The return of Ecco the Dolphin
Last year, Ed Annunziata, creator of the cult game Ecco the Dolphin, hinted that he wanted to revive the series: update the first two instalments and release a completely new sequel. Now his studio, A&R Atelier, has officially unveiled the project, titled Ecco the Dolphin: Complete. The collection does not yet have a release date, but the developers promise “the complete and definitive Ecco the Dolphin experience”, made by the same people who created the original series.
The package will include every version of Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time, the creators emphasise. They will be joined by a completely new modern game about the dolphin with superpowers, which has not yet been shown and remains short on details. Along with the obvious graphical improvements, A&R Atelier promises built-in speedrunning support, achievements, leaderboards and the option to create custom routes based on existing levels.
Although the announcement does not reveal which platforms the collection will appear on, the franchise’s official website has started a countdown — presumably to the next batch of information.
The project’s history reads like a long saga. In 2013, Annunziata sued Sega over the rights to the Ecco the Dolphin series. That same year, he failed to raise funding on Kickstarter for his spiritual successor, The Big Blue. The dispute with Sega was settled out of court only in 2016, and it seems that this cleared the way for Ecco the Dolphin: Complete to appear.
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Ecco the Dolphin: Complete looks like an attempt to bring back a forgotten brand whose creator has long been unable to let go. On the surface, it looks like a tribute to its legacy, but underneath are the familiar efforts to repackage old content and pass it off as a new word in the genre. The old games have been neatly packed into a box, given a fresh filling and served up as a “definitive edition” to make the series shine again on nostalgia.
The contrast between the romance of the ocean depths and the real history is striking: legal battles, a failed Kickstarter, long gaps. The creator’s achievement looks less like an artist’s persistence and more like the story of someone unable to let go of their one successful project.
Now the studio is betting on a website countdown to drum up attention. It is a simple move, but it works: anticipation creates an illusion of scale. Announcing a new instalment without footage or platform details only adds to the feeling that the product is still drifting somewhere in murky waters. It all rests on fans’ faith, not on actual details.
The collection will be another test of how many people are willing to pay for nostalgia in smart packaging. And if the dolphin surfaces at the top once again, that means the formula still works — even decades later.
