- Joined
- Jan 15, 2019
Ah, I recognize this. TDS sufferers and blackpill/doomers in USPG2 do the same thing -- "things haven't progressed as far as I wanted as fast as I wanted, it isn't completely, absolutely 100% finished to my total and complete satisfaction as I expected at first, the wildest promise some unrelated uninvolved guy made that one time in an off-hand remark hasn't come true instantly, ergo literally nothing has happened at all whatsoever, no progress has been made, nobody's doing anything, I didn't vote for this, nothing good will ever happen, no progress will ever be made, we lost, we're all doomed/fucked and it's all over, why bother trying, I give up, everything good dies, maybe I'll just eat worms, and you're dumb for hoping for anything better."
Very unhealthy cynicism. Don't worry though. Usually it passes. Except Tier-5 TDS'ers like Whoopi Goldberg or Rosie O'Donnell ... they're probably broken for good. But that makes them unintentionally really fucking funny because they can't stop randomly exploding for no good reason, and they don't have the good sense to avoid the cameras.
The case is progressing, and so far Nintendo is losing by all available measures. It won't bankrupt them or break them or likely even change their shitty attitude. But it will get them out of Pocketpair's hair and settle important questions. Rulings have already been made that specific mechanics at controversy did not infringe on Nintendo's patents (either via invalidation or simply being found not being infringing after examination) -- a material victory for Pocketpair and a material defeat for Nintendo. The allegations they've made in their complaint are proving false every time they've been tested. Nintendo has already lost the most important element of their case -- Palworld lives on and they can't stop it (at least with this legal theory).
And there's no changing that they've lost a portion of their patent portfolio through successful prior art challenges now. That's a real, measurable loss. Like, a dollar-value loss (patents are considered valuable assets). If they completely drop the Palworld case tomorrow and walk away and Pocketpair chooses not to retaliate (the latter is likely; they're making money hand-over-fist, are breaking sales records, and would much rather focus on their successful product without the Nintendo nuisance nagging at them), the damage is still done.
They can't leverage those patents against anyone else. They're just gone. A hundred Pokémon clones could come out next week using the same mechanics those patents covered, and Nintendo can't touch them (and if they tried, those other developers can just point straight back at these invalidations with shit-eating grins and send a signed photocopy of their butt cheeks to Nintendo's legal office).
Even if they see their copyright infringement case against Pocketpair all the way to trial and win, no material changes are forthcoming that could benefit Nintendo. They'd get maybe $50-60k in cash, but no substantial changes are left to be made to Palworld (they adjusted the game to address Nintendo's complaints when they filed the lawsuit, correctly anticipating an attempt at injunction preventing launch). A very hollow "victory," and that's assuming they win, which a good number of patent, copyright and game industry experts expect they won't. Yes, yes, "experts" get things wrong, but they often get things right, too. Patent litigation (especially patent trolling, which is arguably what Nintendo's doing here) is an entirely different beast than copyright infringement litigation. The granting authorities invalidating patents is always considered a very strong indicator the side losing the patents is going to lose their case. In cases of genuine patent trolling, the troll generally drops their claims soon after losing their patents.
By dismantling Nintendo's ridiculous patents on painfully obvious game mechanics, Pocketpair have protected themselves and their game (they're free at this point to re-add the mechanics they removed or changed now that the patents covering them are gone) and ensured Nintendo can't really harm them going forward. We get a fun game and get to keep playing it without endless patches to screw with mechanics to keep a patent troll at bay.
Doesn't matter. Nobody's expecting or predicting Nintendo to suddenly keel over dead if they lose a lawsuit. Nobody thinks this is a Pokémon killer. It's an obvious affectionate parody that's fun on its own merits and didn't deserve Nintendo's bullshit litigation and Nintendrones' stupid whining about copyright infringement.
Nobody worth listening to expects a change in IP ownership (that's retarded and not at all how such disputes work in any courtroom anywhere in the world, nor is anyone even seeking it, so pretending like that's on the table is disingenuous and just a strawman). The point is for us all to point at them and laugh for being assholes and having it blow up in their faces. They could have literally done nothing and been in a better position (in terms of overall precedent, in their patent portfolio, and in terms of potentially attacking someone more vulnerable later on). But they were dicks, and they're being spanked. Enjoy it. it's the only kind of genuine "win" the good guys (i.e. us -- the customers) ever get. Kinda like when Galoob spanked them in the 80's over the Game Genie. That was satisfying too.
Nintendo have always been litigious cunts and they rarely actually win when their bullshit actually goes to court. This is just their most recent reminder. Seeing them taken down a peg or two, whether it ultimately has any permanent effect on their dumbassery or not, is satisfying, and I'm enjoying it immensely. A bit of precedence setting (invalidating retarded patents in this case) is a nice bonus. Meltdowns by Nintendrones is just extra sauce on an already delicious meal too. And seeing a good game (and its scrappy underdog developers) succeed despite Nintendo faggotry is always worth a smile. Sit back and enjoy it! A good game is enjoying success and Nintendo's getting pantsed. Don't take it so personally, and just enjoy the show.
The real win here is a competitor is competing on merit and succeeding financially and among its players, in defiance of a jealous peanut gallery and a patent troll being a jerk.
It's become a kind of bizarre three-way competition to see who can eat the most glue the fastest, hasn't it?
Console warring used to be a matter of dickwaving over specs and content, and people rooting for their Chosen Brand™ were hoping for it (and its parent company) to succeed and stand victorious over its vanquished foes. But now they're all shit in different ways, and for at least the past two generations it's been less about "who's gonna make the kill shot and cinch victory for this generation?" and more "oh god who's gonna fuck up and kill their console hardest this generation?"
It's kinda fun. Console wars are boring. Watching companies shoot themselves in the foot never gets old though. They're so innovative and creative finding new ways to do it! It's genuinely exciting seeing three separate companies, each with (substantial) rabid fan bases, competing with each other over who can fuck up the most. It's not even a competition to "fuck up first," since no matter how bad one of them fucks up, the other two just see it and say "hold my beer." They're all seemingly trying to self-destruct with the biggest boom. This shit's more entertaining than reality TV was two decades ago when it was still new.
