Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)
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Palworld wouldn't have been half as popular without Nintendo's constant push to take it down.
It's the literal reason I bought it and have never even played
How does that work exactly? You can't retroactively sue someone over a patent before it was granted... in fact, once you realize the mechanic was already out there, and patent shouldn't be granted at all.
They're just so used to pissing all over everything that they don't realize when they're pissing in the wind and getting it all over their reputation.
I know you mean it well, but... Nintendo was always like this. Like the jokes about the CEO handing the African kid 300 million dollar lawsuit because he drew their console on paper is very old.
Yet people still buy their shit.
I assume that's why there's a 95% rejection rate, they're just fumbling to find any mechanics that haven't already been used in other games.
And even then, the US patent office often will grant unenforceable patents, that then explode in the patent holder's faces the first time they try to use them.
The granted one in this case is about "the process of aiming and capturing characters", which they either had to make so specific as to not apply to anybody else, or general enough that there are piles of prior art out there.
It would take time in the court for people to figure that out and they would use ill-granted patents like a hammer.
Indie: Release a new game with unique catching mechanic
Nintendo: "REEEEEE! We have valid patent, so give us all of your profit, assets plus penalty or we will sue you to make you die poor like that one Gary Bowser over there."
Indie: "WTF?"
Even if Indie developers try to fight in court, they'll spend multiple years, hundred of thousands of dollars in legal fees and on top of that, because Nintendo have a patent that was stupidly granted by patent office, they can argue on a ground that their lawsuit is not frivolous.
Valve almost died as a company, because of those sort of people before if you watched their documentary, they only won, because the mega-corporation emailed about destroying the evidence.
In Japan, the patents they filed for were "extensions" of existing older patents. The new patents "updated" the old patents and could be used as if they filed when the original patent was. So they were able to file patents after Palworld came out, and then sue as if the patents existed before Palworld. Seems like bullshit to me, but I'm not a lawyer.
I don't know if a similar mechanic can be used in the US patent system or not.
Seems like bullshit to me, but I’m not a lawyer.
The Japanese patent system is so, so much worse than the US one. Where things like what you just described are possible. Honestly, Palworld is probably hosed over there. Palworld made a system years ago, Nintendo then patented it, and Nintendo is going to beat them over the head with their Japanese patent.
In the US, a solid defense to a patent claim is to show prior art. In this case, Palworld's dev can point to Palworld as the prior art if Nintendo sues them; Nintendo's patent existed after Palworld did. Palworld's dev can also point to a giant mountain of prior art of other games that allow one to throw an object to capture a monster.
that allow one to throw an object to capture a monster
Like throwing a net to catch a fish?
Fuck Nintendo. Vote with your wallets and don't buy a Switch 2, get a Steam Deck or other similar portable gaming handheld.
It's frustrating how often people need to be reminded of this. Nintendo has repeatedly shown incredible hostility to their greatest fans over the years, and they show no signs of stopping.
They've also done immeasurable harm to game preservation, to their own library and others. I cannot ever forgive them for this. Unless you play games in whatever specific way is blessed at the time, they will make every effort to sabotage it. Please do not enable this behavior.
Well said, I agree 100%
I really want to grab one of the new handhelds, seem so nice, I feel guilty almost playing games on my pc, when I could be using it for other stuff, playing on consoles fine so it might be time to transition to a linux handheld for the ocassional pc games.
(Like it could be rendering for my other hobby with 3d, instead of the gpu going to games)
First half of my life it was completely by accident I didn't own anything nintendo, but I'm glad the second half of my life I've actively avoided it, so not a single cent has gone to those greedy motherfuckers.
I owned all sorts of Nintendo products growing up. Around 2005, Nintendo went crazy against roms and hacking, and then when I stopped buying Nintendo products.
I bought some used stuff and... Bypassed security to expand my libraries. But usually it was after the game was like 10 years old.
Palworld does what Nintendon't
They should force Gamefreak to make a better Pokemon game. That would teach Pal World a lesson.
Nintendo: But that's haaaaaaard. Me money now.
Good god they're such fucking losers.
Are you trying to make everyone hate you, Nintendo? Give it up already.
One of the many reasons I will never spend money on Nintendo again! Their hardware blows anyways
I wonder if PocketPair (Palworld devs) could flip a giant middle finger to Japan's entire system by refunding all Japanese customers for the game and refusing to sell it in Japan anymore. Japan is the only country where Nintendo could get their way in a patent lawsuit, so fuck 'em
Fuck Nintendo.
I would love to learn why this isn't completely stupid, if anyone has a way of explaining. We'd be down entire genres of games if developers didn't copy each other's homework.
Nintendo is attempting to bully other game developers. They can't enforce this patent in the US, but they can wave the patent and a cease and desist letter menacingly at their competitors. Thing is, it's generating bad will against Nintendo and the first time a company calls Nintendo on their shit, Nintendo is gunna lose. The patent is either so specific it won't apply to another game or its broader and there is a mountain of prior art.
From my reading, it's the latter. The patent seems to try to monopolize the idea of throwing an object to catch a monster. Which has been done so, so many times before.
From my reading, it’s the latter. The patent seems to try to monopolize the idea of throwing an object to catch a monster. Which has been done so, so many times before.
Including but not limited to RL millenia before videogames were even invented.
It is completely stupid. There is a reason the stereotypes about Japanese businessmen are what they are.
Can someone explain the cultural difference between Japan and the rest of the US around copyright law?
In the US, we have fair use laws. They basically don't. You can put McDonald's in your game because you're parodying it, or because it's part of the real world your work is based in.... They can't without expressed permission
It's more nuanced than that, but that's it in a nutshell
What about the last one?