Nintendo was recently granted a broad patent on summoning characters to fight, causing concern in the game industry, especially amid its ongoing lawsuit against Palworld. The patent covers core mechanics present in many monster-collecting games and was granted without objection from the USPTO, though experts debate its broadness and enforceability, with some believing prior art will render it largely ineffective.
if you wanted to know why WoW is removing pet battles. and hate it.
dont hate blizzard for it.
The system is still there in the game just not going forward with Midnight, if it was to do with the lawsuit Pet battles as a whole would be removed from all areaâs.
They are basically doing what they did with Archaeology.
They can still capture and do pet battles from vanilla to tww no change at all, just stopping content for Midnight. If it was due to lawsuit EVERYTHING would go not hard to understand.
i think what someone previously said would be anything going forward patent date onwards would be enforceable
so maybe the removal of petbattles could be actioned if they continued in midnight and ahead
i dunno , thought it was worth speculating and mentioning what could be linked
Sadly not many of us use Pet battles so they have deemed it unworthly just like archaeology, its just another kick in the teeth to none raiders/m+ the game just seems to be for them even PVP is suffering.
Nintendo patent on the side. I am surprised that some animal rights group didnât make move since this is 12+ game and pet battles are animal cruelty.
They left Archaeology to just shrivel up and die, too.
I just think hardly anybody did pet battles, besides to collect new pets, itâs the same for me, do the occasional single battle for a new pet, but no battling or levelling (Except with one of those levelling stones) beyond that.
This whole Nintendo vs Palworld thing is ridiculous. As a lifelong Nintendo fan, its heartbreaking to see them be so malicious. I really hope Nintendo loses the lawsuit, and these patents are revoked. This is a dangerous trend to start, that could severely damage the gaming industry as a whole.
Remember when they used to copyright strike any video with nintendo game footage?
They have been possessive about anything related to their IPâs for ages now
Yes, itâs a coincidence. The patent has absolutely 0 relevance on Blizzardâs decision to gut it.
For one, the patent requires ALL of the following to be happening, not just a few of them:
You have a main character moving in the world (WoW has)
You summon a sub-character (WoW does)
The sub-character appears in the same world as the main character (WoW has it)
Combat initiates automatically if there is an enemy nearby - No, this does not happen in WoW. Combat in WoW initiates before the sub-character is summoned
Sub-character can move freely if there is no auto-initiated combat - No, this does not happen in WoW. It cannot have the sub-character move around at any point
Therefore legally WoWâs battle system does not infringe upon Nintendoâs patent.
The pet-battle system is gutted in WoW because too few people engaged with it to justify development spent on it.
Of course, laws donât apply retroactively. You canât punish past deeds with laws didnât exist back then.
But, if Nintendo is granted the patent recently, as OP said, then Blizzard has to stop now. Past ones were not patent infringement, but future ones are.
That can be a possible explanation. But we donât know. And there are so many games with pet battles. So I doubt it.
Ehm⌠Blizzard are owned by a much, much bigger company than Nintendo. I actually wish they would go for Microsoft, itâd get this patent invalidated much sooner.
blizzard is not larger than nintendo
Microsoft is. not blizzard
thats not the patent though, they " catch pets " and then use them to battle , " pocket monsters " small little creature that fight other small creatures in a 1-1 fight
hunters pets and warlock demons are neither of those , they are tamed and are " companions" not pocket monsters ( battle pets )