Palworld Developer Reveals The Pokémon Patents Nintendo Claims It's Violating

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨cyrano@lemmy.dbzer0.com⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-pokemon-palworld-patents-lawsuit-pocketpair-1851692965

Looking up those patents, the first alludes to a system where a player aims and fires an “item” toward a character in a field, and in doing so triggers combat, and then dives into extraordinary intricacies about switching between modes within this. The second is very similar, but seems more directly focused on tweaking previous patents to including being able to capture Pokémon in the wild, rather than only during battle. The third, rather wildly, seems to be trying to claim a modification to the invention of riding creatures in an open world and being able to transition between them easily.

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LANIK2000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Pretty sure 1 and 3 could be applied to many modern actions games. Software patents shouldn’t exist! Same with apple’s patents for specific menu animations. It’s fucking evil!

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- Etterra@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Any game with ranged weapons is literally this. If I’m playing Fallout 4 and shoot a raider in the head then combat is initiated. That’s literally his combat works. Fuck Nintendo and fuck bullshit patents.
  
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Blaster_M@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
People who don’t like Palworld, maybe give a real reason? The AI stuff was made up by a salty troll who admitted later he made it up. It being “legally distinct from pokémon” isn’t a good enough reason. It having the ability to ::: spoiler Spoiler butcher your Pals for resources ::: may be a reason to be upset about the gameplay, but then again, many, many, many RPGs have you culling the local wildlife and depopulating a nation for quests too. Neither is the Genshin Impact art style a reason to hate it. That’s just JRPG asthetics.

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- Glytch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Butchering your pals is less of a problem than enslaving other human beings.
  
  More to the point it’s just bad. It’s incredibly grindy, has an incongruous tech tree, and the A.I. (both enemy and ally) is trash. It’s also mostly a copy of their previous game, Craftopia, which was also bad and has been in Early Access for 4 years now with no signs of ever leaving it.
  
  I don’t hate Palworld because it’s a low effort Pokemon knockoff, I hate Palworld because it’s a low effort Ark knockoff following the same business plan of not finishing their previous game before abandoning it for their new game. At least with Ark you got to ride dinosaurs rather than store-brand Rapidash.
  
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- PapaStevesy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  To be fair, Genshin Impact art style could be a reason to hate it if you hate JRPG aesthetics.
  
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- icogniito@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Its a very lazy mediocre game that only got recognition because it was ”Pokémon with guns”
  
  I don’t like what Nintendo is doing, but I also thing palworld is a crap game
  
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  - starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It definitely only got popular because of the hype re: “Pokemon with guns,” but it’s legitimately better than the game it actually copied, which is Ark. You know what’s cool about Palworld? Me and my coplayer were able to stop playing without losing everything we’ve built
    
    Anyone who thinks Palworld is actually a Pokemon ripoff either hasn’t played Palworld or hasn’t played Pokemon
    
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- ColonelThirtyTwo@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Really buggy at launch (not sure if it still is). “Pokemon with guns” is the least creative direction to take the concept. Devs reportedly don’t know how to use any sort of SCM, a basic development tool
  
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- starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  The butchering thing always bugged me. Where tf do you think your chicken nuggies come from? The only difference is that we don’t let real animals have friends before we kill em
  
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  - tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Real animals have friends. Beef cows are slaughtered at about 1 yr old, and they don’t keep them in isolation for a year
    
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irotsoma@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
They left it small so that it wouldn’t be worth it to fight in court and they’d either just settle for a license fee or pay the fine. But sounds like the best way would be to get the patents revoked, but that’s probably more expensive than just paying the fine due to the legal fees.

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peopleproblems@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Ok that third one, come the fuck on.

Like don’t even pretend. You could never ride nearly the number of Pokemon you can compared to Pals in Palworld.

That’s basically patenting riding a fucking horse

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- UnsavoryMollusk@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I hope they sue Ubisoft for Assassin’s Creed 1 after that /s
  
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Nexy@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Its like seeing the 2 worst people fighting, I dont know who I want to to win.

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- DuckWrangler9000@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Sorry I’m out of loop. Why is Palworld bad? If I’m reading your comment right when you say 2 worst.
  
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- slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  You don’t have to pick a side. You have no skin in this beef between big N and legally not Pokemon.
  
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  - starman2112@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    legally not Pokemon
    
    You mean Shin Megami Tensei? Or Digimon? Or Monster Rancher? Or Cassette Beasts? Or Temtem? Or Kingdom Hearts DDD? Or Ark? Or Yo-kai Watch? Or Telefang?
    
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Shanedino@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Still better than Disney!

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Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I don’t want palword to win.
I just need Nintendo to loose.

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- otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Why do you need Nintendo to loose? You wouldn’t rather Nintendo to tight?
  
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Bosht@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
So greed. Like everyone predicted.

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TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Obviously this depends on the exact details of the patents, which are all in Japanese, as well as the specifics of Japanese patent laws.

However, patents only last for 20 years, and they are undermined by public disclosure before filing. The first Pokemon game came out more than 20 years ago. However^2 not all of the features in the patents were present in the original games. All 3 patents were first filed in 2021, well after many of these features were established.

The first patent is about aiming something and entering into a fight mode. This wasn’t in the original game. Aiming at enemies and entering a fight mode almost certainly existed before Pokemon (Final Fantasy perhaps). Furthermore, Palworld doesn’t really have a fight mode - it isn’t a turn based game but real time. Throwing a sphere is just one way to start a “battle” but there is no mode change between “explore” and “battle” modes because they are functionally the same in Palworld. Pokemon Go and Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee, which were all around in 2018, would seem to amount to public disclosure that undermines this patent.

The second patent has more detail about catching Pokemon outside of battles. This might have some elements of Palworld gameplay in it. However, again we have prior art that predates the patent.

The third patent is about riding characters. This has certainly existed in other games before Pokemon and before this patent. Off the top of my head, World of Warcraft had you riding mounts, Final Fantasy had you riding Chocobos, and Mega Man let you ride Rush.

However the big issue with all of these is that these challenges are always better off done before the patent is granted. With the patents established it is a massive uphill struggle trying to get them withdrawn. Given that each charge is only for $33,000, so about $100,000 total, I expect a settlement will be reached instead of going on this fight.

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- AkatsukiLevi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  The third one, wouldn’t it hit Rockstar with Red Dead Redemption? After all, you do ride a animal(horse) and can easily swap in and our of 'em
  
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  - Breezy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I thought of elden ring more so of the patent. Palworld wasnt as smooth as summoning torrent, but it felt very similar.
    
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- Kelly@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  Given that each charge is only for $33,000, so about $100,000 total, I expect a settlement will be reached instead of going on this fight.
  
  Unfortunately that would be the worst outcome for everyone else.
  
  The patents need to be contested and invalidated or smaller devs will feel they can’t use these mechanics.
  
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- Nightweb@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  If I recall correctly weren’t all the patients filed for and approved after PAL World released?
  
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  - TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Looking it up, Palworld was announced in 2021, but not released (under early access) until 2024. However they were apparently designing the game back in 2020, if not earlier.
    
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LovingHippieCat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
People need to stop supporting Nintendo at all. They’re lawsuit happy assholes who have been doing everything they can to piss away any good will they might have had. They’re the only game company out there who refuses to make enough of many of their products, like their mini NES and SNES, to meet demand because then its “exclusive”, they are the only company trying to destroy all type of emulation for Nintendo consoles, and they’re the only company who seems to actually want their older games to disappear into the ether.

Fuck Nintendo.

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- RiikkaTheIcePrincess@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  trying to destroy all type of emulation for Nintendo consoles
  
  Only emulation used by others. They’re happy to kang all’ the ROMs and emulators off’ a site before destroying it for everyone else, then not even sell most of the damn things. Absurd. There’s nothing good about that, not even for Nintendo themselves.
  
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- Nuke_the_whales@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  If this kind of thing bothers you, you need to stop gaming altogether. All consoles and developers.
  
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  - Cethin@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Absolutely not true. All the console creators, sure, but not all developers. There are so many good developers, especially indie.
    
    There’s issues with purchasing anything in capitalism. We have to deal with that as long as that’s the case though. It doesn’t mean Nestlé isn’t significantly worse than other campanies though, for example. There are different degrees of bad, and Nintendo is basically the top for gaming.
    
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  - Linktank@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Have you been lobotomized or do you just work for Nintendo?
    
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Venicon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Fuck Nintendo. They get a pass so often from people when they really shouldn’t.

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- Someonelol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Part of the reason is because most people don’t notice the lawsuits or think this is boilerplate legal stuff that happens in the background all the time. They’re too distracted by the entertainment side of things.
  
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riskable@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Software patents shouldn’t exist!

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- ouch@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I concur. I hope this goes to court and the judge throws those patents out.
  
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- piecat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Patents shouldn’t exist! Mostly.
  
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  - TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Patents are not the problem, they serve as a way to share the knowledge of a creation with everyone while protecting your company for a REASONABLE TIME to compensate for the RnD costs.
    
    The problem is the distortion of the concept to fit late stage capitalism delights.
    
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  - partial_accumen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    Patents shouldn’t exist! Mostly.
    
    We had a history before patents/copyright were enforced. It was pretty brutal for anyone trying to make a living with their creations. Take a look and see if you want to return to that.
    
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