this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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With the implementation of Patch v0.5.5 this week, we must make yet another compromise. From this patch onward, gliding will be performed using a glider rather than with Pals. Pals in the player’s team will still provide passive buffs to gliding, but players will now need to have a glider in their inventory in order to glide.

How lame. Japan needs to fix its patent laws, it's ridiculous Nintendo owns the simple concept of using an animal to fly.

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[–] Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 16 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Why is there nothing in place to punish Ninendo for doing shit like this?

Patent law is rigged. Legal monopolies shouldn't exist.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Legal monopolies shouldn’t exist.

I agree IP law is messed up, but that doesn't mean the idea doesn't have merit.

Having a temporary, legal monopoly on something that requires a lot of R&D and not much production cost (say, a novel or new kind of asphalt) allows the creator to make back their R&D costs before competitors come out with cheaper alternatives. Without that protection, companies would be less likely to invest in R&D.

We need shorter durations and more scrutiny on scope. Also, patents should generally not apply to software.

[–] HalfSalesman@lemm.ee 5 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

that doesn’t mean the idea doesn’t have merit.

As an incentive structure for corporations and "people" purely motivated by avarice, sure.

Most people naturally want to create and contribute as long as their needs and most basic wants are met. A monopoly as an incentive is not necessary.

Without that protection, companies would be less likely to invest in R&D.

There are many ways to motivate corporations to do R&D outside of offering them a monopoly on a silver platter. Incentives are only one half of the equation. Its really all about leverage.

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[–] Saryn@lemmy.world 26 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

This is insane - Pokemon cannot trademark having mounts in games. Screw Niantic, the Pokemon company and especially Nintendo which basically controls the first two. Screw them

Do not support these companies.

Sincerely, A life long Pokemon fan

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 points 7 hours ago

pokemon licenses to niantac, its solely on pokemon company/nintendo.

[–] trslim@pawb.social 13 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Atlus should sue Nintendo for stealing the idea of monster collecting and storing them in your PC from Megami Tensei.

[–] kevin2107@lemmy.world 5 points 19 hours ago

Yep down with these mfers

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

So are they next going after unicorns that you capture?

[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 2 points 16 hours ago

What about the birds in quackshot? That game is from the 90s.

[–] MithranArkanere@lemmy.world 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I can get the pokéball, but mounts in games are older than pokémon. That one makes no sense.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 1 points 7 hours ago

and pokemon dint even had actual mounts til much later than most consoles.

Both older and newer, yet they didn't go after the countless games that have mounts.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 60 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

This is why I'll never feel sorry for Nintendo - karma is long overdue for this company. In fact, I'll download a switch emulator right now just to spite them.

[–] gradual@lemmings.world 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Heck yeah.

Torzu seems to be the logical successor to Yuzu.

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[–] gradual@lemmings.world 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (18 children)

Copyright and patent laws need to die.

Victims of Stockholm Syndrome always focus on what their abusers provide, but never what they take away.

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[–] Surp@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

Not that I matter being a single person but cya Nintendo I won't be buying anything from you ever again honestly unless its used and from someone on facebook marketplace or the likes of.

[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I need to start patenting random game mechanics, apparently.

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[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 66 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is bullshit. Warner Brothers and Nintendo need to lose, hard.

Also, why the hell does Nintendo think they were first when it comes to the concept? Animals and gliding have been a thing for a long time.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You see, the patent system is based on a “first to file the paperwork” basis, thereby enabling literal legalized theft. Neoliberalism at work, precisely as designed.

[–] demonsword@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

the patent system is based on a “first to file the paperwork” basis

then blame the patent office, because it shouldn't be so

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

I definitely blame the patent office.

But also, patents should not exist. They need to be completely abolished. Copyrights are one thing, copyrights make sense, patents are another entirely, existing solely to facilitate intellectual theft from both individual entities and the broader public.

[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 68 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Palworld did more for the monster-collecting genre in one early access title than Pokémon has in the last decade of AAA titles.

Why does Nintendo deserve these patents when they aren't going to produce anything meaningful with them and simply weaponize them to squash any real threatening competition?

Pokémon is the highest grossing franchise in the world, and 2nd place isn't even close. I think they can give a little ground to an indie developer who makes games that people are actually interested in playing. The patent bullshit is ridiculous.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago

Because that's how Nintendo works. They are the Disney of gaming.

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[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Here's hoping Pokemon and Nintendo see disappointing sales. Everytime someone brings up Pokemon, bring up Palworld and how massive of a dick the Pokemon Company/Nintendo was. When people talk about the Switch 2, they bring up all the lawsuits Nintendo brought up on fans, all the YouTubers that dealt with issues because suing people, I'd assume, is Nintendo's main income source at this point..

[–] Ushmel@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

I've had a second wind of pokemon since pogo came out, but they killed it with the sale to the Saudis. I'm not supporting Saudi blood ventures

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[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago

Remember they amended the patent after palworld came out

[–] Darkcoffee@sh.itjust.works 140 points 1 day ago (14 children)

Nintendo is just a garbage lawsuit company that sometimes makes hardware with stupid subscriptions attached.

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[–] Console_Modder@sh.itjust.works 258 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (27 children)

This lawsuit is so stupid. In my opinion, patenting, copyrighting, or trademarking concepts or mechanics in video games shouldn't be allowed at all. The nemesis system in the Shadow of Mordor games was so cool, but we're never going to see anything like it again. Warner went through the trouble to copyright (or something idk I'm not a lawyer) that system, and then let the series die out.

I'm waiting to see the headlines that any other games with a shooty thing that goes bang is illegal, and the concept of shooting a gun in a video game is going to be owned by either Rockstar/Take Two or the collective mob of Call of Duty developers. If the world is gonna get that stupid, I got my fingers crossed that Bubsy 3D owns the rights to jumping

Edit: Thought about it for 10 more seconds and I have questions. Is it specifically gliding using a creature that Nintendo has a problem with, or is it creature-assisted traversal in general? Can they sue Skyrim since you can ride horses? Palworld made the change so that you need to build a glider to glide around. BOTW and TOTK used gliders. Is Nintendo gonna sue them for that now too? I fucking hate all of this so God damned much

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[–] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 day ago

Fuck Nintendo.

[–] Ledericas@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

palword wouldve solved some of its problem by not naming it to close to POKEMON names, or gimmicks, or copy verbatim some of its features. they only noticed when things were named exactly like they did in the pokemon consoles.

kinda wierd thing to target, when flying was in WOW for 2 decades before this lawsuit.

-after looking at another post, they also copied the pokemon and changed it very little of the pal-creature, palword needs ot do better to have a stronger case.

[–] korazail@lemmy.myserv.one 4 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I think there is potential that this was intended.

PalWorld was SO on the nose modeled after pokemon plus Breath of the Wild that it couldn't be anything but a stab at Nintendo. And yet, it seems that (I'm not a lawyer) they skirted around ever actually infringing on copyrights. If you want to build a zoo full of creatures, there are only so many ways you can combine things without making a fire dog or ice dragon, and then comparisons can be made. PalWorld has many creatures that I don't recognize as being similar to existing pokemon. Given that Nintendo has not gone after PalWorld for copyright infringement, I'd say that means they don't have a case.

Patents are another angle, and I'm far from a patent lawyer. Have you ever read one? They are full of jargon and what seem to be nonsense words, especially a software patent for a video game. I found an article that describes how Nintendo can use a 'new' patent to attack PalWorld, but near the end he clearly calls out that there is a difference between 'legal' and 'legitimate.' I can't seem to find the actual 'throwing a ball to make a thing happen' new patent, but I'd assume PalWorld doesn't infringe the original patent, or Nintendo would have just used that one. The article author also notes how Nintendo applied for a divisional patent near the end of a window for doing so, which presumably extends the total lifetime of the patent protection. A new divisional patent last year probably means we have 40 years of no 'ball-throwing mechanics.'

I hope that this whole thing is a stunt. PalWorld was commercially successful, and even if they lose and have to modify the game, it will remain successful. I think that there's a possibility that the developer and publisher are fighting against software patents kind of in general and used PalWorld as bait that Nintendo fell for.

If they lose, then there will be a swath of gamers who are at least mildly outraged at software patents. Popular opinion can (occasionally) sway policy.

If they win, then we have another chink in the armor of software patents as a whole. See Google vs Oracle regarding the ability to patent an API.

If we can manage to kill software patents for gameplay mechanics, like throwing balls at things, being able to take off and land seamlessly, or having a recurring enemy taunt you, then we get better games that remix things that worked.

Imagine how terribly different games would be if someone had patented "A action where a user presses a button to swing their weapon, and if that weapon hits an enemy, that enemy takes damage."

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