The “update” is from a month ago. Pocketpair shared the patents they are accused of infringing and the payments Nintendo wants.
The patents are for “throwing an object in 3D space to capture a target” (throwing a pokeball) and “moving characters to a virtual field when an event is triggered” (entering a battle) the payment requested is 10 million yen or 64,000 USD. A paltry sum for a billion dollar company suing over a game that made tens of millions.
The patents were awarded to Nintendo after Palword had already released a trailer for their game showing gameplay. Pocketpair also released an earlier game called Craftopia which is Palworld but the pals are just straight up animals. It has the same systems Palworld does but didn’t sell very well.
Even if there weren’t a million examples of prior art, the fact that patents on game mechanics are even allowed is just awful for the industry as a whole, and we as players should absolutely rail against this. Every game borrows from other games’ ideas and mechanics - I’d bet money that there hasn’t been a single fully “original” game in 20+ years. If companies are allowed to patent every little mechanic (even ones they didn’t come up with), the industry as a whole will just become impossible to operate in.
It’s a Japanese patent. I’m not sure how it would hold up internationally, but Pocketpair is also a Japanese company and this lawsuit is entirely within the Japanese legal system. That probably gives Nintendo a bit of an advantage since they’re such a large and iconic Japanese corporation.
TLDW?
The “update” is from a month ago. Pocketpair shared the patents they are accused of infringing and the payments Nintendo wants.
The patents are for “throwing an object in 3D space to capture a target” (throwing a pokeball) and “moving characters to a virtual field when an event is triggered” (entering a battle) the payment requested is 10 million yen or 64,000 USD. A paltry sum for a billion dollar company suing over a game that made tens of millions.
The patents were awarded to Nintendo after Palword had already released a trailer for their game showing gameplay. Pocketpair also released an earlier game called Craftopia which is Palworld but the pals are just straight up animals. It has the same systems Palworld does but didn’t sell very well.
A newer update is that Palworld has since released a patch that modified how their capture and summon system works, likely in an attempt to make Nintendo happy.
Edit: there are actually 3 patents. The third one is for the player character being able to ride on another character.
How is that a legit patent, when there are so many obvious instances of prior art?
Even if there weren’t a million examples of prior art, the fact that patents on game mechanics are even allowed is just awful for the industry as a whole, and we as players should absolutely rail against this. Every game borrows from other games’ ideas and mechanics - I’d bet money that there hasn’t been a single fully “original” game in 20+ years. If companies are allowed to patent every little mechanic (even ones they didn’t come up with), the industry as a whole will just become impossible to operate in.
It’s not only games, this is just straight-up how art works. Culture develops over time. Of course capitalism had to get a middleman in there lol
Yes, definetly.
It’s a Japanese patent. I’m not sure how it would hold up internationally, but Pocketpair is also a Japanese company and this lawsuit is entirely within the Japanese legal system. That probably gives Nintendo a bit of an advantage since they’re such a large and iconic Japanese corporation.
Copyright is already cooked, no matter where it’s located. But the way japan acts as if Pokemon invented JRPG battles is simply ridiculous.
Am I missing some bit of context? Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy still exist (and came first).
That’s what I meant with “prior art”. Nintendo’s second patent basically explains how any old JRPG worked.
So…Red Dead Redemption infringes two of these three patents?
Is Nintendo afraid because Rockstar can actually afford the lawsuit?
Don’t let them know that!
It‘s likely a japanese patent so I doubt Nintendo can sue Rockstar.
The update seems to be about https://www.pocketpair.jp/news/20241108
polygon briefly mentions what the patents are about
https://www.polygon.com/news/476177/palworld-developer-nintendo-pokemon-lawsuit