Nintendo has filed over 30 Tears of the Kingdom patents, registering things you wouldn't even notice in the game
Nintendo has filed over 30 Tears of the Kingdom patents, registering things you wouldn't even notice in the game
This article takes the interesting perspective of an anti-consumer bootlicker.
Full text:
Nintendo appears to be on a patent-registering spree as it files over 30 patents related to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
As reported by Automaton, from July 10 - August 4, Nintendo made public a total of 32 patents - 31 of those relating to Tears of the Kingdom. It's not rare or even surprising for Nintendo to claim ownership of its ideas and prevent anyone from copying its homework but the amount of patents, as well as what exactly it is Nintendo has decided to patent, is what's interesting about this lot of filings.
For instance, Link's Ultrahand and Fuse abilities, some of the game's mechanics, NPCs' abilities, and even its loading screens have all been filed for patent by Nintendo. Some of the other elements of the game Nintendo wants to keep safe include Riju’s lightning attack and some of the technical elements of the game that allow Link to interact with the world around him (eg: standing on moving objects, gripping onto ledges, etc.)
It's interesting to see what Nintendo wants to keep for itself in potential future iterations of the Zelda series or just its other games in general - especially since the majority of these things would go totally unnoticed by the average player. We've seen a lot of patents linked to well, Link, in the past but this is the first bout we've found after the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, so they probably don't hint towards anything in terms of future content.
It actually makes a lot of sense why Nintendo would be so protective over the inner workings of its game (although this isn't limited to just Tears of the Kingdom or Zelda games in general). For starters, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has already sold two-thirds of what Breath of the Wild managed in six years - just in case you forgot, the Breath of the Wild sequel was released less than three months ago. So it's probably fair that Nintendo doesn't want anyone stealing its ideas for their own games.
This just ain’t how patent law works.
Nintendo has IP lawyers. They have to, at their scale, because they will constantly be bombarded by patent trolls, licensing companies etc. trying to extract profit out of Nintendo. So, like any other large business, they hire IP lawyers to protect themselves.
Most patent disagreements are resolved by cross-licensing. That’s where one business says, in response to a law suit, “oh, but you’re actually using 6 of our patents, so maybe we can come to an agreement”. A patent is both a shield and a sword. Even against trolls they can be useful, as they can be used to argue against troll arguments, if it gets to court, or pull in other business to the defense, if helpful.
IP lawyers know this. So they extract every patent they can out of everything a company does, as a way to build up the IP bank.
So, I highly doubt “Nintendo wants to prevent others” bla bla. It’s just IP lawyers doing their job.
I’ve sat in MANY discovery sessions with IP lawyers where they push and prod at software I, or my team, have written. “So, what you’ve effectively done is written a unique data structure to connect elements in memory?!”, “no, it’s a linked list, next question please”.
It takes an anti-consumer boot locker perspective while not listing a single patent. Some shitposts have more actual content than this article.
Here's the original article:
https://automaton-media.com/en/news/20230808-20590/
Sounds like Nintendo wants to go on a litigation spree.
A related patent defines a mechanic that prevents Link from grabbing an object he is on top of using Ultrahand, which also seems rather intuitive. The patent does, however, go into details such as the mechanic also blocking Link from using Ultrahand on objects which have been joined to an object he is on top of.
The word "obvious" comes to mind.
“a game processing method capable of enriching game presentation during a waiting period in which at least part of the game processing is interrupted” and consists of filling up the loading period that ensues after the user inputs their fast travel destination with a sequence in which an image of the starting point’s map transitions into a map of the destination. After this sequence, the character is placed into the virtual space of the destination.
So, that thing films have been doing for decades?
I hope the patent examiners have some sense in their heads when considering these.
I will say that map loading screen thing is obvious but I've never seen it before in a video game and it was a small detail I really loved.
Would these parents hold up in court?
Assuming that these patents are all granted, courts will generally treat them as though they are valid and enforceable. However, the bar for getting a patent is generally rather difficult, so it could be the case that none of these patent prosecutions are successful at all. If they get these patents, all Nintendo would have to do is file an infringement against allegedly infringing parties, and then the onus is almost entirely on the responding party to prove either that they did not violate the patent, or that the patent was invalid in the first place. Nintendo loses almost nothing in trying to enforce a patent, and has plenty to gain from the chilling effect that prolonged litigation could have.
Everytime I hear something new about nintendo I like them less. Which sucks because I know there's no chance of kirby going anywhere else without emulation.