Tomorrow, a PlayStation 3 port of Uncharted Waters Online surfs into Japan. In the Land of the Rising Sun the game is called Daikokai Jidai Online (The Great Voyage Online). Since the names differ why would Koei register a trademark for Uncharted Waters Online over here? The last game Koei USA released from the Uncharted Waters series was for the Super Nintendo.
Also why now? The PS3 port is based on Cruz del Sur, the third expansion pack. Uncharted Waters Online has been out in Asia for almost five years and Koei didn’t bother to trademark the term until now. The only thing that changed is the PS3 version which connects to the PC servers in Japan. Perhaps, the newly formed Koei Tecmo group plans to localize this as part of their international strategy? It would be an odd choice, but the PlayStation 3 is getting a host of other MMOs like Freerealms and The Agency.
