Last November Microsoft filed for a Battletoads trademark, and wouldn't it be lovely if all the things gaming companies filed trademark claims for actually came to pass?  It's been quiet since then, with no word or hints about Battletoads coming from anywhere, so maybe it was just trademark housecleaning.  Microsoft owns Rare who owns Battletoads, so maybe they were just keeping a path open for a new game in the series... someday.  Or maybe it's something somebody is working on somewhere.  It would have been nice to know for sure but nobody was talking.

Nobody's still talking but a picture is worth a kiloword, and here's one that speaks fairly loudly- Phil Spencer wearing a shiny new Battletoads t-shirt at today's Microsoft press event.  It's a tease of info rather than actual news, but still more than we had before.  At the moment my current expectation is that you won't be able to move at E3 this June without seeing one of these, but we'll see how it goes.  Other questions we're looking forward to getting answers to are: Is it Rare working on this?  Did Microsoft farm it out to a secondary studio like they did with Killer Instinct?  And finally, the usual "Oh please, please, please be good!" fervent wish for a game that lives up to the Battletoads legacy.  This is a world where Narc existed for PS2/Xbox, and nobody ever wants something like that to happen again.

-Update-  Phil Spencer had a word with Polygon on his choice of shirts that neither confirms nor denies much of anything but does leave plenty of hope we'll be hearing more about Battletoads eventually- "When asked, Spencer told Polygon, "I don't think I've ever worn a t-shirt that's been a complete head fake. I don't think I have ... have I? I wouldn't do that." "

SpencerToads