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Earlier this week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, which it co-owns, announced they were suing producer Pal’s Worldsurvival crafting MMO that exploded onto Steam and Xbox earlier this year. The companies have accused Pocketpair, the studio behind the late-night “Pokémon with a gun” sensation, patent infringement. Although neither side has disclosed exactly what elements Pal’s World is accused of copying, experts have begun to wonder about it Pokémon mechanics, which may be at the heart of the dispute.
“In this lawsuit, we seek an injunction against infringement and damages on the grounds that Pal’s World“The game developed and published by the Defendant infringes multiple patent rights” – Nintendo announced on September 18. Pocketpair responded the next day. “At this time, we are not aware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing, and have not been notified of such details,” it said. “It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to devote a significant amount of time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit.”
This it may take weeks before Nintendo details the patent infringement allegations in further documents, but in the meantime, novel reports and analysis have begun to shed some lightweight on what the company’s main line of legal attack might be and why it chose Pocketpair in the first place. While early online controversy over Pal’s Worldresemblance to Pokémon was about the creature design, while the lawsuit Nintendo filed eight months later is about what players actually do in the game.
One such thing is throwing a spherical object at fantasy creatures to catch them and store them inside. Nintendo has a patent on a version of this mechanic, as recently reported Game file. Going into detail, Polygon precise language was extracted What exactly is this patent about, which was filed in 2021 and approved just last year:
In the first mode, the aiming direction in the virtual space is determined by the second operation input, and the player character is forced to shoot in the aiming direction of the item that affects the field character deployed on the field in the virtual space based on the third operation input. In the second mode, the aiming direction is determined by the second operation input, and the player character is forced to shoot in the aiming direction of the fighting character who is fighting based on the third operation input.
As you can see, this isn’t just about throwing one thing at another to catch it, but a specific sequence of events based on specific inputs. We still don’t know if this is one of the actual patents covered by Nintendo’s lawsuit, or what the court will decide if it is. (The case was filed in Japan.) But if it is, the timing could be on the Mario creator’s side. Why was the patent so recent when Pokémon has been around for decades? Probably because it wasn’t until 2022. Pokémon Legends: Arceus that in this game, players catch Pokémon using Pokéballs in three-dimensional spaces like this one.
Japanese patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara recently said Yahoo Japanaccording to translation by West Machinethat Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed further “split” patents based on the above earlier this year and asked for expedited review, with approval for one coming just last month. Kurihara suggested that this may have been part of a strategy to zip up the patent language before taking legal action against Pocketpair for infringement.
This is not the first time Nintendo has gone after a Japanese video game company for patent infringement. Return in 2017attacked mobile studio Colopl for its Japanese smartphone game The White Cat Project for alleged patent infringements related to “special technology used to operate a joystick using a touchpad.” Both parties ultimately we reached an agreementwith Colopl paying Nintendo around $20 million. Industry analyst Serkan Toto, who heads the consulting firm Kantan Games, pointed to this example in This week’s interview with 404 Media.
“First, this lawsuit was filed under Japanese law, so it has nothing to do with the United States, or with UK or EU law,” he said. “Second, I think Nintendo took the time to build a case, plan everything, including the counterarguments the other side could present in the lawsuit, how to counter them and make sure they think they will win before they file the lawsuit.”
Toto painted a somewhat bleak picture of Pocketpair’s likely chances of winning against Nintendo, given its history, and suggested that the timing of the lawsuit could be tied to Tokyo Game Show. Pocketpair was expected to announce a PlayStation 5 version Pal’s World months after entering into a joint venture partnership with Sony to expand the IP and bring it to market. Sony declined to comment on the lawsuit.
“You can bet your life that Nintendo hates this company and they couldn’t find a way to work around the character designs,” Toto said. “That’s why they’re not listed in their press release. So they come with these technical oddities.” He added that he believes the goal is to hurt Pocketpair financially. It’s unclear exactly how much the game has earned so far, but it has already 19 million players shortly after the premiere, including through Game Pass as part of an agreement with Microsoft.
It remains to be seen what ultimately comes out when Nintendo goes public with its case against Pocketpair. In the meantime, the company is keeping its cards close to its vest. “We filed this lawsuit at this time after thoroughly reviewing the content that is the subject of this lawsuit,” the statement said. “We will refrain from commenting on topics related to the content of the lawsuit.”
