• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Palworld removes Pal Sphere summons amidst lawsuit over Nintendo patents

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
palworld-12-08-24-1.jpg

The new v0.3.11 update for the game has removed the ability to summon Pals by throwing a Pal Sphere. Now, players summon their Pals by holding out the Pal Sphere, which summons their Pals directly next to them.

Before the update and the big change, players could throw their Pal Spheres out to summon their Pals just like another popular monster collecting game series, Pokemon, which a lot of fans speculate is the reason behind this unexpected change.

Nintendo’s ongoing lawsuit with Palworld developer Pocket Pair seeks an injunction and damages totaling roughly 10 million JPY (approximately $65,000 USD). The injunction is where Nintendo wants Palworld pulled from the market, due to the alleged similarities in the game to patents Nintendo filed.

Source
 
M

mdkirby

Gold Member
Sounds like a poor solution from a gameplay perspective. Could have achieved the same as prior, but having you hold the sphere out, point where you want the pal to appear, and it then cast a teleportation like a lazer gun at where the pal will appear. Nothing is thrown, but it achieves the outcome that you would get if you had.
 
M

Mayar

Member
Griffon said:
Fuck Nintendo.

Attacking indies using dodgy patents. Just make better Pokemon games and let people decide which game is best, you fucks.
Click to expand...

At the Nintendo office after reading your comment:
face crying GIF


The fact that they have already started making changes to the game basically suggests that there is a 99% chance that they will make peace with Nintendo and not fight them.
 
M

Mayar

Member
Topher said:
Amazing that people cheer for Nintendo in cases like this.
Click to expand...
No one is happy about this and everyone is already pretty tired of Nintendo (in terms of their lawyers). Another issue is that we actually see statements over and over again, "We will fight, the truth is on our side," and then there is silence and we see how they quietly fix the game with patches. No one wants to fight them, and if the developers themselves don't want to fight them, we can be as indignant as we want, it won't affect anything.
 
Impotaku

Impotaku

Member
If Nintendo win they should use that money to hire some talented programmers for gamefreak, it’s 2024 and gamefreaks shitty output looks laughably basic.

The only half decent Pokemon game on switch is snap.
 
S

Scrawnton

Member
The next update will shut the servers down if Nintendo has their way.

The designs and style flew too close the the sun of being straight ripoffs of actual Pokemon designs. Nintendo sees this as damaging and threatening their brand. Nintendo is just issuing the patents as the legal avenue to kill Palworld outright.
 
Last edited:
cireza

cireza

Member
Impotaku said:
If Nintendo win they should use that money to hire some talented programmers for gamefreak, it’s 2024 and gamefreaks shitty output looks laughably basic.

The only half decent Pokemon game on switch is snap.
Click to expand...
Kids don't care. My kid is 10 and he loves Pokemon on Switch in its current state. What can you do against this ?

There might be a small hope for him though, after playing whatever Pokemon game he has on Switch, he asked to go back to 3DS for the next game. But many kids will start with the Switch games and be happy with them.
 
Last edited:
Zacfoldor

Zacfoldor

Member
Griffon said:
Fuck Nintendo.

Attacking indies using dodgy patents. Just make better Pokemon games and let people decide which game is best, you fucks.
Click to expand...
Who would have ever imagined "Pokemon with Guns" would infringe on Pokemon?

Confused Thinking GIF


We need a brand new IP that is safe from Nintendo.

My vote is a new game I like to call "Zelda with Guns".

By the way, have you seen the new Disney movie "Mickey Mouse With Guns" it's great. Disney would never sue over that because they are an honorable company, right?
 
Impotaku

Impotaku

Member
cireza said:
Kids don't care. My kid is 10 and he loves Pokemon on Switch in its current state. What can you do against this ?

There might be a small hope for him though, after playing whatever Pokemon game he has on Switch, he asked to go back to 3DS for the next game. But many kids will start with the Switch games and be happy with them.
Click to expand...
Sadly it’s true, kids don’t care. The adults that still play Pokemon have been used to low quality from gamefreak for decades when they are that into it they will forgive a lot.

Only possible way would be for Nintendo to take it off gamefreak and make the whole thing themselves make it so high quality that it’s stands waaaay apart from the usual ones if a really well made one got released it might shake them awake to see what they have been putting up with. However it’s tricky as I doubt gamefreak would let Nintendo do that with the whole part ownership triangle that Pokemon is under.

However back in reality gamefreak will continue as normal as half assed efforts rake in millions, profit most devs could only dream of.
 
Last edited:
BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
Zacfoldor said:
Who would have ever imagined "Pokemon with Guns" would infringe on Pokemon?
Click to expand...

If Nintendo felt they could win on the actual offense (taking the Pokemon look and art style), the guns would actually help, because it could be argued they were creating confusion associating Nintendo's brand with guns.

But yeah, Nintendo decided to mess with them over this patent instead, even though I don't think they really gave a shit about that, it probably just seemed like the best attack.

Nintendo probably has a lot of patents that games are breaking right now, the patents are kinda bullshit and N doesn't care anyway because those games aren't leeching off their IP, but if they were...
 
Saber

Saber

Member
I honestly don't see anything good commemorating or defending Nintendo in this case. If they can play dirty doing very recent patents, then theres nothing to stop them from basically suing everybody. Must remind people that this patent is beyond Pal World and can affect anything that comes closer to "throwing balls". I'm incredibly surpirsed theres people actually siding with them, as if they give 2 fucks about them.

RagnarokIV said:
Next the characters won't be able to walk or run, but rather 'glide' over the floor with their feet in a static position.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't suprised me if Nintendo create a patent about walking and running in 2025 and people would still side witht them saying that "they invented walking and running".
 
Last edited:
Itchy Tickles

Itchy Tickles

Member
Dunno what's worse, Nintendo with their God complex or the bleeding asshole licking fancunts. Bet they can tell you the size and taste the bottom of each Nintendo managers shoe is like.

Being a die hard fan is 1 thing, but purposely being ignorant to their shite and warping reality to make them victims and heroes is just too much. You are mentally compromised / underdeveloped at this point.
 
BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
Saber said:
I honestly don't see anything good commemorating or defending Nintendo in this case. If they can play dirty doing very recent patents, then theres nothing to stop them from basically suing everybody. Must remind people that this patent is beyond Pal World and can affect anything that comes closer to "throwing balls". I'm incredibly surpirsed theres people actually siding with them, as if they give 2 fucks about them.



Wouldn't suprised me if Nintendo create a patent about walking and running in 2025 and people would still side witht them saying that "they invented walking and running".
Click to expand...

It's a weird issue. I think the patents are BS, but I don't think the reason they are targeting Palword is BS.

I wanna say that if Nintendo was really patent happy and tried going after everyone breaking their overly broad patents, they would get smacked and lose a lot of them. But, I don't think they really want to anyway. They just want to hurt Pocketpair because they stole Pokemon's art style, and this is their best ammo.

This is controversial, but if someone stole from me, I couldn't prove it, and they smugly trolled me and brandished it to the world. I'd use any legal avenue I did have to beat them up.

I think Palworld is a good game, they just need to put away the Pokemon visual design elements and make their own instead. Had they done that, I doubt we'd be talking about throwing balls today. They never went apeshit over Digimon.
 
Saber

Saber

Member
Euler007 said:
And people accept shit quality like this as if they're three guys in a basement programming their first game, when they're making hundred of millions in yearly profits. The professional fluffers like Serebii are always there to pretend this is acceptable.
Click to expand...

Serebii is a retarded and admited being an autist when he stupidly trying to mock people saying moronic stuff only to be criticized for his lack of knowledge, which resulted in him insulting members on Reera. But since he is "protected" he was left unpunished when things that he said would result members permanently banned. Don't waste your time on craps like him neither his site, he lives from other people work and even though he is on this market for ages he still incredibly stupid about Pokemon.

BlackTron said:
It's a weird issue. I think the patents are BS, but I don't think the reason they are targeting Palword is BS.

I wanna say that if Nintendo was really patent happy and tried going after everyone breaking their overly broad patents, they would get smacked and lose a lot of them. But, I don't think they really want to anyway. They just want to hurt Pocketpair because they stole Pokemon's art style, and this is their best ammo.

This is controversial, but if someone stole from me, I couldn't prove it, and they smugly trolled me and brandished it to the world. I'd use any legal avenue I did have to beat them up.

I think Palworld is a good game, they just need to put away the Pokemon visual design elements and make their own instead. Had they done that, I doubt we'd be talking about throwing balls today. They never went apeshit over Digimon.
Click to expand...

But thats the thing and ignorant people still roots for them. This is not about Palwolrd, it's about doing patent over simplistic used mechanics. I may be talking about balls, buts its so generic that could basically include everything.
And we all know Nintendo didn't born yesterday. They don't want to win a full fledged war(against everybody), they want to win little conflicts over and over. It's their strategy and one of maneveurs teach on conflict management, which is about winning the case little by little.
This may look like it's about Palworld, but it's about securing their perfect place in industry where they could hurt a multitude of companies if they wanted.
 
Last edited:
BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
Saber said:
But thats the thing and ignorant people still roots for them. This is not about Palwolrd, it's about doing patent over simplistic used mechanics. I may be talking about balls, buts its so generic that could basically include everything.
And we all know Nintendo didn't born yesterday. They don't want to win a full fledged war(against everybody), they want to win little conflicts over and over. It's their strategy and one of maneveurs teach on conflict managents, which is about winning the case little by little.
This may look like it's about Palworld, but it's about securing their perfect place in industry where they could hurt a multitude the companies if they wanted.
Click to expand...

I guess it's a disagreement of perception. I think Nintendo wants to be able to (successfully) sue anyone they want, sure. But, I don't think they really want to, unless you steal from them.
 
BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
Reizo Ryuu said:
If you can't prove it, then nothing was stolen.
Click to expand...

The first hypothetical in my stated scenario was if something was stolen.

If something was stolen, it was stolen. Proving it is a different matter. If I see you steal something off my porch, but I have no cameras or any way to prove what I saw, did you suddenly not really do it? That's a joke son.

The controversy comes from the idea of getting someone on "something else", like how they got Al Capone on tax evasion. The fact that they couldn't prove he had anyone killed in court doesn't mean that he didn't. It could be argued that if he hadn't committed so many crimes, they wouldn't have hit him with so many counts of tax evasion to bring him down. Yet, they had a legally viable way to do it and they took it. He effectively was pinned for tax evasion, because he was a killer.

Again, I realize this is controversial, but the fact they couldn't get enough evidence to get him for what they really wanted, doesn't mean it did not take place IRL.

Edit: Just to wrap up my point. Yeah, if you steal something off my porch, and smugly brandish how I can't prove it, but I have other leverage on you that you are unaware of. I'm going to destroy you with it.
 
Last edited:
R

Reizo Ryuu

Member
BlackTron said:
If something was stolen, it was stolen. Proving it is a different matter. If I see you steal something off my porch, but I have no cameras or any way to prove what I saw, did you suddenly not really do it? That's a joke son.
Click to expand...
that's a fallacious example, you're talking about a physical object being removed from your possession, which is proof in itself that something was stolen or at the very least taken, since it's no longer in your possession; so again if you can't prove something was stolen then it's not stolen.
 
Last edited:
BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
Reizo Ryuu said:
that's a fallacious example, you're talking about a physical object being removed from your possession, which is proof in itself that something was stolen or at the very least taken, since it's no longer in your possession; so again if you can't prove something was stolen then it's not stolen.
Click to expand...

The only reason I used a physical object is because it's simpler to understand. Your explanation doesn't make sense; if an object is no longer in your possession, you could have sold it, given it to someone else, a different party could have stolen it, or the wind could have blown it away. In the case of this make believe object on my porch, lacking cameras or other evidence, all I have is that I saw it happen, and it's your word against mine, especially if you already liquidated the item. The fact that it even ever existed can't necessarily be proven.

In the case of Palworld, it's apparent to anyone with a set of eyeballs that Pokemon's design and style were simply ripped. Elements like eyes are just copied 1:1, sometimes with a color change, but not always. Pokemon didn't do this Dragon Quest, nor did Digimon do this to Pokemon. I'm willing to say that regardless of whatever court is hearing it says, I'd need to be blind not to see they intentionally took from Pokemon to leech off its popularity -and then openly mocked Nintendo for it, which is asking to get smacked.

I'm pretty sure most people aren't blind, they just think it's cool for small companies to "stick it" to big companies, but TBH they all deserve the same protection for their original work.
 
R

Reizo Ryuu

Member
BlackTron said:
Your explanation doesn't make sense; if an object is no longer in your possession, you could have sold it, given it to someone else, a different party could have stolen it, or the wind could have blown it away.
Click to expand...
Try reading again, I said being removed from your possession, as in it's taken, selling something or gifting it doesn't mean being removed, it's giving it up voluntarily. 🙄
The "eyes" example is dumb as bricks because almost every pokemon has different eye design, some are solid colours, some are human like, some have arches, some are slits, some are angled etc. etc., and all of them have been done a billion times already in other anime/manga, there's nothing that can be "stolen" there. Their own artstyle keeps constantly changing as well, in 1995 pikachu was a neckless fat litte rat with tiny red cheeks, then when it gained popularity and was chosen as he mascot they dialed up the cuteness factor and now it looks sleek with big red cheeks instead.

They can't prove anything has been stolen, because there hasn't and now they are salty as fuck so they are resorting to petty tricks out of spite.
 
BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
Reizo Ryuu said:
that's a fallacious example, you're talking about a physical object being removed from your possession, which is proof in itself that something was stolen or at the very least taken, since it's no longer in your possession; so again if you can't prove something was stolen then it's not stolen.
Click to expand...
BlackTron said:
Your explanation doesn't make sense; if an object is no longer in your possession, you could have sold it, given it to someone else, a different party could have stolen it, or the wind could have blown it away.
Click to expand...
Reizo Ryuu said:
Try reading again, I said being removed from your possession, as in it's taken, selling something or gifting it doesn't mean being removed, it's giving it up voluntarily. 🙄
Click to expand...

Dude your circular logic makes my head hurt. I sincerely hope you are being intentionally obtuse just to mess with me.
 
M

Mayar

Member
mckmas8808 said:
Have they changed anything else yet?
Click to expand...
If it helps them avoid problems in court, then that's more than enough. I don't think they'll rework anything else unless it directly promises problems in court. And as I understand it, the algorithm of Spheres and catching Monsters was the main problem and the subject of the patent.
 
M

Mayar

Member
Here the interesting point is whether they do it themselves or by agreement with Nintendo in order to close the case out of court. Because if Nintendo's lawyers are in a really bad mood, they can in principle use this in court according to the principle: "Look, this guys realized that they were wrong and fixed it before the court", and for this they can already ask for money. Since at the time of making changes to the game they were already involved in the case and the case was in court, therefore, theoretically, they could not make changes to the product without the consent of both parties or permission from the court.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Pocketpair (Palworld devs) - Report on Patent Infringement Lawsuit
News
33
2K
Tertullian replied
[Gamerant] Nintendo's Lawsuit May Not Have Far-Reaching Consequences For Palworld
Opinion
10
1K
Topher replied
Palworld Lawsuit patent details; as vague as "press A to jump". Nintendo has lost their minds
43
4K
VGEsoterica replied
Sega files patent infringement lawsuit against Memento Mori developer over in-game mechanics, seeking 1 billion yen in damages
News
5
651
nowhat replied
Phil Spencer interview - Says that their intent is for all Xbox games, including Call of Duty, to be available on Xbox Game Pass Day One
2 3
102
10K
Kenneth Haight replied
Top Bottom