Palworld developer Pocketpair has revealed details of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's lawsuit which alleges that the game infringes on multiple patents.
    • Damage@feddit.itEnglish
      282·
      2 months ago

      I mean if they help children grow when they have no real parents…

    • einkorn@feddit.orgEnglish
      34·
      2 months ago

      Hold my bacon, one can patent the idea that a game character switches mounts depending on a given state? (Image 3)

      • Yuki@kutsuya.devEnglish
        22·
        2 months ago

        Seems like it. So when you come down from the sky on your flying mount and get close to the ground, you swap to a horse mount for example.

        How can one patent this… wtf!

      • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
        192·
        2 months ago

        Software patents are fucked, ain’t they? You can implement a thing using completely different code, algorithms, hell even programming languages/CPU architectures, and you’d still be infringing. There was some stupid fight over a simple slider UI element to unlock a phone a few years back.

        • JeffKerman1999@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          12·
          2 months ago

          Yeah software patents should be like “this exact code” or something along these lines. I mean patenting “hello world” should give you billions

          • VonReposti@feddit.dkEnglish
            6·
            2 months ago

            Code is already copyrighted by default, so no need for software patents. Luckily software patents are null and void in EU, so I don’t have to worry about that.

    • MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      2 months ago

      The solutions here don’t seem to really be solutions in my opinion, especially the third one. It’s like if the problem a patent solves was “being able to individually package sandwiches on a conveyor belt” and the solution was “have a machine that recognizes where one sandwich ends and another begins so it can stop and start packaging appropriately.” Like, no kidding, but how?

    • Grangle1@lemm.eeEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      So the first two seem to deal with throwing a capture item at a creature (wild pokemon) and/or releasing a character’s own creature to fight it (essentially first seen in Legends Arceus, tossing a ball at a pokemon to aggro it and then fighting it with your pokemon). The third one is, as others have said, Mount transitions (at least in pokemon, also first seen in Legends Arceus if you only count ride pokemon; if vehicles are included I believe the first would be Sword/Shield). Though if vehicles are included Nintendo would have a hard time fighting that one. Vehicle transformation, especially in racing games, has been around forever.

        • ChicoSuave@lemmy.worldEnglish
          9·
          2 months ago

          These look like they are after Palworld was released. Was Nintendo just sitting on the patent since Pokeman red/blue? What an unintuitive legal system they have over in Japan.

          • IcyToes@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            4·
            2 months ago

            How can you infringe on a patent that doesn’t exist when you’re writing the code?hopefully Palworld can afford the lawyers to kill this off now.

    • Grofit@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      If these were stories I was picking up to implement I would be asking the BA to elaborate some more 😂

    • Phoenix3875@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      2 months ago

      Looking through the first one’s content and it seems reasonable? The patent’s abstract is supposed to be as widely applicable as legally permitted, so it’s like a completely different language on top of legalese.

  • Buttflapper@lemmy.worldEnglish
    524·
    2 months ago

    Can’t wait for gamers to completely ignore this and buy their next console and pokémon game

    • sfxrlz@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      Nah fuck them. Got a switch + games. Account hacked. Wrote to tech sup. Nothing but automated answer. Gave that shit away never again

  • Jin@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    2 months ago

    This will end badly and will hurt gaming. Remember when Nintendo made modding games illegal in Japan…

    • GoMati@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Still it would be best for Ninny to lose this one hard.

      First: if they won’t there will be more to come for other games, stopping any innovation in this genre.

      Second: Their lawsuits are hitting other software developers (see Yuzu/Ryujinx cases), players and content creators and we need some case where they lose so they don’t go even wilder

  • randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    161·
    2 months ago

    Nintendo sues everyone they can because as an IP holder of some seriously valuable properties, everything else in the gaming industry just looks like free real estate for them to colonize. I can make a game called “Dog Fighters” and I’m sure they’ll find a way to tell me they own that idea.

  • sardaukar@lemmy.worldEnglish
    318·
    2 months ago

    I’m kinda sure Palworld’s devs are ok with this. Makes them not having to finish the early access game, which their studio has like 4 others to finish anyway.