IP is a joke. Fuck copyright. Fuck patents. Nintendo is out here patenting physics.
"The movement of movable dynamic objects placed in the virtual space is controlled by physics calculations, and the movement of the player’s character is controlled by user input. When the player’s character and a dynamic object come in contact in the downward direction relative to the character (in other words, when the character is on top of an object), the movement of the dynamic object is added to the movement of the player’s character.”
These aren’t even inventions. They are just obvious models of the real world that would occur to anyone who is trying to replicate physical interactions in a virtual world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_mechanics
These are Japanese patents but I also have no fucking doubt a lot of this stuff has very obvious prior art even in gaming, to say nothing of other physics-based software packages.
I have to wonder if there isn’t a class of patent lawyers just milking this companies for shit like this. Like, how common have any of these patents, especially percentage-wise, actually been utilized either offensively or defensively for these companies?
Or are workers at these companies getting bonuses or corporate respect based on how many game mechanic patents they file/contribute to or something.
Not in games development, but a company I previously worked at had me file/renew patents about very, very generic things related to voice-control of a program.
Felt absolutely disgusting.
Even if they aren’t actively used, the mere existence of these patents create a chilling effect on the industry.