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Palworld ditches Pokéball-style summoning mechanic amid Nintendo legal battle
(www.eurogamer.net)
Lame. Thanks, Nintendo. Got forbid you actually try to outcompete.
this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2024
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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 patent was filed after PalWorld was released. I'm guessing this is some quirk of Japan's patent system I'm unfamiliar with.
That's because it is, Pokemon didn't come up with it, they just made it popular.
What a sad sad outcome. Patenting game mechanics should not be legal.
It isn't in the US but is in Japan where the companies are based.
It's still somewhat protected in the US. The big one in table top gaming was tap mechanics from Magic. That expired in 2014 though. In video games the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor/war is also patented.
Loading screen mini games are also patented. That’s why loading screens never have mini games. Less of an issue now that game devs have begun avoiding loading screens, but they were extremely common in older generations and they never had mini games to pass the time.
That patent exired almost a decade ago: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/loading-screen-game-patent-finally-expires
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Erm, acktchually! I think Nintendo is pretty cringe here, not based!
(Sorry, I couldn't resist)
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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.
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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
A shame they didn’t
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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.
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So fucking stupid. I remember a time when Nintendo was constantly losing legal battles like this one.
They probably just learned to pay judges, not lawyers.
make it so you shoot them out with a gun
You already do that eventually anyway.
This game is still in early access so I hope this is only temporary and they will retool this to not be similar to Pokemon. There's no way this will be final right...?? No summon animation at all??!
If Palworld devs were as petty as I am they'd probably make a Pal that looks like an obese and hostile Pikachu with a Mario hat.
- Name: Renjiyu / レンヂユ; after a really shitty Mandarin joke with Nintendo's name (basically calling it hell's company).
- It would make a noise that sounds a lot like uttaeru / 訴える "to sue, to complain" with an incredibly whiny voice
- Drop: meat and sulphur (the in-game sulphur looks a lot like fool's gold)
- "Utility": when it's running around your base, Renjiyu makes your pals drop whatever they are doing to listen to its ramblings. As in, negative utility.
Bonus points if the logo in the hat resembles a pokeball from a distance.
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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?
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