this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2024
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So... Um... If Nintendo patented elements of Pokemon (we don't know what the patents are yet), then... Why is TemTem allowed to live? TemTem is literally one-to-one Pokemon, all but in name.
If, somehow, TemTem isn't in violation of Nintendo's patents, despite just being Pokemon made by someone else, then I'm very curious what Nintendo's patent actually is.
Could it be the capture ball? TemTem uses cards. Palworld uses balls like Pokemon. Did Nintendo patent the idea of capturing creatures inside of balls, specifically? Is that why Nintendo never went after TemTem?
I would love to see a Palworld update that changes the balls to cubes. Same animations and effects, same textures, just stretched over a cube.
And every pal has a badly drawn moustache
I've never heard of TemTem before and plugging it into Google Trends, it looks like it's not even comparable to Palworld. It's still somewhat big, looks like 500,000 copies sold. But still doesn't really compare to what appears to be nearly 20 million Palworld players.
Companies lose rights to protect their IP if they don't protect it themselves, so it may be in their best interest to go after the big competitors and pretend they've never heard of TemTem.
500,000 copies sold is not insignificant. Nintendo fries even the smallest of fish. They'll literally go out of their way to fuck up someone's small hobby project only a niche few even care about. So if Nintendo is turning blind eye to a game that copied them in every way one could possibly copy a Pokemon game, then there's something else going on.
Remember, this is not a copyright case, this is a patent case. Considering Palworld is the only game vaguely similar to Pokemon in some minor ways that I've seen use spheres as a catching tool, I'm just (blindly) guessing it MIGHT have something to do with that.
There is also cassette bests. It just makes it obvious that they fon't care about their ip or it's not out of principle, it's just because someone else made a game that don't suck and people like, which is something they can not do.
If Temtem is a Pokemon ripoff then Pokemon is a Dragon Quest V ripoff. All these games involve collecting monsters through battle. Can anyone really patent "monster catching RPG?"
There are only two things Dragon Quest V and Pokemon have in common; monster taming through battle and they're both turn based RPGs.
Have you played or seen TemTem? It's literally Pokemon in every way, from mechanics, level design, to even how and what kind of moves the Tems can learn.
Nintendo goes after even the smallest infringements, so since they've never gone after TemTem it tells me the patent isn't "monster catching RPG". It's more specific than that, and Palworld somehow infringes on it. As of yet we can only guess what the patent is.
I own Temtem. I also love Dragon Quest and its side games. Pokemon was very inspired by those games.
That could track because Nintendo hasn't gone after Moonstone island either and that uses food / barns to store captured "spirits".
TemTem is probably just further down on the to-sue list.
I agree, and want to add that it could also be that PalWorld is a bigger target because it is kinda like a Mickey Mouse horror film: it runs counter to the brand of Pokemon to have a game where you shoot them with heavy weaponry.
I'm not sure why. TemTem, and a number of smaller projects like it, are basically exact copies of Pokemon and have been around far longer, some with succesfull kickstarter campaigns.
I remember Nintendo being RUTHLESS when people over at GBATemp tried making a smash bros clone for the NDS... For free.