Didn’t know where else to post or go to but Nintendo just got two patents in the USA for gliding and other mechanics found in World of Warcraft. Don’t think this is right or fair because such mechanics existed before pal world existed. So this causes an issue for anyone who uses it like WoW. See Dragon Flying (has glide mechanics) Drachtyr and Demon Hunters being able to glide.
Tried to post links but the forums here wont allow it, so i guess just type in “Nintendo patents against palworld USA” or something like that.
I don’t think there is much that can be done or said about it here in Customer Support.
And truthfully, Nintendo is trying to compete against Pocketpair in Japan, basically Japanese company on Japanese company, so I don’t think Blizzard would be effected much by these either.
EDIT: Also, the patent Nintendo is trying to go after doesn’t effect Blizzard or World of Warcraft, but other large gaming companies Like Ubisoft, would be effected.
But still, this isn’t something Customer Support can address or get involved in. If you wish to have a discussion about this, you could edit the thread and move it to Games, Gaming and Hardware subforums.
Usually things like this aren’t quite what they seem from the headlines. It’s usually more like they are patenting a very specific way of doing it, not “gliding” in games in general. #NotALawyer#NotLegalAdvice
Nintendo isn’t likely dumb enough to go after other massive companies with patent trolling. The only reason why the Palworld devs are caving about things is because they are a small studio and don’t want to deal with all the time and legal fees involved in fighting it, even if the results ended in their favor. Actiblizz has an armada sized legal team, I’m sure they aren’t worried.
US courts also take a pretty dim view of the strategy of “see a competitor is using a game mechanic successfully, then patent it, then sue for patent infringement”.
That tends to get the respective patents invalidated.
The legal battles you’re talking about are taking place in Japan. They aren’t going to affect anything outside of there. Blizzard isn’t a Japanese developer so there isn’t anything to worry about WOW-wise.
As with what others say, this goes deeper then what folks assume are that youtubers repeat. Much of what folks see on the surface is far more detail if you get into how game making and systems work in the legal sense.
I mean I figured nothing would happen with wow or any microsoft related game as long as the patents and court was fought exclusively in Japan. But seeing how they got 2 patents in the USA and are trying to get more recently it makes me concerned.
Prior art is also a thing though. WOW has had some form of gliding since 2004 for example. And if Nintendo thinks BOTW is an example, well DH’s came out before that.
I don’t really understand why we as players need to worry about this at all. Even if Blizzard gets involved, there’s nothing we as players can do about it. The big kids with their big lawyers will fight it out and probably nothing will change in game. If it does, that’d likely be years from now and, again, nothing we can really do about it.
I guess if you feel strongly about it, you can boycott Nintendo or something like that, or contribute to that smaller company’s legal defense. I’m not sure Blizzard would allow discussion of that on their forums at all, but if it is permitted, Customer Support isn’t really the place, as has already been suggested.
Edit: personally, I have issues with software patents in general, and that may be something worth addressing legislatively if you feel strongly about it, but Blizzard forums are definitely not the place for that discussion.
I never actually worry about these kinds of things. Simply put I try to adhere to “don’t stress over things I have no control over”- which don’t get me wrong it’s not always easy for me to do but for this stuff it is.
the problem is stuff like this does affect the gaming industry. take the nemesis system that was a really cool game mechanic and now is collecting dust because the company that owns the patent is doing nothing with it.