152 points

Lame. Thanks, Nintendo. Got forbid you actually try to outcompete.

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106 points

“Don’t innovate, litigate!”

-Nintendo

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0 points
*

“Don’t care, just buy”

- Gamers

Anti Commercial-AI license

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104 points

These primarily cover throwing an object in a specific direction to either summon a battle character or to capture a creature in the field - mechanics Palworld shared with Pokémon at launch.

sounds like a mechanic found in a number of video games.

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17 points

Like what? I can’t think of one off the top of my head.

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54 points

You could argue against anything involving throwing a net to capture something, like monster hunter for the small fauna. Ark has “cryo pods” that function basically like pokeballs.

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53 points

in minecraft you throw eggs to hatch chickens

ghostbusters, throwing trap to catch ghosts

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22 points

Bulma keeps machinery in tiny capsules

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21 points

They should go after Rockstar for the mechanic of throwing a rope at an animal to catch it, if this is the criteria. Ridiculous.

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18 points

The VG made by pocketpair before the patent was issued for one.

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14 points

Summoning a dedra in skyrim?

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5 points

You don’t throw an object for that, you cast a spell, and I don’t remember being able to target it, but then I never really used those spells.

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14 points

Ratchet and Clank’s glove of doom fits the bill

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7 points

Does Ghostbusters count?

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5 points

Helldivers has this, I believe. if a teammate dies then you have to throw an object to summon down a drop pod at a specific location

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2 points

Uh, nets IRL for starters, but there are shitloads of games with capture and summon mechanics ranging from Ghost Busters to ARK to Ratchet and Clank to fucking Skyrim.

Edit: Downvote all you want, but don’t ask the question if you don’t want the answer.

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-1 points

Interesting, every example people have given you in response is pretty weak. (I’m not saying I agree with Nintendo have any exclusive claim here.)

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13 points
*

That’s the weird thing. It doesn’t seem to matter. The patent was filed after PalWorld was released. I’m guessing this is some quirk of Japan’s patent system I’m unfamiliar with.

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10 points

That’s because it is, Pokemon didn’t come up with it, they just made it popular.

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62 points
*

What a sad sad outcome. Patenting game mechanics should not be legal.

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12 points

It isn’t in the US but is in Japan where the companies are based.

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9 points

It’s still somewhat protected in the US. The big one in table top gaming was tap mechanics from Magic. That expired in 2014 though. In video games the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor/war is also patented.

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6 points

Loading screen mini games are also patented. That’s why loading screens never have mini games. Less of an issue now that game devs have begun avoiding loading screens, but they were extremely common in older generations and they never had mini games to pass the time.

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7 points

Erm, acktchually! I think Nintendo is pretty cringe here, not based!

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

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2 points

Take this vote and leave before I change my mind

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10 points

*Patenting

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2 points

Oh, thanks. Corrected it

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53 points

Make it so you launch the ball thing from a sling shot, that’s not throwing the object and it fits the universe

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20 points

This is the answer right here. There’s even a few late game items for this. The just need to readjust the costs for those launchers. Make them available early mid game.

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10 points

Literally just change the throw animation to use a weaker looking slingshot than whatever the current weakest one is.

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1 point

The current weakest one is a bazooka.

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49 points

It’s a shame the Wii U didn’t bankrupt Nintendo.

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18 points

Nintendo could afford to release 10 failed consoles in a row and still keep going, that was the case back when the Wii U released as well

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2 points

A shame they didn’t

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1 point

This constantly gets repeated, but I’ve yet to see proof of it.

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4 points
*

Proof of what? Nintendo having a shit-ton of money? I don’t understand why you would even need a source of that, but sure, here’s one

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2 points

as of March 2024 Nintendo has $14.87 Billion in cash on hand.

in comparison in March of 2024 Apple had $162 Billion.

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1 point

They’re publically traded, their finances are public, the Wii and Switch secured the company for decades

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7 points

I do wonder if the steam deck exists in this alternate timeline you propose

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9 points

It probably does with detachable controllers.

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5 points

No, but we do have a proper Nvidia Shield Portable 2.

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1 point

We got Tears of the Kingdom, but at what cost?

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4 points

Poor frame rate

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