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Despite Blinx The Time Sweeper originally being a key part of the Xbox lineup, Microsoft declined to renew the Blinx trademark just 10 years after the game's original release. This was partly due to the IP being dormant, but also due to some "murkiness" as the company that created the character, ARTOON, is now defunct. Microsoft still own the copyright to the IP however, despite a common rumor that the game is in the public domain.
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Despite being positioned as the Xbox's mascot by the gaming press, Blinx the Time Sweeper was not created to fill that role or rival the likes of Mario and Sonic. Despite an internal push from the Blinx team for the character to become the platform's mascot in Japan (of which executive producer Ed Fries claims to be "not sure how seriously [the Blinx team] took it"), as well as the desire of Bill Gates for Microsoft's gaming department to have a mascot, the character was not officially used as an Xbox mascot. The game did still get a major marketing push in Japan thanks to convenient timing during a Christmas dry spell of game releases and being a Japanese game.
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