US company Piko Interactive LLC claims to own. The details on who owns what rights are still murky, but a mod of the Nintendo Switch subreddit was able to confirm the following:
- The original poster /u/gms_melvin95 is the Managing Director and Executive Producer of Golden Mushroom Studio.
- GMS has registered with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony as a developer.
- GMS has registered “The Return of Glover” with Nintendo.
- GMS owns, or is in possession of, Nintendo hardware development kits.
- GMS has applied for the Glover trademark in the EU.
This is where it gets murky. Technically Golden Mushroom doesn’t own the Glover IP – not fully, or in any capacity. They’ve applied for the trademark, which has not been extended in either the US or the EU since 2008 (or was it? I don’t know). If they intend to license it from supposed owners Piko Interactive, this means Golden Mushroom announced a game WELL before release. Heck, this is so early, we don’t even know if they’ll be allowed to legally release it.
Piko Interactive responded to the announcement very straight and to the point:
We own the rights. We just reached out.
— Piko Interactive (@Pikointeractive) April 17, 2018
After they were made aware of the original post, and after the original poster deleted their account, Piko responded again:
Don’t understand why they would delete all their accounts, their name an address is on their website and whois lol. Anyways, I guess they weren’t serious about glover 2 cause they disappeared immediately.
Thanks for the help.
— Piko Interactive (@Pikointeractive) April 17, 2018
Piko Interactive is planning a standard re-release of the original N64 title. Golden Mushroom Studio’s managing director remains optimistic about finishing Glover 2.
We will update as more details follow.