Is it possible to know if a mechanic you want to apply to a game is patented before applying it or do you only find out when you are sued?
Is it possible to know if a mechanic you want to apply to a game is patented before applying it or do you only find out when you are sued?
The Nemesis System of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. Warner Bros. patented that mechanic and for that reason it has never been seen again in any game beyond those already mentioned. Nintendo also recently patented several mechanics of the Pokemon games in response to the growing popularity of Palworld. Bandai also patented the mechanics of placing mini-games on the loading screens, so for 20 years no game was able to do so until recently when the patent expired.
Oh shi- riiiight the thing with the mini-games, I’ve heard about that! Just didn’t connect the dots here, I guess.
There’s also Namco patent around auxiliary games played during loading screens, but it’s lapsed finally (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/loading-screen-game-patent-finally-expires)