For real. What will a Switch 2 do that a Steam deck (or one of its several competitors) won’t? There are still switch emulators, and there will be switch 2 emulators.
Man, I learned a TON about the Caribbean sea islands and colonial era big cities from Pirates on the NES. Countless hours spent pouring over this map to find hidden treasure and hunt down leads
Also even for people who want they can just get a gaming handheld and then gain access to a bunch of games which rarely cost $80 even when they’re brand new. Buying a Switch 2 just isn’t a financially sensible decision for anyone regardless of how much money you have in your bank account
I’d argue it is financially sensible if you want one. Current price may be the lowest it’s ever been, with increasing prices for RAM and storage. There’s only so much stock they have bought previously.
Running the first claim of the invention through Google Translate yields this massive run-on sentence description:
The computer causes a player character in a virtual space to take a stance to release a capture item when a first category group including a plurality of types of capture items for capturing a field character placed on a field in a virtual space is selected based on an operation input of pressing an operation button, and causes a player character in the virtual space to take a stance to release the capture item when a second category group including a plurality of types of combat characters that engage in combat is selected, and determines an aiming direction in the virtual space based on a directional input, and further selects the capture item included in the first category group when the first category group is selected, and the combat character included in the second category group when the second category group is selected, based on an operation input using an operation button different from the operation button , and causes the player character in the virtual space to take a stance to release the capture item when a first category group including a plurality of types of capture items for capturing a field character placed on a field in a virtual space is selected, and determines an aiming direction in the virtual space based on an operation input using an operation button different from the operation button, A game program which, based on an operation input of releasing the operation button pressed when having the player character perform an action, has the player character perform an action of releasing the selected capture item in the aiming direction if the capture item is selected, and has the player character perform an action of releasing the selected combat character in the aiming direction if the combat character is selected, and when the capture item is released and hits the field character, makes a capture success determination as to whether the capture is successful, and when the capture success determination is judged to be positive, sets the field character hit by the capture item to a state where it is owned by the player, and when the combat character is released to a location where it can fight with the field character, starts a fight on the field between the combat character and the field character.
Essentially, Nintendo has a patent on video games that involve throwing a capsule device at characters in a virtual space to capture them and initiate battle with them. In other words, they have a patent on the concept of Poké Balls (as they appear and function in Legends Arceus, specifically).
Palworld has “Pal Spheres”, which are basically just Poké Balls with barely legally distinct naming.
If this sounds like an unfairly broad thing for Nintendo to have a patent on, I’m not so sure I agree. It’s not like they’re trying to enforce a blanket patent on all creature collectors. Just the concept of characters physically throwing capsule devices at creatures.
If you think about it, that’s kind of the one thing that sets Pokémon apart from others in the genre. If there’s anything to be protected, that’s it. It’s literally what Pokémon is named after–you put the monster in your pocket, using the capsule you threw at it.
Palworld could have easily dodged this bullet. They claim they aren’t inspired by Pokémon, and that they’re instead inspired by Ark: Survival Evolved. Funny, then, that Ark doesn’t have throwable capsules, yet Palworld decided to add them. I’m not sure I buy their statement. And if this is indeed the patent being violated, I don’t think a court will buy it either.
I’m not trying to be a Pokémon apologist here. I want Palworld to succeed and give Pokémon a run for its money. But looking at the evidence, it’s clear to me Pocketpair flew a little too close to the sun here. And they’re kind of idiots for it.
I’m just surprised they aren’t getting nailed for the alleged blatant asset theft.
Ark has cryopods which do the same thing mechanically, the only major difference being that you don’t visually throw them. If you use the vague wording on the patents surrounding pokemon’s box mechanics, it falls easily under there, since you are storing a captured creature in a digital storage.
Nintendo is the KING of frivolous patents. They’ve lost cases on it before, and with palworld being a sony interest, I don’t think the usual financial bullying nintendo brings to the table is going to cut it on this one. They need an airtight case and their vague patents (and recent history trying to patent THE LOADING SCREEN and vehicle speed matching for player characters with totk being denied) is a bad look for them in a courtroom. Like the US, the holder of a patent in Japan needs to file suits swiftly to protect the patent, or they risk losing cases (like this one. See “laches defense”).
Palworld is back in the top 100 global bestsellers today.
Agreed, guess this is unpopular opinion but palworld just looked like a copycat from the get-go, especially the capture mechanic. It is too similar imo.
There are many games that had that mechanic before Arceus.
In particular, Craftopia (which is from the same developers of Palworld) had capsule devices that you can throw to enemies in a “virtual space” while characters “engage in combat” before Arceus was a thing.
Just because they wrote a patent does not make it enforceable… patents don’t really mean anything until they are actually tested in court so they are just tools to try and scare people away whenever a company wants to bully with the prospect of a lawsuit.
I feel that Palworld is likely to win this, this actually is an idiotic move from Nintendo and a win for Palworld… now they will get more publicity, perhaps another spike in sales, and they are finally given the opportunity to prove how they are in the right, so they can shut up all the naysayers who complained about it. I’m hoping all the paranoic empty claims about “blatant asset theft” will be settled once and for all.
it’s really funny to me how obvious the… “inspiration” of this game is from pokemon, and yet nintendo has been struggling so hard to come up with something to sue them for, like i don’t really care about this in and of itself, but seeing a big company unable to remove a splinter from their toe and copyright unable to be enforced brings me joy.
They want so hard to remove false competition, that is a glorious frustration.
Pokemon is Pokemon, Palworld is Palworld. One trying to claim the other steps on their toes is hilarious. If they have merit, Doom could sue every FPS with monsters.
Stay mad Nintendo/GameFreak, you are a joke and should make better games.
The biggest issue is the price. I remember a time when even the poorest kid in class had a Nintendo because it was cheap.
The last cheap Nintendo was the 2DS over a decade ago. Most parents are looking for cheap hardware with entertainment and there isn’t anything which comes close to it.
Even the switch lite is the same price as the PS3 bundle back in the day. And it came with 2 real controllers and a game.
The handheld PC market has been booming. There’s so many cool products that have been coming out. Personally I’m sticking with more established companies like Steam, Asus, and Lenovo due to being able to get better support , but the creativity of these devices have been incredible to see.
My personal favorite has to be the GPD Win 4 Pro. Brings back the PSP nostalgia and it seems more pocketable than other ones. I’m buying the Lenovo Legion Go but if money was no factor I’d buy the GPD to take on the go.
Gee could it possibly be because there’s absolutely nothing compelling about the product? Everything about it is just crap.
It’s overpriced for what it is, pretty much all of its features are gimmicks and do not demonstrably improve on the original, everyone knows their games are overpriced and never reduce in price, and if you breathe on it in the wrong way Nintendo will sue you for 1100 quadrillion dollars. What’s not to love?
I mean, what is even there to play that you can’t play on Switch 1?
New Mario Kart? Donkey Kong whatever?
I’m sure they’re good games, I just don’t see someone who already owns a Switch buying a whole new system just for them
I think its ridiculous that every console’s controller is $70 or more, but the JoyCons are most ridiculous because they are also built like trash and get terrible stick drift after just a few months.
Joke is on them. I have had every NES and SNES rom ever made. I need to make sure i have every N64 rom (even if I don’t play that often) and now every GameCube.
I still don’t have a Wii emulator or even looked into that.
nintendolife.com
Ważne