Nintendo has filed yet another patent in the US, which is cause for significant concern within the industry as a whole. Throughout its ongoing legal battle with Pocketpair, the developer behind the smash hit Palworld, Nintendo has been filing patents to cover its various iconic mechanics. Of course, one would expect the broader patents to be rejected, yet it would seem that Nintendo has managed to have numerous patents approved that cover general mechanics utilized by a lot of games, Palworld included.
The most worrying patent is Patent No. 12,403,39, which Games Fray revealed has already been granted in the US. The patent covers “sub characters” which refer to summonable companions that can act autonomously or as directed by the player. This patent is not only going to make the Palworld legal issues significantly worse, but it could also have serious impacts on any future creature collection game, or even titles like Elden Ring that utilize summonables.
Nintendo Has Patented Sub Characters
It Basically Owns The Idea Of Summonable Companions
This new patent means that no other games can utilize the concepts and methods outlined within it without risking patent infringement and a potential lawsuit from Nintendo. The patent mostly focuses on the aforementioned sub characters and prevents other developers from having a feature wherein the player can “caus[e] a sub character to appear on the field” and then later “control a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a first mode in which the battle proceeds based on an operation input.“
Essentially, this patent covers the very well-known concept of summoning a Pokémon – or equivalent summonable – and then using it to battle against an enemy. The patent also covers sub characters battling automatically, as we see in games like Elden Ring and Palworld. What is interesting is that, unlike other patents Nintendo has attempted to push through, the United States Patent and Trademark Office raised no issues with this particular patent, granting it without any issues. This is, naturally, hugely concerning for the industry and a lot of indie developers as well.
Nintendo’s New Patent Could Harm Other Games
Elden Ring, Palworld, And More Use This Mechanic
It is pretty clear how this new Nintendo patent could not only worsen Palworld’s lawsuit but also significantly harm future games that fit within the creature collection genre. Digimon titles heavily rely on this premise, as do, to a lesser extent, the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series. As aforementioned, even Elden Ring has a similar mechanic with its summons. It remains to be seen how Nintendo will progress now that it has successfully obtained the patent in the US, but its infamously litigious nature could spell disaster for many.
It is very possible that the Palworld lawsuit was the start of a far greater campaign to take down the competition within this genre, although it should be stated that, prior to Palworld, Nintendo never asserted its dominance over the creature collection genre outside the charts. This patent would certainly give it greater control over it, however, and that could be potentially dangerous for any developer, big or small, attempting to enter the space. The broad nature of Nintendo’s new patent is scary, and one that everyone, from fans to developers, should be wary of.
- Created by
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Satoshi Taijiri, Ken Sugimori, Junichi Masuda
- Latest Film
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Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
- First Episode Air Date
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April 1, 1997
