Japanese developer Pocket Pair has released a new update for Palworld that effectively removes the Pal Spheres from the game. The new v0.3.11 update for the game has removed the ability to summon Pals…
This really isn’t that bad, it’s an opportunity to be creative as well. They can replace the balls with anything, say, talismans that they have to stick on the creatures. When summoning them back, they could be reading off of these talismans. It would ironically have more of a Japanese vibe than Pokemon. Other alternatives: for summoning, just replace the balls with curled up miniature versions of the creatures that just expand into size and the capture device can be an artifact that shrinks them and turns them into stone statues you can place in your base. It could go full on occult into summoning circles. They could make it customizable into anything the player chooses as a jab at Nintendo at how worthless their patent is.
It’s not that bad for this instance, but it’s bad that Nintendo gets to bully companies into submission. Supposedly Poké Balls are inspired by Gashapon so are themselves taking something from someone else (as everything does). Sure, Palworld was especially aggressive with how obvious they were copying them, but I don’t think something so generic should be ownable.
The patent isn’t about the balls, it’s about the summoning controls, and it seems broad enough to cover any controls that use a control stick together with buttons to aim a device for summoning a character. It is ridiculously over-broad, and part of a grand tradition of software patents being granted that are more akin to patenting “the idea of doors” than “a specific design for a doorknob.”
That’s why the new control is “press button to summon next to you,” it doesn’t use the stick and thereby avoids the patent. It’s also ass because it doesn’t let you aim the summon, but it is hard to envision a control system for aiming summons that doesn’t use a stick and buttons and also doesn’t suck.
This really isn’t that bad, it’s an opportunity to be creative as well. They can replace the balls with anything, say, talismans that they have to stick on the creatures. When summoning them back, they could be reading off of these talismans. It would ironically have more of a Japanese vibe than Pokemon. Other alternatives: for summoning, just replace the balls with curled up miniature versions of the creatures that just expand into size and the capture device can be an artifact that shrinks them and turns them into stone statues you can place in your base. It could go full on occult into summoning circles. They could make it customizable into anything the player chooses as a jab at Nintendo at how worthless their patent is.
It’s not that bad for this instance, but it’s bad that Nintendo gets to bully companies into submission. Supposedly Poké Balls are inspired by Gashapon so are themselves taking something from someone else (as everything does). Sure, Palworld was especially aggressive with how obvious they were copying them, but I don’t think something so generic should be ownable.
Talismans ≈ sumi-e scrolls? I’m in.
The patent isn’t about the balls, it’s about the summoning controls, and it seems broad enough to cover any controls that use a control stick together with buttons to aim a device for summoning a character. It is ridiculously over-broad, and part of a grand tradition of software patents being granted that are more akin to patenting “the idea of doors” than “a specific design for a doorknob.”
That’s why the new control is “press button to summon next to you,” it doesn’t use the stick and thereby avoids the patent. It’s also ass because it doesn’t let you aim the summon, but it is hard to envision a control system for aiming summons that doesn’t use a stick and buttons and also doesn’t suck.