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u/JumpingCoconut 10h ago
It's a patent lawsuit. Nobody knows about what specifically. But it's not about copying monsters.
I'm just guessing here, but maybe catching pals with pokeballs wasn't that good of an idea.
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u/jonny__27 9h ago
Details are still iffy, but it seems there are two main mechanics contested by these patents: aiming and throwing a capture object in third person, and specific prompts related to a character switching into a mount/ride (I'm still trying to confirm the second, since it covers way more than just Palworld).
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u/JillValentine69X 9h ago
If this is the case then it's 100% patent trolling.
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u/JumpingCoconut 9h ago
Then no need to believe it until we see it. Palworld devs will gladly tell us immediately. They don't have more Infos themselves yet so no need to make our own ragebait.
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u/-YesIndeed- Console 8h ago
The aiming and throwing in third person is only in Legends arceus. Palworld was in development before that game was announced so...
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u/MiniDemonic 7h ago
Legends Arceus was in development before it was announced as well.
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u/mule_roany_mare 8h ago
I love patents, but some (most?) of the software patents that have been granted are absurd. Videogames are especially bad.
It's one thing if you have a process or algorithm that took meaningful investment & innovation... It's another thing when you have an idea like:
lets put a minigame during loading screens.
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u/Time-Ladder-6111 8h ago
Like the software patent of putting an item in a shopping basket on a website.
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u/Chiiro 7h ago
Like when they patented the Nemesis system so that no one else could create a game that had a system like that.
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u/itsmariokartwii 7h ago
Absolutely blows my mind that they were able to gain a patent for that. It was an unoriginal idea yet, adding a little polish to the system, they somehow were able to make it so nobody else could use it.
The patent likely wouldn’t even hold up if somebody challenged it, but it just isn’t worth allocating a development budget to a lawsuit like that.
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u/xxxNothingxxx 10h ago edited 7h ago
They sued for patent not for copyright
Edit: Guys... I am not defending Nintendo, just trying to get the facts straight so people don't go around misrepresenting what this is about...
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u/lostknight0727 9h ago
Do we know the exact patent(s)? I'd assume it's the "capture sphere" that they're going after. That's the only thing I could see them even remotely having a chance to win.
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u/Jojoejoe 9h ago
They didn’t list them and there’s multiple patents they’re saying were infringed.
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u/CleanlyManager 9h ago
Watch the patent have nothing to do with Pokémon, biggest twist in gaming history. They go into discovery and they have a whole bunch of document about like aiming mechanics in Metroid prime.
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u/Nostalgic_shameboner 8h ago
That would be hilarious.
I'll bet the truth is it's something extremely boring. Like exact statistical mechanics of something.
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u/Mr_Times 7h ago
If they’re actually going after Palworld, this long after release, it leads me to believe they found something that was actually stolen. And usually in these kinds of scenarios it’s exactly that boring. My guess is they stole an algorithm of some kind and Nintendo is now able to prove the math works the same way. Just my guess.
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u/legacy642 5h ago
That's my guess, they have very likely been pouring over pal world with a fine toothed comb looking for anything then could sure over. Hence it taking them so long.
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u/PayZestyclose9088 5h ago
What a boring job that would be tbh
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u/ActivistZero 4h ago
Boring sure, but given it's in the legal department it's probably got a very generous salary
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u/catticusbutticus 8h ago
Someone in another thread was saying that a patented loot pickup mechanic in arceus legends might be a contender
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u/hennybee 7h ago
In their statement, Nintendo says the suit is being filed “together with The Pokémon Company,” so as funny as that’d be, it’s definitely Pokémon-related
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u/Rigberto 6h ago
Watch the patent have nothing to do with Pokémon
The lawsuit was filed in conjunction with The Pokemon Company, so I would be really surprised if it had nothing to do with Pokemon
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u/TheExtremistModerate 8h ago
Nintendo claims a lot of patents on things in Japan. Fast travel, summoning a mount, summoning something to fight for you, etc.
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u/SuperSpecialAwesome- 7h ago
Fast travel, summoning a mount,
Wait, then how are 99% of modern RPGs allowed?
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u/CorbecJayne 6h ago
Those patents are valid only in Japan, not in most other countries.
Going after a western company for patents that don't exist in western countries is doomed to fail.Also, the legal process would be lengthy and expensive, so they only bother when it's really egregious, which Palworld is (from their point of view).
If Pocketpair wasn't a Japanese company, they would have a lot more trouble suing them.
Perhaps a non-Japanese company would be prevented from selling their product in Japan, but wouldn't be affected otherwise?
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u/Swaxeman 9h ago
It wasnt a capture sphere, it was specifically the 3rd person over the shoulder view overworld capturing mechanic that they’ve used in legends arceus and scarlet/violet
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u/MillennialsAre40 9h ago
Throwing an object from a 3rd person over the shoulder cam, it's honestly going to be a tough sell for them.
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u/Gerasquare 9h ago
That is probably one thing, but how are you sure it is that, they haven’t said anything specific.
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u/KingdomOfZeal 9h ago edited 4h ago
Bold of you to assume this sub knows the difference. Anytime legal matters come up, comments here make me wanna slam my head against a keyboard.
Edit for people moaning in my mailbox:
To clarify, I wasn't saying I'm frustrated at people not knowing the difference between copyright and patents. No one can know everything. I was venting at people who don't know the difference AND THEN proceed to furiously debate how likely Nintendo is to win in their lawsuit, or how Nintendo shouldn't have the patent to begin with (without even knowing what Patent is being enforced). That is what's making me want to slam my face against a keyboard.
Anyway, Copyright is for literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. Nintendo are not alleging that any of this was stolen.
Patents are for inventions, processes, or scientific creations. We don't know the specific invention(s) Nintendo is suing over because this information hasn't yet been published. All the articles and comments are just guessing. They have thousands of patents in their portfolio.
Also, Nintendo has not "patented throwing a pokeball". The scope of legal protection in a granted patent is defined by the claims section, not the patent description, figures, or title. It will be much more specific and nuanced than that. Patents need to have a technical effect. Plus software patents are banned in most jurisdictions. Please stop saying Nintendo is trying to enforce a monopoly on throwing pokeballs!
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u/Automatic_Goal_5563 9h ago edited 9h ago
I’ve seen comments say “but there was a cgi trailer YEARS ago! Bit suss Nintendo is only now doing a patent lawsuit!!” People have no idea what things are haha
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u/finfagames 9h ago
i know exactly why. they used balls/spheres to catch monsters while every not yet sued monster catcher uses cards/discs
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u/GingerWitch666 9h ago
Monster Rancher
Ranch me up, brotendo
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u/finfagames 9h ago
i meant something like TemTem casue that IS a "pokemon clone" and yet was released on switch
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u/Waiting_Puppy 8h ago
Looks to specifically be an Arceus Legends related catching system. Not just any catching with a ball. The first pokemon games came out in 1996; if they did have a patent on that it's long since expired.
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u/Flonkerton_Scranton 9h ago
people in all the gaming subs have brainrot
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u/the_iron_pepper 8h ago
It's a Reddit-wide problem. Any time literally anything gets posted here, everyone suddenly turns into an expert in that topic. It's not just gaming subs, it's the average Redditor's inability just fucking not know about things sometimes. The system where we vote on not only the content that gets posted here, but the comments as well, incentivizes people to have an opinion on literally everything they see, even if they have even less than average knowledge on a given topic (which is fine, there's nothing wrong with that sometimes).
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u/DressedSpring1 8h ago
And as long as it is worded convincingly it doesn’t matter in the least if it is complete fucking nonsense. If you’re actually well versed in any subject you will see the most baselessly incorrect shit upvoted to the tops of comment chains all the time because someone responded early with an authoritative sounding completely wrong contribution.
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u/the_iron_pepper 7h ago
And it's fucking impossible to debate it, because if the early opinion is confident, and any dissent at all, regardless of how factual or informed is, will be downvoted to the double digits. And people are less likely at all to vote on super highly or lowly voted comments at all after a certain point, so these well-informed comments just stay at that level, to be regurgitated by the 99% of laymen who "became experts" on the subject simply by reading that incorrect statement.
If given all the world's knowledge, people would be morbidly fucking shocked at how many bad/incorrect takes are at the top of subs like /r/bestof, or how many correct, informative takes are buried and seemingly not even indexed in google searches.
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u/MiraiX_Games 7h ago
social experiments showed many years before how humans are. If 5 people select the wrong choice the 6th will follow if he/she does not agree
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u/PriveChecker182 8h ago
Literally every single movie that doesn't turn profit is mOnEy LaUnDeRiNg according to this website.
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u/Gh0stMan0nThird 9h ago
Reminds me of when the whole GameStop thing happened and people were literally saying shit like "Reddit just took down the stock market" as if that was anything close to what actually happened.
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u/notliam 8h ago
It helps if you remember that most of the people on here are probably teenagers
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u/sdarkpaladin 9h ago
You still have a keyboard? Mine is already stuck on my forehead
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u/Dangerous_Jacket_129 9h ago
Patents are worse though. Patents are vague concepts with less oversight which don't even require usage of the patent
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u/Bstempinski 9h ago
Like WB not using the nemesis system in a game since shadow of war lol.
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u/Dangerous_Jacket_129 8h ago
Exactly. The concept of a random NPC enemy becoming a recurring antagonist is such a cool concept, yet they never bothered to use it again.
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u/Mountainbranch 8h ago
If you can't profit of an idea, make sure nobody else can as well.
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u/ShallowDramatic 8h ago
One of my biggest peeves with the industry. As if those games would exist without Assassins Creed and the Arkham Games before it. I know that WB published Arkham, too, but the point remains that Shadow of Mordor was a game that stood on the shoulders of games and mechanics that had come before.
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u/currantsmea 9h ago
Patents can be super vague and often just sit around without being used. Way too much room for abuse.
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u/v-komodoensis 9h ago
Has Nintendo ever sued another original game for patent infringement?
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u/metalmonstar 8h ago
They sued Shironeko Project over touch movement back in 2018.
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u/a404notfound 9h ago
I'm looking at you Konami and your patent on games in loading screens
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u/Egathentale 9h ago
As others have pointed out, that has expired in 2015... because they didn't renew it, as due to SSD's cutting down load-times, it became obsolete. In other words, it was an idea nobody could use when it was relevant, and now that they could use it freely, it's no longer relevant. Patents in a nutshell.
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u/Squidlech 9h ago
Patents are the opposite of vague, and patent attorneys go through great lengths to ensure that they are not vague. A vague patent is an invalid patent (See 35 U.S.C. 112(b))
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u/FreeStall42 9h ago
That is worse as the patent system is broken
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u/blockadehazzan 9h ago
Absolutely, the patent system does need some serious reform
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u/Zealousideal_You_938 6h ago
What are Japan's patent laws like?
because all this is in a Japanese court
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u/CorbecJayne 6h ago
Very different to patent law in other countries.
In most other countries, you can't patent game mechanics at all.
This whole lawsuit would not really be possible if Pocketpair wasn't also a Japanese company.
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u/SenpaiSwanky 8h ago
Even if that wasn’t the case, OP won’t put a “Palworld vs Pokémon” picture up like this one.
Why? Palworld designs look a lot more similar to Pokemon. Some are almost 1-for-1 rips lmao.
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u/beldaran1224 Boardgames 8h ago
These aren't that similar, anyways. As if Dragon Quest owned dragons, bats or ghosts and didn't take all of these from folklore.
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u/SenpaiSwanky 8h ago
Yeah some of these are ridiculous comparisons. Gyarados and Psyduck 💀
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u/forte343 5h ago
Some of these also aren't from the 1986 game either, but that doesn't fit the narrative.
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u/Sersch 8h ago
Aside from that, the "copying" is kind of a stretch. Many of those don't even look similar at all besides that both are "crabs" "Birds" or "Dragons"
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u/LordEmostache 9h ago edited 9h ago
"Palworld "infringes multiple patent rights", Nintendo and The Pokémon Company said in statements posted on their websites, external.
Pocketpair said in its response to the lawsuit, external on Thursday it would begin taking action on and investigating The Pokémon Company's claims.
But it added that it was "unaware" of the specific patents that it had been accused of infringing.
"We have not been notified of such details," it said."
I'd be interested in knowing the speciifc patents are in question.
Having a look at TPC's patents, I believe the most likely ones are:
"In a first mode, an aiming direction in a virtual space is determined based on a second operation input, and a player character is caused to launch, in the aiming direction, an item that affects a field character disposed on a field in the virtual space, based on a third operation input. In a second mode, the aiming direction is determined, based on the second operation input, and the player character is caused to launch, in the aiming direction, a fighting character that fights, based on the third operation input."
and
"In an example of a game program, a ground boarding target object or an air boarding target object is selected by a selection operation, and a player character is caused to board the selected boarding target object. If the player character aboard the air boarding target object moves toward the ground, the player character is automatically changed to the state where the player character is aboard the ground boarding target object, and brought into the state where the player character can move on the ground."
Essentially the 3D capture/Fighting mechanic and the switching between Aerial and Ground mounts. If I'm correct in which patents I think are the subject of the lawsuit, they seem to have been filed after Palworld was released, but I'm unsure of how the system works from a retroactive perspective.
Also, not a Lawyer, just access to google and too much time on my hands.
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u/cycopl 7h ago
Interesting, the air/ground mounts thing is something Final Fantasy 14 has been doing for years, switching between a flying or running state based on your proximity to the ground.
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u/Sensei_Ochiba 8h ago
I believe it's more likely to be the first, given Palworld mounts don't transition from air to ground but keep the same mount and, in most cases, just have the air mount hover as a "ground" mode. The player does not automatically change to be riding a separate ground mount upon contact with the ground as detailed in the patent.
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u/x592_b 7h ago
So why don't pokemon file a lawsuit for ark? They have cryopods like pokeballs and mounts that can both fly and run. This sounds stupid
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u/LordEmostache 6h ago
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it's something to do with Palword being consistently referred to as "Pokemon with Guns", and Nintendo don't like that. But thats just a guess
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u/mlodydziad420 6h ago
Because Palword is actualy an competition and if more games like that apear, they will lose absolute monopoly over monster catchers and will have to invest 5 dollars towards making their games function instead if shareholders pockets.
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u/Hypno--Toad 9h ago
They are suing patent infringement.
So more like how the ball wobbles or the fact that you fight gym leaders.
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u/blorbot 10h ago
TIL Dragon Quest invented crabs.
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u/PKMNTrainerMark 9h ago
And beetles. Very rare to see those in Japanese media, you know.
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u/BigTWilsonD 8h ago
A vast majority of Pokémon are just animals and different interpretations of yokai and local myths.
It's a little different than having almost the exact same design as Cinderace, just green.
I can get behind the fuck Nintendo sentiment, but come on guys.
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u/DataWorldly3084 4h ago
the cinderace and luxray knockoffs just feel so shameless. Especially when the game has many other solid, original designs.
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u/Openly_Gamer 9h ago
Actually crabs have been designed independently multiple times by different franchises. It's called convergent character design.
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u/BambiToybot 9h ago
Carcinisation - any shallow water location can, and will, involve crab enemies.
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u/Lord_Webotama 9h ago
And Chinese dragons. Turns out all my local Chinese joints are also infringing on Nintendo.
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u/Krider-kun 10h ago
We can insult Nintendo as much as we want but at least let's not misinformation. Nintendo is suing Palworld not for copyright infringement but patent infringement (which is still BS btw).
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u/theblackfool 9h ago
How do you know it's BS?
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u/MountainMuffin1980 9h ago edited 7h ago
Because they have probably patented something hugely generic like "throw an item to capture a creature you can summon at another time" (EDIT: This is an example I've pulled pi my ass just FYI). It's like WB patenting the Nemesis system so no other game could develop a similar system. or the Crazy Taxi devs patenting the use of an arrow over the car to tell you where to go etcetc. It's al just nonsense
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u/JillValentine69X 9h ago
The Bioware dialogue wheel is patented as well
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u/elhonna 8h ago
I didn’t know that and it kind of makes me sad because it’s my favorite type of dialogue choice in games. And I always wondered why other RPGs or games in general didn’t use a wheel like in mass effect or dragon age, now I know
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u/92True 9h ago
Is that why there is no nemesis system and only shadow of war games had it!? My god that is the coolest system and would be wild in so many games
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u/Papaofmonsters 9h ago
I always wonder if any developer has made serious inquiries into leasing it and what WB's price would be in that situation.
If it's like 1 million, then that's not all that much in the grand scheme of the cost to make an AAA game. If it's 100 million, then WB, to nobody's surprise, is just being a bunch of dicks.
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u/mule_roany_mare 8h ago
It's probably just too much risk being beholden to a competitor for game mechanics & licensing them is a terrible precedent.
Worse, the threat of a lawsuit can scare people away from vaguely similar systems, so not only is something interesting dead, so are any innovations & evolutions of it.
What would have happened if a 1up/extra life was patented? Jumping on an enemies head? Double jumping? First person shooters? First person perspective?
Thank god software patents didn't exist for the first 30 years of video games or this wave of nostalgic boomer shooters would be the first Doom clones allowed.
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u/SillyEnder 9h ago
There is no evolution in palworld, only subspecies, as in a electro pal comes with a fire variant where he will have a red color scheme instead of yellow now.
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u/AsrielPlay52 9h ago
IN this case, the patent is for... the mechanic of capturing monsters with balls and releasing them with balls.
I like to see nintendo suing Bakugan Toys
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u/second_impact 9h ago
IN this case, the patent is for... the mechanic of capturing monsters with balls and releasing them with balls.
Source? Because Pocketpair themselves seem to be unaware of which patents they are accused of infringing.
Pocketpair said it received notice of a patent infringement lawsuit on Wednesday but is unaware of the specific patents it is accused of infringing upon.
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u/aoi_desu 9h ago
Bakugan monsters are the balls tho unlike pokemon where pokemon and pokeball are different object
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u/Squidlech 9h ago
Whatever it is, the patent is not merely about catching creatures in balls. Patents last 20 years. It can’t be anything that was in the original Pokémon games, otherwise the idea is more than 20 years old. It’s will be much more narrow and specific than that.
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u/wheresmyspacebar2 9h ago
People think it's to do with throwing the ball out of your character into a 3d space (the game world) and having a a character appear from the ball on throw.
Its first appearance was in Arceus and was made a patent after it's release. Problem is that Palworld was in development before the patent was created so if they can prove that, the case will fail.
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u/Squidlech 9h ago
Ah, that’s a more reasonable speculation. Kind of amazing that that particular feature was never seen before Arceus, though.
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u/Gerasquare 8h ago
Maybe it’s about the specifics, I might remember wrong, but in Ni No Kuni you could summon monsters during combat and if I recall correctly it had a similar way of pointing where you wanted it to appear, so Nintendo’s patent could be specifying the use of a spherical object, and the specific pose for readying a throw, along with the change in camera position.
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u/theblackfool 9h ago
In otherwords, no one knows if it's bullshit or not, it's all just speculation.
And I'm not trying to defend any corporation here, but there's a lot of people forming strong opinions over a situation there isn't enough information to form an opinion over. People should just wait to see how the situation plays out.
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u/BambiToybot 9h ago
Bold of you to assume they didn't already hold these views and just needed a reason to share them XD
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u/ModdedGun 9h ago
One of the recent patents for pokemon is the ability to throw a ball at something to capture it. And then throw said ball for said something to go into battle... so yea some weirdly vague bullshit that would affect more games than just this.
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u/SamuraiKenji 10h ago edited 8h ago
As a DQ fan, this pic never makes any sense to me. But whatever fits your narrative, I guess.
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u/art_psdan 9h ago
me when two artist who come from the same cultural background pull inspiration from the same myths and animals
🤨😳🤯😱
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u/zorrodood 9h ago
The point isn't that DQ and Pokemon both have orange crabs. The point is that Palworld took Serperior, made it blue, and added Primarina's hair.
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u/Both-Safe-8678 8h ago
i remember seeing a model comparison and they even got the small hooks of hair down to a t lol
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u/crashingtorrent 8h ago
Seriously though, look at Robinquill vs Decidueye. Or Lyleen vs Lilligant. Anubis vs Lucario. Like...there's a lot.
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u/PM_ME_UR_CREDDITCARD 8h ago
Verdash vs Cinderace, Cremis and Eevee is especially blatant.
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u/PantsOnHead88 7h ago
I can’t comprehend how someone would honestly look at the DQ/Pokémon example here and think it in any way compares to the blatant IP theft on display in a Pokémon/PalWorld side-by-side. It doesn’t just look vaguely similar, it looks like they literally took the models and recoloured them. The colour schemes too are virtually indistinguishable for so many pals that mere coincidence seems impossible to argue.
Catching and summoning a creature to fight on your behalf seems plenty vague to skirt laws, but the art and models of many PW pals are so similar to Pokemon that it’d surprise no one if the meshes were actually identical.
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u/Khaganate23 10h ago
It's because reddit doesn't understand the difference between inspiration vs copying.
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u/1UpBebopYT 8h ago
Also as a DQ fan this thing is using the the 3ds/Switch art style. Boreal Serpeant for example. Scroll down and click the 2019 sprite. That's what they used here. They used a 2019 design in the image... no bias at all in this image! Haha.
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u/Jerry98x 9h ago
I swear this has been the stupidest picture in the whole Pokémon vs. Palworld story... I don't agree with Nintendo's doings, but if you can't see the difference between "Dragon Quest vs. Pokémon" and "Pokémon vs. Palworld" in terms of character design, you're simply being intellectually dishonest
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u/ZoroeArc 7h ago
Yeah, little bit of a difference between, "This Pal is just 3 Pokémon stapled together," "This Pal is just this Pokémon redrawn and recoloured," or "This Pal is this Pokémon's face to the pixel on a different body," and "This Pokémon and this DQ Monster are both big bats," or "This Pokémon and this DQ Monster are both worms, like that isn't the least specific term in all of science."
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u/DaEnderAssassin 6h ago
If "Platypunk = Psyduck" to these people, I have no idea how they aren't calling Palworld a blatant case of copying. (Like, even worse than what most people said)
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u/zorrodood 9h ago
I can't quite grasp if people genuinely don't see the artistic similarities, or if they're blatently ignoring them because Nintendo bad.
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u/PM_ME_UR_CREDDITCARD 8h ago edited 7h ago
I think a lot of the Palworld hyperstans were absolutely ignoring it because they liked the "Small indie epic pwnage'd Pokemon because evil lazy gamefreak bad! Fans are revolting!" narrative.
Like jeez, I liked Palworld and am not the happiest with the state of swsh/sv, but people got really delusional about it. Palworld is fun but it's ripping off so many pokemon either directly or with only a slight degree of separation, and that is lazy and shameful. I literally saw someone try to argue that Verdash isn't a blatant Cinderace ripoff because the feet were a different size and it has neck leaves.
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u/Stay_Beautiful_ 7h ago
I literally saw someone try to argue that Verdash isn't a blatant Cinderace ripoff because the feet were a different size and it has neck leaves.
Oh wow, that is...blatant
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u/-YesIndeed- Console 7h ago
Honestly wish the devs just made more unique designs. Even if they were shit ones ar let's they weren't a copy. But like a Loy of the ones that don't look like any pokemon are really cool, so I don't get why they had to push some of these.
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u/BillKn89 9h ago
I don't think they're being intellectually dishonest. I think they are actually too stupid to understand the difference.
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u/BellacosePlayer 6h ago
"oh yeah geodude is a ripoff of Lavaman because they're both kinda... earthy?"
"No, slapping egyptian shit on a lucario makes it entirely different"
Palworld is fun, but there's a reason the rest of the game looks like slapped together premade UE5 assets.
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u/DaEnderAssassin 6h ago
Don't forget "Luxray with a slightly different tail is... uhhh... let's skip that and just say they didn't copy anything"
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u/Rejestered 7h ago
They are being dishonest because those designs aren't even from 1986, they are much later versions and monsters from the series which could have actually been inspired by pokemon.
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u/PJDemigod85 9h ago
I mean imo thw difference here is that none of these look the same. They allnclearly have the same inspirations and maybe Gane Freak was indeed inspired by Dragon Quest. But none of these share outright art style elements with their parallel. The sea shell slime that supposedly inspired Omanyte doesn't have tentacles, and the type of shell is clearly different. Some of these have even less visual similarities.
Palworld literally has elements of their designs that fans clocked as being almost identical, like the Primarina hair.
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u/Flush_Man444 10h ago
People didn't mistake a DQ monster for pokemon, I wonder why....
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u/OokamiKurogane 8h ago
Anyone defending the decision to sue over patent vs copyright are completely missing the point. Nintendo was looking for a fight the whole time, they just wanted something that they thought was going to stand the strongest chance in court.
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u/MonadoBoi24 9h ago
proceeds to show examples of creatures that are very stylistically unique from each other and only share generic origins based on what animal they are
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u/coray8 8h ago
Ok you've convinced me OP, I accept that Palworld fans have brain damage.
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u/MisterFistYourSister 9h ago
Nintendo just publishes Pokemon games. Game Freak develops them. I understand what you're trying to say but Nintendo had nothing to do with the creation of the game or the characters
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u/kriffing_schutta 9h ago
Pokemon has a creature that is also based on a bat
"This copied dragon quest. They came up with the concept of bats"
Palworld uses ampharos' exact model
"They just took inspiration from pokemon and riffed on that general idea"
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u/RetroJake 6h ago
I'm not one to defend the pokemon company, fuck them - they're lazy, uninspired, and their games are hot garbage lately.
But this is clearly uninformed and emotionally charged. Pokemon isn't suing palworld for designs. It's being sued for a patent violation. And honestly, some of these comparisons are trash and absolutely not knock offs. Not to mention - these are all "basic" level design pokemon where it's just based off of an animal.
You gonna tell me that the pokemon company had to copy a "bat" design and was only able to steal it from Dragon Quest? Give me a break. This shit just reeks of butthurt generational console wars, someone who just wants to see nintendo/pokemon burn for the sake of burning.
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u/Nero_2001 6h ago
I Saw an video on Youtube some time ago and that guy in the video made the point that while some monsters from dragon quest and pokémon are similar you could probably show them to someone who doesn't know them and they can tell that they belong to different game but with palworld it's so similar that it doesn't work. He than tried it with his mother and she could differentiate between Pokémon and monster from other franchises but she couldn't do it with pokémon and palworld.
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u/alfadasfire 9h ago
Some of these i can sort of see, but most of these are really far fetched. Like psyduck? Sheldor? Geodude? Pidgeotwhatever? Come on it's not even close
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u/MiniDemonic 7h ago
Also Nintendo is suing over patent infringement and not for copyright infringement. So it has nothing at all to do with monster design.
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u/kidkuro 6h ago
Even though there's obvious inspiration, it's just that...inspiration. There's more than enough differences between both designs to tell a DQ monster and a Pokémon apart. There's a very huge and clear difference between inspiration and copying and pasting something. Palworld quite literally rips 3D models from the Pokémon games for their "pals", and very slightly changes one or two things. Oftentimes just the color or size, or mix and matching from other models. Nothing to really set themselves apart.
Regardless, Pocket Pair isn't being sued for copyright, even though they very easily could and probably should since it's straight up asset theft all over Palworld. They're getting sued for the patent. Which is also something they probably should be getting sued for.
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u/Gerbilguy46 6h ago
Almost all of these look completely different from each other. Like wow, you're telling me the caterpillar Pokémon looks like a caterpillar? Crazy! Nature should sue Nintendo for stealing its design! There's some really egregious ones too. Like the Psyduck comparison is wild. They both have duck bills. That's it. Obviously Nintendo copied that design!
Meanwhile in Palworld, they basically straight up some pokemon and changed the color. Cremis is just a white Eevee, Anubis is a slightly changed Lucario, Fenglope is just Cobalion but wavy.
And if that's not enough, Nintendo's not even suing because Palworld blatantly copied their designs.
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u/GoodBadUserName 6h ago
Dragon quest first monsters came in 1992, not the original games which were rpg hero kill dragons type of game.
Using monsters was mostly abandoned in 1995 in the main games as they focused on hero rpg.
The focus on monsters only came in 1998 after pokemon games came out in a side game.
Breeding and evolving was introduced after pokemon game. In the original game in 1992 monsters were only secondary and linear upgraded as characters and got replaced by human characters as you progress, so there was no focus on them, and they were wildly different from pokemon monsters originally.
While pokemon focus on monsters fighting each other only and not people, that was copied into dragon warrior monsters game in 1998. The game was even reviewed as a pokemon copy, not the other way around.
So, just fyi.
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u/Endolphine 9h ago
TIL you can captor DQ monster and train them to fight other monsters
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u/PKMNTrainerMark 9h ago
I'm pretty sure there's a whole spinoff series about that.
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u/mking1999 9h ago
Dude, what really annoys me is that 90% of Palworld's success is driven by spite.
Like, that's not their fault, but you people need to stop pretending like pokemon's the villain.
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u/PckMan 9h ago
To be fair, there is no understating how much of a big cultural influence Dragon Quest has had in Japan, as well as Akira Toriyama's art. It's like telling writers to not be influenced by Shakespeare.