Nintendo suing Palworld

[Spike]

On September 19, 2024 Nintendo announced that they and The Pokémon Company are suing Pocketpair, Inc the creators of Palworld.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2024/240919.html

Keep in mind:
The lawsuit is filled in Japan, and therefore US law or anywhere else doesn't apply here.
It is a "Patent infringement" lawsuit so the fact PALs resemble Pokemon has nothing to do with this either.
What the lawsuit claims is that Palworld copied game mechanics Nintendo filled a patent on, things like throwing a ball at a monster and then a fight starts, and other things, it's not yet entirely clear what exactly they are claiming at this point.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1836692701355688146

So, what do you think about this? Is Nintendo right to protect their game mechanics or not?

Haven't most modern games built upon mechanics from earlier titles that evolved over time?

What does it mean for the gaming industry when a major player starts patenting thousands of generic game mechanics?

 

[pensador999]

I think this is nothing less than malicious intent, they are not right, in any way, game mechanics cannot be trademarked, is too basic, apparently is the mounting system, the movement of the mon that you can ride.
along with a whole lot of other minor things i don't know because i don't understand japanease, and there is no official translation. apparently.
So no, they are not right that is insane!
can only be a case of lawfare.

 

[Kudzu]

Nintendo is nothing if not fiercely territorial. When they couldn't sue for copyright infringement they looked for their next available option. If this fails, they'll keep looking for even more alternatives.

While I have hope Nintendo is going to lose this suit, if they win, it will set a precedent for future companies to do the same and will more than likely stifle innovation in the field.

 

[It's Thinking 2]

They knew what they were doing.

 

[Gorse]

I’m not familiar with Japanese law, so I have to ask: if Nintendo loses this case, will their ability to patent game mechanics actually go away? Nintendo patents a LOT in the core mechanics of their games. If they lose that, I think we might just see a big change in many of the games coming out of Japan going forward.

For the record: I expect Nintendo to win, here. The Palworld devs have been pretty blatant in their lifting of many, many elements from Pokemon, and I don’t see what defence they have beyond a moral one (i.e. nothing in the legal realm).

 

[Don Patch]

I mean we all knew this was coming. PalWorld creatures look like the deviantart pokemon recolors that kids used to do a while back .

Like, oof. Some of these are so very very very blatant...
Here's some more:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/palworlds-11-most-shameless-pokemon-knock-offs

I'm surprised tho N's using a "game mechanics" suit. Gotta say I really don't like the precedent there...

 

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

There's no president to set, patented game mechanics have been a thing for a while. It's why the Okami re-releases had to cut the loading screen minigame from the original.

 

[Spike]

There's no president to set, patented game mechanics have been a thing for a while. It's why the Okami re-releases had to cut the loading screen minigame from the original.

Luckily patent expired in 2015.

Loading screen - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DarcyT]

Nintendo is nothing if not fiercely territorial. When they couldn't sue for copyright infringement they looked for their next available option. If this fails, they'll keep looking for even more alternatives.

While I have hope Nintendo is going to lose this suit, if they win, it will set a precedent for future companies to do the same and will more than likely stifle innovation in the field.

Not to mention tons of monster tamer games are now in jeopardy.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I think this is nothing less than malicious intent, they are not right, in any way, game mechanics cannot be trademarked, is too basic, apparently is the mounting system, the movement of the mon that you can ride.
along with a whole lot of other minor things i don't know because i don't understand japanease, and there is no official translation. apparently.
So no, they are not right that is insane!
can only be a case of lawfare.

As utterly scummy as it is game mechanics Can be trademarked if it gets approved, you dont even need to have invented it first. Nintendo (or silicon knights) patented the Sanity System of eternal darkness, thats why no other game uses it and amnesia the dark descent had to get around it
They last some 15 years iirc

I dont know what the pokemon company could've patentented, mega tensei 1 and 2 did monster catching first and kept doing it after pokemon and it works almost the same way so it cant be that

Another scummy thing nintendo did was prohibiting tokyo based retro bars from having famicoms and super famicom consoles for their costumers to play

Luckily patent expired in 2015.

Loading screen - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And yet games still do f all with loading screens which annoys me to to no end

 

[mkol103]

I read part of PC Gamer's article about this, and it seems really informative. I'm surprised they are suing on game mechanics. I think suing for copyright infringement is a much stronger case because some of the Pals literally look like reskins lol, but I am not a lawyer (yet) so that's just my opinion. If Nintendo was gonna sue over game mechanics, they should have sued when TemTem came out, not PalWorld

 

[DJPlace]

it's just pokemon meets minecraft with GUNS. why not throw out sueining minecraft makers why your at it nintendo.

also pal world makers need to fight back.

 

[Spike]

I found these patents allegedly related to this case.
This is, ridiculous to say the least.
With Japan being a magical world where anything can happen I can see Nintendo totally winning this.
No sane person should allow this to go on.
If you told me, "pals look like Pokémon" I'd side with Nintendo.
But these?!

 

[It's Thinking 2]

:/ Crazy because even back on the Game Boy there were monster collecting games like Dragon Warrior Monsters 1 and 2.

 

[mkol103]

I found these patents allegedly related to this case.
This is, ridiculous to say the least.
With Japan being a magical world where anything can happen I can see Nintendo totally winning this.
No sane person should allow this to go on.
If you told me, "pals look like Pokémon" I'd side with Nintendo.
But these?!
View attachment 327View attachment 326

:/ Crazy because even back on the Game Boy there were monster collecting games like Dragon Warrior Monsters 1 and 2.

Exactly. Like, are they gonna sue the new Yakuza game with the pokemon side-mode next?

 

[Spike]

They have to also sue this game Farlight84
They added pokeballs and pokemon cos "why the hell not?" to a hero Battle Royale. like a week before lawsuit was made public. lol!

the devs right now:

 

[Kacho]

Could anyone show my any source on what actually caused Nintendo to sue them? There seems to be a lot of misinformation going around and all I see is a lot of speculation and claims without any source.

And don't come at me with "it's obvious" claims. If there is an actual source out there I would like to see it just to get my facts straight.

Regarding the actual lawsuit I have no strong feelings whatsoever. I think Palworld knew what it was doing all along and they decided to still poke the bear. It's also funny that people talk about them like their just a little unknown indie company and not behind the game that sold really well and was listed as a best seller on Steam for a good time.
Going to be interesting to see what the actual lawsuit is about and where it goes. In the end I hope it doesn't hinder people from trying to make Pokemon inspired games of their own. Since there are plenty of monster collecting/catching indie games out there without being sued by Nintendo I guess it means that it was something that Palworld specifically did. Could also mean that Nintendo want to make an example out of them, which would suck but is expected of a big company that is seeking to protect their value.

 

[moonbits]

Could anyone show my any source on what actually caused Nintendo to sue them? There seems to be a lot of misinformation going around and all I see is a lot of speculation and claims without any source.

And don't come at me with "it's obvious" claims. If there is an actual source out there I would like to see it just to get my facts straight.

Regarding the actual lawsuit I have no strong feelings whatsoever. I think Palworld knew what it was doing all along and they decided to still poke the bear. It's also funny that people talk about them like their just a little unknown indie company and not behind the game that sold really well and was listed as a best seller on Steam for a good time.
Going to be interesting to see what the actual lawsuit is about and where it goes. In the end I hope it doesn't hinder people from trying to make Pokemon inspired games of their own. Since there are plenty of monster collecting/catching indie games out there without being sued by Nintendo I guess it means that it was something that Palworld specifically did. Could also mean that Nintendo want to make an example out of them, which would suck but is expected of a big company that is seeking to protect their value.

Nintendo only said Infringement of "several" patents. After that you can find analysts pointing out which potential patents is Nintendo going to argue in court. Like Patent 7545191 for example.

 

[It's Thinking 2]

Exactly. Like, are they gonna sue the new Yakuza game with the pokemon side-mode next?

Nintendo suing Sega is not something i had on my bingo card. o.o

 

[Kacho]

Nintendo only said Infringement of "several" patents. After that you can find analysts pointing out which potential patents is Nintendo going to argue in court. Like Patent 7545191 for example.

So what you're saying is that we still don't know.

Nintendo suing Sega is not something i had on my bingo card. o.o

And you should probably keep it that way. Nintendo sues a developer for patent infringement and everyone acts like they're going on a killing spree. They don't really have a history of aggressively going after developers for patents so it seems so much like an overreaction.

It's also probably a reaction to Nintendo sending cease and desist letter for fans making fan games using their IP's, but that is something that is commonplace and always necessary to protect your IP in certain countries so it really isn't comparable to what we're seeing here.

I know I come off as some crazed Nintendo fanboy but the reaction towards Nintendo for suing another company just seems so uncalled for. People were so quick to post misinformation and rile each other up over this.

 

[Sayo]

What Nintendo is doing right now is undoubtedly anti-competitive and they need to get slapped down a few notches in court for the good of everyone.
Had Palworld not been a success, they would have never scrounged up this patent-related nonsense.

 

[It's Thinking 2]

So what you're saying is that we still don't know.

And you should probably keep it that way. Nintendo sues a developer for patent infringement and everyone acts like they're going on a killing spree. They don't really have a history of aggressively going after developers for patents so it seems so much like an overreaction.

It's also probably a reaction to Nintendo sending cease and desist letter for fans making fan games using their IP's, but that is something that is commonplace and always necessary to protect your IP in certain countries so it really isn't comparable to what we're seeing here.

I know I come off as some crazed Nintendo fanboy but the reaction towards Nintendo for suing another company just seems so uncalled for. People were so quick to post misinformation and rile each other up over this.

there is a clear difference between a fan game and a bootleg trying to get money.

 

[Kacho]

there is a clear difference between a fan game and a bootleg trying to get money.

I'm not sure I understand what bootleg you're referring to.

 

[Leon]

I will be honest, i despise nintendo, some of their actions in recent years have been so anti-consumer that i've sworn off all their products, which is both sad and a little funny as i used to be a fan of nintendo, even owning to this day a limited edition silver nintendo gamecube, but their actions in recent years (which has only ramped up since iwata died) has made them have the same light that EA and Ubisoft have for me, aka a outright ban on their products.

As for palworld, this is a nightmare scenario if nintendo succeeds, it will set precident that could very well kill the gaming industry as we know it.

Oops, just realized this is kind of a necro, well i don't regret posting it.

 

[starseeker300]

Sorry for also the slight case of necroposting but moon channel on yt did a bit of a deep dive on the subject that ill share for everyone. though on a personal note i still hope nintendo loses, they need to be nocked down a couple pegs in my opinion