Nintendo plans to sue Palworld-maker Pocketpair
Japanese patent-infringement lawsuit follows "investigation" announced in January.
Shitendo strikes again
In case anyone was wondering, Pocketpair has already announced they're going to fight Nintendo.
Unlike a certain other company that folded like a coward in 2 days after a simple C&D letter, took their money and ran.
Lol this is hilarious. "Coward". Have you ever looked down the barrel of an enterprise legal team, and seen just the opening bill to defend team? I haven't, but I'm aware that it is a huge and expensive endeavor and "bravery" has nothing to do with it.
It's not cowardice to refuse to fight a completely unwinnable battle. You only fight if you can win something. Otherwise, take the inevitable loss and spend the resources elsewhere.
It wasn't completely unwinnable, it was legally untested waters and could have gone either way, had they fought and won they would have even set a precedent for future emulation projects.
This wasn't some 2 person team project. It was a company with real money that could have fought and laid the foundation for the future safety of emulation. And because they were a company all liability laid with the company with no personal liability risk to the founders. But they didn't, they settled in less than 2 days, tucked tail and ran with the remaining money.
Cowards.
nintendo and friends are out of line. Undisclosed patents being infringed sounds bullshit, and game patents are even more bullshit. tony hawk isn't the only skating game. cod isn't the only shooting game. Pokémon and palworld certainly aren't the only creature capture and exploit for human benefit games.
Either strike right after release or don't strike at all. Palworld was already starting to lose steam. Nintendo is doing a Streisand effect.
Fuck Nintendo but they do have a point here. You can only get so far with artistic inspiration until it becomes straight up plagiarism.
They are suing over a patent though (ie, a technology). What you are talking about is a copyright suit.
Unfortunately we don’t know what patents Nintendo is suing over. And I struggle to think of a patent issue that would generate a good faith claim.
Yes, from I've read they haven't quoted any specific patent to anyone. They don't have good grounds, they just want it shut down.
Looks like it's over the game mechanics of 'releasing a creature into a 3d environment and having it perform a contextual task' & 'having a rideable mount switch to a different rideable mount depending on terrain'
I don't think either of these would work in the US, because you can't protect game mechanics here, but I'm not sure about Japan's take.
Edit: I missed that this was still under speculation at the time of the post:
Based on searching of Japanese patent databases, initial speculation is that these may include (but is not necessarily limited to) patents relating to game mechanics and gameplay features from Pokémon: Legends Arceus, and may include patents such as one for throwing and using Poké Balls in a 3D space (JP,2023-092953,A); and one for automatically switching between ride Pokémon as a player transitions between different terrain, such as between air and the ground (JP,2023-092954,A).
Presumably, since Nintendo isn't claiming copyright infringement, Palworld hasn't crossed the line of plagiarism. They are all legally distinct designs.
It doesn't resemble plagiarism in any way.
They are fully entitled to imitate the art style.
I don't agree with that at all - that's how art works. You take ideas and techniques and copy them, adding your own twist in the process. Art is about more than the aesthetic - the backstory is what gives it value. Stealing that is plagiarism, everything else is artistic inspiration... If you add nothing new you've made a cheap knockoff, which is very different from plagiarism
Palworld has its own lore, its own type system, its own battle mechanics, and as far as gameplay it's nothing like Pokemon. All it has in common is many creatures you capture in a ball, with designs largely based on IRL animals and Japanese folklore. They've made something new no matter how you slice it
