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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.
Like what? I can't think of one off the top of my head.
You could argue against anything involving throwing a net to capture something, like monster hunter for the small fauna. Ark has “cryo pods” that function basically like pokeballs.
in minecraft you throw eggs to hatch chickens
ghostbusters, throwing trap to catch ghosts
They should go after Rockstar for the mechanic of throwing a rope at an animal to catch it, if this is the criteria. Ridiculous.
Bulma keeps machinery in tiny capsules
The VG made by pocketpair before the patent was issued for one.
Does Ghostbusters count?
Helldivers has this, I believe. if a teammate dies then you have to throw an object to summon down a drop pod at a specific location
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That's because it is, Pokemon didn't come up with it, they just made it popular.
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.
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
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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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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.
Erm, acktchually! I think Nintendo is pretty cringe here, not based!
(Sorry, I couldn't resist)
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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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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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make it so you shoot them out with a gun
You already do that eventually anyway.
I am not usually in favour of big companies bullying smaller companies with the law, but it's pretty egregious how much they were ripping off Pokémon.
Edited to add, apparently this was a really hot take. I am not saying that the gameplay between the games was similar, but I saw a comparison of several of the designs of the creatures for the first time when this whole kinda started kicking off a bit ago and it was the first time I realized how blatant the designs were lifted right from popular Pokémon. Combined specifically with the pokeball-alikes and like... I don't know how people can defend it. There's homage and then there's IP theft.
The game itself isn't ripping off anything. Pokémon is such a direct "rip off" of digimon, too, then. Except it doesn't matter, cause that's what stuff is. Stuff is made up of other stuff and oftentimes there will be similarities!
I mean, for one I was talking about the designs of the creatures and the specific ball mechanic/theme, but also Pokémon came out before Digimon anyway.
Gen 1 Pokemon designs were straight rips of Dragon Quest monsters.
Arguably the Poke ball mechanic first appeared in anime such as Dragon Ball, Im not sure on any games predating Pokemon, but if they had patented it with the first games release it would have expired by now.
Nintendo will pull off some bullshit but they really shouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
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Pokemon is a rip off of Dragon Quest and Shin Megami Tensei.
You mean like Pokémon “ripping off” Dragon Quest?
You can’t patent an art style.
For one, I didn't say you could patent an art style. But distinguishable character can be IP. You're like the fifth person to mention Dragon Quest and I've never heard of that comparison before, do you have any examples?
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I'd be more willing to agree if Nintendo was going after them for similar art styles. They went after them for fucking throwing balls of all things. This is going to set a horrible precedent for the game industry.
So either Nintendo didn't believe the monster designs were rip offs, or they didn't feel it was a proper violation because they've shown themselves as willing to litigate.
I disagree with your premise but even if I agreed that any IP theft has occurred, why do you care? surely you're aware that nintendo aggressively invests in IP lawyers and lawsuits?
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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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