LogInThis is getting out of hand.
The Pokémon Company
When is enough enough? Nintendo certainly doesn't know, as it continues its legal fight against Palworld.
If you've somehow missed the case, here's the gist: after many months of trying to figure out how to take down Palworld, a game that looks a lot like Pokémon, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company found a loophole and filed a lawsuit against Pocketpair, accusing it of patent infringement.
The problem is that Nintendo acquires patents, modifies them, and sues Pocketpair over them ex post facto, and I still have no idea how it gets away with it. Even with some of the lawsuits rejected, Nintendo isn't planning to give up: after all, these cases do make Palworld developers remove mechanics.
Now, the Japanese company has grabbed another patent. According to Games Fray, it now owns U.S. Patent No. 12,409,387, which describes "smooth switching or riding objects," and U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397, which covers the mechanics of summoning a character and letting it fight another.
The first patent is not that interesting; it's the second that can pose an issue not only for Palworld but for the whole industry.
Here are the claims that, if all are present in a game, will give Nintendo the right to sue the game's developers:
- A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program, the game program causing a processor of an information processing apparatus to execute:
- performing control of moving a player character on a field in a virtual space, based on a movement operation input;
- performing control of causing a sub-character to appear on the field, based on a first operation input, and
- when an enemy character is placed at a location where the sub character is caused to appear, controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a first mode in which the battle proceeds based on an operation input, and
- when the enemy character is not placed at the location where the sub character is caused to appear, starting automatic control of automatically moving the sub character that has appeared; and
- performing control of moving the sub character in a predetermined direction on the field, based on a second operation input, and, when the enemy character is placed at a location of a designation, controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a second mode in which the battle automatically proceeds.
In simple words, developers are in danger if their game runs on a PC or console, you can move a character, the said character can summon a "sub-character" (like a Pokémon) and make it fight an enemy or just control its movement.
So theoretically, such popular games as Final Fantasy, The Elder Scrolls, Persona, and any title where you can play as a Summoner class, are potentially in danger.
It seems like the whole battle against Palworld is getting much larger. I wish I could say I didn't see it coming, but Nintendo's love for control and ownership is well-known. The question is: when will the industry stop idolizing the company and start pushing back?
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