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How do Japanese patents differ from USA/CAN? My general understanding of patents is that they expire after 20 years - Pokemon is older than that. Do Japanese patents have a longer duration? Did Nintendo patent a game later than the originals?
These patents were granted to Nintendo this year.
What a sad sad outcome. Patenting game mechanics should not be legal.
*Patenting
Oh, thanks. Corrected it
So fucking stupid. I remember a time when Nintendo was constantly losing legal battles like this one.
make it so you shoot them out with a gun
Make it so you launch the ball thing from a sling shot, that’s not throwing the object and it fits the universe
This is the answer right here. There’s even a few late game items for this. The just need to readjust the costs for those launchers. Make them available early mid game.
Literally just change the throw animation to use a weaker looking slingshot than whatever the current weakest one is.
Lame. Thanks, Nintendo. Got forbid you actually try to outcompete.
“Don’t innovate, litigate!”
-Nintendo
These primarily cover throwing an object in a specific direction to either summon a battle character or to capture a creature in the field - mechanics Palworld shared with Pokémon at launch.
sounds like a mechanic found in a number of video games.
That’s the weird thing. It doesn’t seem to matter. The parent was filed after PalWorld was released. I’m guessing this is some quirk of Japan’s patent system I’m unfamiliar with.
Like what? I can’t think of one off the top of my head.
Ratchet and Clank’s glove of doom fits the bill
Bulma keeps machinery in tiny capsules
They should go after Rockstar for the mechanic of throwing a rope at an animal to catch it, if this is the criteria. Ridiculous.
in minecraft you throw eggs to hatch chickens
ghostbusters, throwing trap to catch ghosts
You could argue against anything involving throwing a net to capture something, like monster hunter for the small fauna. Ark has “cryo pods” that function basically like pokeballs.
The VG made by pocketpair before the patent was issued for one.
Summoning a dedra in skyrim?
You don’t throw an object for that, you cast a spell, and I don’t remember being able to target it, but then I never really used those spells.
It is a spell but iirc the animation is a little ball that goes where you point it.
Does Ghostbusters count?
That’s because it is, Pokemon didn’t come up with it, they just made it popular.
It’s a shame the Wii U didn’t bankrupt Nintendo.
Nintendo could afford to release 10 failed consoles in a row and still keep going, that was the case back when the Wii U released as well
This constantly gets repeated, but I’ve yet to see proof of it.
A shame they didn’t
I do wonder if the steam deck exists in this alternate timeline you propose
It probably does with detachable controllers.
No, but we do have a proper Nvidia Shield Portable 2.
We got Tears of the Kingdom, but at what cost?
Poor frame rate
I am not usually in favour of big companies bullying smaller companies with the law, but it’s pretty egregious how much they were ripping off Pokémon.
Edited to add, apparently this was a really hot take. I am not saying that the gameplay between the games was similar, but I saw a comparison of several of the designs of the creatures for the first time when this whole kinda started kicking off a bit ago and it was the first time I realized how blatant the designs were lifted right from popular Pokémon. Combined specifically with the pokeball-alikes and like… I don’t know how people can defend it. There’s homage and then there’s IP theft.
I’d be more willing to agree if Nintendo was going after them for similar art styles. They went after them for fucking throwing balls of all things. This is going to set a horrible precedent for the game industry.
So either Nintendo didn’t believe the monster designs were rip offs, or they didn’t feel it was a proper violation because they’ve shown themselves as willing to litigate.
You mean like Pokémon “ripping off” Dragon Quest?
You can’t patent an art style.
For one, I didn’t say you could patent an art style. But distinguishable character can be IP. You’re like the fifth person to mention Dragon Quest and I’ve never heard of that comparison before, do you have any examples?
The game itself isn’t ripping off anything. Pokémon is such a direct “rip off” of digimon, too, then. Except it doesn’t matter, cause that’s what stuff is. Stuff is made up of other stuff and oftentimes there will be similarities!
I mean, for one I was talking about the designs of the creatures and the specific ball mechanic/theme, but also Pokémon came out before Digimon anyway.
Gen 1 Pokemon designs were straight rips of Dragon Quest monsters.
Arguably the Poke ball mechanic first appeared in anime such as Dragon Ball, Im not sure on any games predating Pokemon, but if they had patented it with the first games release it would have expired by now.
Nintendo will pull off some bullshit but they really shouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
How was Dragon Ball similar to pokeballs and their catching mechanics? I’m not seeing that similarity at all.
Never seen any comparisons between Dragon Quest and Pokémon. Do you have examples?
They might be referring to CapsuleCorp’s capsules. They would store big things in tiny capsules, much like Poke balls work. I don’t recall people or monsters ever being store in them, nor do I remember things forcibly being put into them at all. It’s possible this was bigger on Dragon Ball, as a kid I was more familiar with Dragon Ball Z.
The anime one will be harder to source clips but I do recall creatures being released as ‘energy’ then forming quickly from thrown objects. Will need to get back to you on that one!
Don’t really agree with the top pic at all, but some of the comparisons in the bottom one are interesting. Some are slay a really big stretch I think, but I do see why people would compare. I think if Enix went after Nintendo in the early nineties I could get behind them on a couple of these, but that ship has sailed a long time ago.
Still going to disagree about the Dragon Ball comparison. Not really seeing any comparison between those two.
Lemmy is the wrong place to mention Nintendo. You will get obliterated by people.
I don’t mind. It’s no different than Reddit, people see downvotes and just pile on. No room for discussion, no thoughtful discourse, just hive mind.
Pokemon is a rip off of Dragon Quest and Shin Megami Tensei.
I disagree with your premise but even if I agreed that any IP theft has occurred, why do you care? surely you’re aware that nintendo aggressively invests in IP lawyers and lawsuits?
Well, yes, that’s why the lawsuit was happening. I’m not sure what your point was. I care because I think that IP theft is wrong.
The lawsuite is Happening because of patent trolling…
that’s actually not why the lawsuit is happening though…
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