With only 2,300 hours to go until a full Ecco the Dolphin reveal, new details emerge about the forthcoming reboot
Plans for a new Ecco the Dolphin game were quietly revealed last May, in addition to remasters of the 1992 original and its sequel Tides of Time. At the time a website was launched bearing a 8,500 hour countdown. Andy Chalk did the maths way back then, and figured out that the countdown would end some time in April 2026.
Which is still nearly four months away. Nevertheless, here we are in January 2026 with a bit more info on these forthcoming Ecco games. It’s now confirmed that new California-based studio A&R Atelier is developing the new game, with original Ecco producer Ed Annunziata on board as chief creative officer.
If the ’90s feels like ancient history to you, perhaps you don’t know that Ecco the Dolphin was a huge deal when it launched for Sega Genesis in 1992. It quickly became a bestseller on the back of extensive marketing—I still remember the TV advertisements—though if you were one of the kids lucky enough to have played it, you would have been hit with one of most pitilessly difficult games of the era.
