You may recall that back in 2018, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against mobile games developer Colopl for around 4.4 billion yen ($41.7 million). It's not going away anytime soon – having entered multiple hearings – and now, Nintendo has raised that figure to 4.95 billion yen ($46.9 million).
As reported via Famitsu, this increase comes down to how long the case has gone on for. Initial charges go all the way back to 2016, before Nintendo escalated matters into a lawsuit.
Accusing Colopl of infringing on six patents within RPG White Cat Project (A.K.A Shironeko Project), that included one for using a joystick over a touchpad, in a similar fashion to the Nintendo DS Wrist Strap. As a result, changes to the control scheme were announced last year.
Naturally, Colopl believes they've done nothing to infringe on Nintendo's patents and will continue contesting these charges, recently stating:
We are confident that our game will never infringe Nintendo's patent rights, and we will continue to assert the validity of that view.
Remarkably, this lawsuit didn't stop Colopl from announcing Shironeko New Project for Switch back in 2018, which Nintendo confirmed it wouldn't block. Initially scheduled for 2020, the sequel has since been delayed, and a new release date remains unconfirmed.
[source gonintendo.com, via famitsu.com]
Comments 26
for a second i thought this was an announcement for a new ace attorney game
It doesn't seem much has fundamentally changed regarding this case in the last 3 years. Nintendo Life has the right to make an article about whatever they want, though I don't fully appreciate why they bothered with this. I'm glad they did because it made me aware of the 2018 article, but it's just weird.
@Panagiotis
Same. I was so excited. I guess Nick makes a pretty great visual for any game court cases, so it's understandable but I'm still disappointed.
@TripleJump That Nintendo is now demanding additional damages is significant news.
Is it weird that I feel kinda bad for this company getting bombarded by Nintendo? lol
The DS thumb nub strap thingy was genius. Metroid Hunters genuinely felt like keyboard / mouse controls. Not surprised they patented it. So simple, it was much better than tapping glass.
I'm new to this lawsuit I wasn't around nintendolife at the time LOL.
@TripleJump @Panagiotis they have announced a new 3ds port. Well ones been rated, I think!
I honestly don't understand this lawsuit...
Well crap happens and this seems like more crap.
**** patents.
Just **** em.
@Panagiotis Why? only thing to do with Ace is the picture, first words are Nintendo demands!
@gcunit I hate it too..
I feel like if Nintendo wins here then these people are going to be in debt for life.
I get why they're doing it but man. This is so harsh. Granted I don't know a lick about the developers so for all I know they're super wealthy and this could be easily affordable for them but somehow I very much doubt that's the case.
Wow, never even knew you could use a DS wrist strap like that!
@gcunit Indeed. I want to be able to coast through life and use everyone else's clever ideas for my own gain too.
Gaming patents are stupid.
Seems everybody's suing everybody these days. Does a lawsuit even mean anything anymore?
@GrailUK You sure you don't want to compete and fight with people? Why collaborate and cooperate when you can squash and hate? **** open source, amirite?
@gcunit Cooperation makes stuff happen )
@Yosher
I am not sure how these things work in Japan, but if it is anything like the USA, Colopl would be a limited liability corporation and it would be the corporation, not the individual developers, who would owe Nintendo the money. If the corporation couldn’t afford to pay, it would declare bankruptcy and the individual owners of the company would not be liable for the company’s debt to Nintendo.
Anyways, I am not a lawyer and certainly not a Japanese lawyer, but I sincerely doubt the owners of Colopl will have to pay Nintendo back personally. Either the company will pay or the company will go under (assuming Nintendo wins of course).
For clarification, lemme explain this lawsuit. Nintendo usually doesn't do anything regarding patent infringement knowing that they are a gaming giant. They have said numerous times that they allow the smaller developers to use their patents without licensing. This has basically been an act of benevolence on Nintendo's end. (Like, think about how 80% of all games would disappear if Nintendo would start to interfere with all 'mario-like' platformers and 'zelda-like' action adventures)
The reason why Nintendo sued Colopl is because Colopl twicked Nintendo's patent and registered as their own (Known as Puni-con). Colopl intervened with any other companies using the technology and ask for money, claiming the patent was their own. This acts against what Nintendo wanted to do, by prohibiting the smaller developer's usage of the technology. Nintendo can be rightfully mad on this topic. They sorta settled down on this issue back in 2018 by Colopl changing their control method and announcing that their next game will be on the Switch. That project got canceled in 2019.
I honestly think Nintendo should stand strong on this issue. Colopl is just a bad company. They have been caught manipulating their sales stats in the past as well. Nintendo have warned them 2 years in advance before making things official. Colopl has no say in this.
@ItsTamo1234 I didn't understand what was actually going on with the lawsuit, so thank you for clarifying.
I have been biting my tongue to reply to so many posts on this site regarding Nintendo and Lawsuits. I wish my reply was actually a full article on its own on this site and many other gaming sites. Trademark, Patent and Copyright infringement are very serious issues. Lets take trademarks... One particular thing most Gamers dont understand, is when you hold a Trademark you must proactively pursue all infringement cases or else risk losing the Trademark. That is the law! Trust me! I owned a trademark for 10 years and I let it expire because I couldn’t keep up with people infringing on It. I didn’t have a corporate lawyer like Nintendo’s Kirby. When it expires, that means its public knowledge/ domain and anyone has access to it... including your competitors! Nintendo is forced by law to pursue all cases. Just as I was. This is just to hold the Trademark, let alone all the profit and recognition damages that may occur. Patent and Copyrights have their own set of processes you must uphold! I honestly feel like gaming sites should probably run an article on infringement since there are so many cases of it in the gaming industry.
@ItsTamo1234
Shironeko New Project latest news both from western and japanese media said that the game for Nintendo Switch was delayed indefinitely but not canceled. It was from 2019 but no news about it until now. Though of course from this case, it is hard to see the game come to reality soon. The game concept still up and running on their official website:
https://colopl.co.jp/shironekonewproject/
and here is the official press release regarding the game latest update:
https://colopl.co.jp/news/pressrelease/2019121202.php
@Miu I don't remember if you had that avatar & username when you first started posting on this site, but I wouldn't have recognised it. But I am currently working my way through World End Syndrome, so now I get it - cool avatar!
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