Nintendo granted U.S. patent for summoning a character and letting it fight another
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have been granted two significant gameplay patents in the United States, a move that is being viewed as part of a broader, aggressive legal strategy that has sparked concern across the video game industry.
The more shocking of the two patents, U.S. Patent No. 12,403,397 granted on the 2nd of September, covers the fundamental gameplay mechanic of summoning a secondary character and having it fight another.
This system, which is already in use as the “Let’s Go” feature in the games Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, describes a process where a player character can deploy a “sub-character” to automatically battle enemies in the field.
The patent includes the following scope:
(1) A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program, the game program causing a processor of an information processing apparatus to execute:
(2) performing control of moving a player character on a field in a virtual space, based on a movement operation input;
(3) performing control of causing a sub character to appear on the field, based on a first operation input, and
(4) when an enemy character is placed at a location where the sub character is caused to appear, controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a first mode in which the battle proceeds based on an operation input, and
(5) when the enemy character is not placed at the location where the sub character is caused to appear, starting automatic control of automatically moving the sub character that has appeared; and
(6) performing control of moving the sub character in a predetermined direction on the field, based on a second operation input, and, when the enemy character is placed at a location of a designation, controlling a battle between the sub character and the enemy character by a second mode in which the battle automatically proceeds.
Industry analysts have expressed alarm over the patent’s broad scope, with Florian Mueller of the media outlet games fray stating that it “poses a fundamental threat to creativity and innovation in the games industry.”
The concern is that this patents a very basic and widely used concept, which could have a chilling effect on other games that feature similar “summon and battle” mechanics.
This move comes as Nintendo is engaged in an ongoing lawsuit in Japan against Pocketpair, the developer of the hit game Palworld.
While this specific “summon and fight” patent is not currently one of the patents being disputed in that case, it is seen as part of a pattern of “lawfare” from Nintendo, which has been amending and acquiring patents that could be used against competitors.
A second patent, granted earlier today, covers a “smooth switching of riding objects” mechanic.
This patent is seen as less of an immediate threat, as Pocketpair has reportedly already worked around this specific feature in the current version of Palworld.
However, the patents are viewed by some as “legal pollution” of the market, which could make the games industry increasingly litigious.
Source: games fray
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