'Tales of' producer Hideo Baba explains recent trademark filings

Tales of Xillia producer Hideo Baba has explained why his team has trademarked so many unannounced titles lately, most notably Tales of Zestiria.

Tales of Zestiria was registered in both Europe and Japan this year, suggesting that it'll be the next core 'Tales of' title to be announced.

Siliconera spoke with Baba to get some clarity on the matter. He explained, "Well, the Tales development team and I are always thinking about new stories and themes for future games in the series. And whenever we do come up with something interesting, we’re always thinking about, wouldn’t it be great if we could call this game by a certain name, to go with its story and theme?

"There is always the possibility that we may end up actually making a new Tales game by that title [we've registered the trademarks for], but before that, we need to first check if it is okay to use that title both in Western markets and in Japan. So, there is a possibility there that of all these ideas we’ve come up with, one of them may end up being put into development, but at the moment, we’re just checking that these names can be used. Nothing’s been decided yet."

Baba explained that his team has - in the past - run into issues where companies or other brands have shared names with potential new Tales of titles, hence the team's effort to safeguard its ideas as soon as possible.

Earlier this year I appraised Tales of Xillia on PS3 and found it to be a superb JRPG. Check out what I thought here.