Tokyo Xtreme Racer resolves legal issues blocking it from releasing in Canada 

Genki announced on January 30 that Tokyo Xtreme Racer has been cleared for release in Canada. The developers are working with Steam to get the game live as soon as possible.

For context, Tokyo Xtreme Racer started its Early Access on January 23, bringing back the beloved franchise for the first time in 18 years. The release was met with an overwhelmingly positive response all over the world, except for Canada – where players were met with a nasty “not available in your region” message. 

Genki quickly followed up on the situation, explaining that there was a legal issue preventing the game from releasing in Canada. At the time, the developer didn’t go into detail about the nature of the dispute, only clarifying that it was not related to car manufacturers or car part manufacturers. 

On the other hand, users were quick to put two and two together, realizing that the problem must revolve around the ownership of the trademark “Tokyo Xtreme Racer.” In Canada, the name belonged to publisher Throwback Entertainment, who bought out its previous owner Crave Entertainment (the former US publisher of the TXR series). 

This hypothesis was confirmed through the Canadian trademark database, which showed that there was an ongoing case to transfer ownership of the trademark from Throwback to Genki. In their latest update, Genki thanked Throwback Entertainment for their cooperation in getting the issue resolved. 

Tokyo Xtreme Racer is currently available in Early Access on PC (Steam). The title will be coming to Canada shortly.