Nintendo's "Mysterious" Switch Online Playtest Program Gets Another Patent

I did notice I could do that near the end of the playtest period. It made dragging along a bunch of blocks easier.

(Oops, I’m talking about stuff I shouldn’t…oh well)

If it points to another playtest eventually, make it available to more countries than the last one. Make it available in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, other European countries they have the eShop and Nintendo Switch Online in, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, etc.

At this point I think I just listed almost every other country Nintendo has the eShop and Nintendo Switch Online apart from the ones that were able to participate in the last playtest.

Yet another day with Nintendo abusing the patents system to lock up as many vague concepts, scenarios and control schemes as possible.
They don't just want your money; they want ALL the money.

That patent sounds so confusing to read. May be because english isn't my narive language but still...

Nintendo needs to stop doing this. It's bad for the industry as a whole.

@MrCarlos46 You can change your account region to a participating countries region in a few clicks and apply. That's what i did. And changed it back at the end of the playtest.

I'm not sure it even changed anything, maybe currency on the eshop(?).

But yeah it would be great to open it up to more countries instead of forcing people to jump through hoops.

@Wewewi If it wasn't Nintendo it would be another company. Get a grip.

@Wewewi Yup, that's capitalism in a nutshell. You must be new here.

"The industry as a whole" does this too, it's very normal and common. And FAO the news stories about them patenting simply summoning up an enemy to help you were incorrect/misinformation and it's been debunked:

https://www.theverge.com/games/779062/nintendo-pokemon-summoning-battle-patent

Funnily enough the debunking didn't get nearly as much traction and I don't remember all the ragebait YouTube video channels who were frothing at the mouths over that BS covering it.

We've all seen the screens of it - isn't it obvious it's a reskinned Pokopia? They must have reskinned it to keep it secret.

I think the game has some major flaws that I don't know how nintendo will fix them.
when you build a structure, lets say a tower, it's possible that you, by accident, take out a core piece and the whole tower colapses.
This happens quite often actually.

@Dazman
It's 99,9 % not Pokopia.
Pokopia is from a totally different developer and has very different mechanics.
They won't reskin this game, it has already quite polished graphics and it would be a phenomenal waste of energy, time and money to hide a game that doesn't need to be hidden, with a different looking game just to test the online multiplayer.

Very curious what this will all lead to. I hope it'll be a new Doshin the Giant entry.

@Dazman
Footage of the NSO Playtest Program is out there, it plays nothing like Pokemon Pokopia.

The Playtest also looks nothing like Pokopia, but that's a bit less relevant since visuals are more subject to change.

@Dazman Playtest is the Game Builder Garage / Labo developers, not Game Freak or Pokemon Company.

@Simu001
I'm a University educated native English speaker and that is one of the most incoherent sentences I have read so don't sell yourself short!

@MrCarlos46 They did expand the second one and I could participate as a Brazilian. But that's just not my type of game, I couldn't get into it

@dux Even with the additions of Brazil, Canada and Mexico I actually noticed that the list of countries that could participate was still pretty small.

@Sidon_Zora_King Changes eShop language too depending on the region

Lasso Hero Incoming!!!

Anyways, them patenting a mechanic that is so vague is a bit suspect

@Wewewi Typically I’d agree, and initially I was skeptical. Reading through the patent and seeing how it’s actually implemented, I’d say Nintendo has a good case for this one. It’s actually an innovative method of grabbing multiple items and moving them in real space.

Never let it be forgotten that Nintendo is a massive patent troll.

In japan, they are infamous for this. Most Japanese gaming conglomerates too

I didn't even know this was possible in the play test. That would've been helpful to use lol. I miss the play test and look forward to it fully releasing.

@JohnnyMind game developers didn't patent game mechanics in the past.
then gambling machine manufacturers sued game developers for game mechanics, so the game developers had to join in and protect their own game mechanics.

game mechanic patent lawsuits aren't common despite so many games sharing similar mechanics, game developers don't like using game mechanic patents as a weapon.

@Bolt_Strike It isn’t universal though.France for example explicitly won’t allow software patents. (It’s why VLC is safe from the mpeg licensing cartel).

@Dee123 You seem to know more than me. Please shine a light on other game publishers routinely patenting game mechanics and actively enforcing them. Enlighten me.

btw how does recruitment for those tests work? I understand they are random, but do you get an email or something?

My money is on Mario maker 3d

@Wewewi : sega used to be the worst for it .. but obviously not any more

@jojobar That's not a flaw, that's just the core mechanics! If you remove something that's holding the whole tower up, that's going to make the tower fall. That's where you need to learn to fuse the blocks together to make things stand. And regardless, if your tower falls, it's not too difficult to make a new one once you get the hang of it.

I think their only big issue with the game is that they need to speed up the learning curve with building and crafting. Once you figure out how to do those things, it's a lot of fun. Before I understood how things worked, it was kind of sad to be clearing an area completely by myself with my incredibly slow building process

@WhiteUmbrella what you people don't understand is this isn't a Nintendo thing.

Most major game companies do this, especially Japanese ones and they don't because if they don't then eventually a patent troll comes in and files for the patent themselves and creates a big legal headache they need to spend a bunch of money fixing.

I'm not saying Nintendo are Saints BTW. But people really need to realize this isn't unique to Nintendo. It's just people only care when it's Nintendo.

@Wewewi have you not heard anything infamous lord of the rings nemesis patent?

Shadow of mordor has a really cool system where, If a mob killed you they got promoted to an elite mob. There were some other aspects but that was the main one.

But no one else can do something like that because they patented it and do go after people.

Also just to make clear. Nintendo filing a patent doesn't actually mean anything. The Palworld situation is an outliar, not the norm.

The reason japanese game companies NORMALLY file for parents like this is so no one can do it themselves and then patent troll them.

Besides, we all know it wasn't really the game mechanics that started the Palworld suit. That was just the angle their lawyers chose to go from. It doesn't mean they are going to suddenly start sueing everything that plays like any of their games.

@Metazoxan "You people"? Patent troll companies don't win in court. The only way they win is when companies would rather pay than litigate the issue.
Nintendo specifically are patenting gameplay concepts they didn't create, that existed in games before Nintendo even used them. That isn't right. Don't pretend this is an industry wide problem. There are a few obvious examples of patenting, for example the Nemesis system in the Shadow of Mordor games or Namco patenting playing a mini-game in a loading screen. Far from protecting those ideas, it buried them.
Nintendo specifically are going too far, trying to take possession of ideas that don't belong to them, stifling competition rather than just competing. This will hurt independent developers the most, since they won't have the money to compete.

@Metazoxan
"Besides, we all know it wasn't really the game mechanics that started the Palworld suit. That was just the angle their lawyers chose to go from. It doesn't mean they are going to suddenly start sueing everything that plays like any of their games."

So, you're arguing that Nintendo should have unlimited power, because we can trust them not to use it? Go and look in the mirror, and take that Mario hat off, while you're at it.

@WhiteUmbrella patent troll companies don't win but they can still cause problems. Plus a somewhat larger issue is when smaller game companies engage in the same practice.

But look you brought up two examples but just immediately go "Oh but THOSE are different" no, no they aren't.

People just don't pay attention when others do it and only highlight Nintendo. You go "It's different Nintendo is trying to control the industry" You don't even have one example of that. Again the Palworld suit is an outliar and there is far more to that than some game mechanics.

You're just making far reaching assumptions that outrage articles told you to think "Oh look Nintendo did this, so we're going to assume that" and you're not questioning it further.

Seriously aside from Palworld has Nintendo actually done any of the ***** you claim yet? Some of these "dangerous" patents have been out for a few months now.

Seriously did you develop amnesia for all of the other "Nintendo-like" games that have come out that Nintendo NEVER bothered? What about all of the Mario-kart clones? many even used damn item blocks with the same functions are Mario kart ones but nothing happened. What about Smash Bros clones? Zelda clones?

THe Palworld suit drops and everyone loses their heads like Nintendo is suddenly some patent tyrant.

Look the reality of all of this is simple. Nintendo isn't some massive monolith company with infinite money. THey are certainly a big game company but just being a game company only gets you so far. They do not have infinite reach or power and a few silly patents won't change that.

These patents largely mean NOTHING, because even if Nintendo got possessed and turned pure evil. THey can't really afford to just burn all of their money on lawsuits that won't even get them a return on the money they'd sink into them. Plus many of their games are made in collaboration with other game companies, so they can't afford to just ... go to war with the entire industry even if they lost all sense and tried to.

So enough of the tin foil hat nonsense.

@WhiteUmbrella "So, you're arguing that Nintendo should have unlimited power, because we can trust them not to use it? Go and look in the mirror, and take that Mario hat off, while you're at it." You take off the tin foil hat first and look in the mirror.

Do you ... have no grasp on how patents work? How lawsuits work? That junk isn't free or instant. Nintendo couldn't do what you're afraid of even if they tried.

You aren't a freedom fighter stopping a tyrant from taking power. You're the old man on the street screeming "THE END IS NEAR!" everytime he hears thunder.

Nintendo seriously can't afford to just .... sue absolutely everyone over everything. Again you take ONE CASE where they appear to use a game mechanic in a suit, and suddenly you act like that's the norm.

Do you have any idea how much time and money goes into lawsuits like this? People act like Nintendo is some kind of lawsuit Tyrant, but the vast majority of their lawsuits were related to Piracy. Yes even the emulation lawsuits were because those emulators were being used for piracy even if players played dumb and acted like they were fighting for "game preservation" ... I mean FFS one of the emulators Nintendo sued sold a "Premium version" with tools specifically for pirating Nintendo games pre-installed. But all people cared about was "Oh no my emulator I totally used for legal reasons got taken down!"

So seriously, enough with this paranoid nonsense. I'm not naive for not losing my mind over every rage bait article I see. I'm actually looking at trends beyond outlier cases and using common sense. Because even in the WORST CASE scenario possible ... all that really happens is Nintendo goes after a few other copy cat games, and developers either counter sue or just tweek the formula enough to dodge the patent.

It's seriously not even a fraction as serious as you're making it out to be ... I mean WTF do you think Nintendo could do anyway? You're seriously over estimating Nintendo's power here.

@Metazoxan The two examples I cited are different. Name any games that predate the games that those two patents stem from, that included the mechanics that were the subject of those patents. You have also claimed (to someone else) that there is an example of the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor being the subject of litigation in its defence. What case were you referring to?

"you take ONE CASE where they appear to use a game mechanic in a suit, and suddenly you act like that's the norm".

Where, in my previous comment, have I claimed that Nintendo normally sues routinely over game mechanics? I never claimed that, you are using strawman arguments. Whether Nintendo will or will not sue over the use of a gameplay mechanic, there is no valid argument to be made, that Nintendo should be able to hold patents over gameplay mechanics that they had no hand in creating. Using patent law in this way may encourage/force other companies to patent every aspect of their games to avoid Nintendo holding legal rights to competitors ideas, and can stiflr competition, without litigation, because the threat will always be there for a smaller game company that can't afford to get involved in litigation.

It doesn't really matter what you or I think Nintendo will or won't do. Nintendo doesn't avoid suing out of the goodness of their hearts. They only pick the battles they can win. This was most clearly delineated recently, when the U.S. government openly infringed on Nintendo and the Pokémon Company with their "gotta catch 'em all" video.
No tinfoil hat is needed. Nintendo are notoriously litigious. Everyone knows this. Nintendo is a law firm that makes games.

@WhiteUmbrella "Nintendo are notoriously litigious. Everyone knows this. Nintendo is a law firm that makes games." just because a lot of people say it doesn't make it true.

Seriously people don't know how to read past headlines to rage bait articles anymore.

Especially with that US government nonsense ... WTF do you think even would have happened? It wasn't for profit so even trying to make a suit would have debatably overlapped with arguments over fair use and fanmade stuff.

But no one cares about that do they? Nope they just wanted Nintendo to go after Trump. That's all that was. Has nothing to do with gaming at all, people just get upset when the big coporations they constantly complain about don't validate their politics.

and of course you'll continue to completely ignore all of the Mario Kart and other clones of Nintendo games they don't go after. Nope Nintendo is DEFINITELY goign to threaten and preassure people with their patents and ruin the industry ... as long as you ignore all the time they don't.

Nintendo aren't saints, but they're not the boogeyman either. People really jump from one extreme to the other too much these days.

@Metazoxan I'm not ignoring Mario Kart. Firstly, Nintendo didn't invent karting games, they just popularised the genre. They also didn't invent grabbing pick-ups by traversing over them. The U.S. government definitely infringed, but Nintendo didn't go after them, likely because they have too much to lose.
You need to go to the ignore list. I suggest you calm down, stop trying to make things political, but most of all, let go of your urge to compulsively defend and deflect for Nintendo, at every turn.

@WhiteUmbrella the parents should not be given out. The system is flawed. Not Nintendo. They have to play the game like all the others.