Latest news with #ShadowofMordor
Forbes
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Palworld' Deleting Pal Gliding Due To Nintendo Patent Lawsuit
Pokemon/Palworld Palworld is still under siege by patent lawsuits brought by Nintendo against a number of game mechanics that have resulted in fundamental changes to the monster-catching game. Now, something else is getting removed from Palworld thanks to the increasingly oppressive slate of patents. Nintendo has now forced Palworld to delete the concept of gliding with a Pal in the game, as in, you hang from a flying pal to use as a glider instead of an actual glider. Palworld shared the news on social media late last night: The one bit of good news here is that this does not mean the erasure of flying Pals you can ride, only Pals you can use as gliders which shows how weirdly specific and irritating these patents can be. It seems obvious you shouldn't be able to patent say, riding on a flying creature, but with these patents, at this point, who really knows. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder This joins another fundamental change where Palworld has had to replace the concept of throwing spheres to summon Pals to instantly just summon them next to the player, another Nintendo patent, along with other mechanics. Palworld It is very hard to defend Nintendo in these patent proceedings, even though patenting gameplay mechanics or systems is not a new concept. Most famously, there was a patent preventing minigames to be used in loading screens. Most recently, Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system of defeating and upgrading a hierarchy of enemies was patented, meaning that innovative system cannot be used in other games. A recent Wonder Woman from the publisher was just cancelled, which reportedly used the system which is now locked in prison due to the patent The public perception of what Nintendo is doing here is poor, but Nintendo has yet to face anything close to widespread consequences for many of its controversial decisions and practices, from its war on Palworld to its new introduction of $80 games for the Switch 2, which sold out in minutes via pre-orders. Pokemon Legends Pocketpair is stuck between a Digitoise and a hard place here, having no choice but to remove these seemingly innocuous mechanics, lest they spend ages and millions fighting the massive Nintendo in court over each patent. While Palworld presses on, all this has slowed development and the company is apologetic to fans: This does not seem like it's over, and Nintendo's war on Palworld will continue to press on with no doubt surprising and often ridiculous claims about its mechanics. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shadow of Mordor's innovative Nemesis system is locked behind a patent until 2036
Warner Bros Discovery recently shut down a trio of game studios, including the well-regarded Monolith Productions. This has put one of the coolest game mechanics of the 2010s in limbo. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor's excellent Nemesis system is locked behind a patent owned by Warner Bros all the way until 2036, according to reporting by Eurogamer. The Nemesis system was featured in both 2014's Shadow of Mordor and the follow-up Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Simply put, it's a gameplay mechanic in which enemies remember previous encounters with the protagonist. These antagonists, typically orcs in the LOTR games, would use these humiliating memories to fuel their thirst for revenge as they rose through the ranks. This mechanic also worked both ways, so enemies would remember besting you in a previous encounter. It was the best part of those two titles and Monolith had planned on bringing back the mechanic for a now-cancelled Wonder Woman game. Now the system is lying unused, locked behind a patent vault in David Zaslav's mega-yacht or whatever. Gigantic multinational corporations are awesome! *Monolith makes the awesome Nemesis system for Shadow of Mordor, everyone loves it**WB patents it, making it pretty much impossible for other devs to use it**WB shuts down Monolith*RIP the Nemesis system, I guess! — Cade Onder (@Cade_Onder) February 25, 2025 Warner Bros Discovery patented the system in 2016, which you can read right here. The patent is active until 2036, so long as the company keeps up with the associated fees. It's worth noting that in the nine years since patenting the system, it's only been used in a single game. That's Shadow of War, which came out in 2017 and was already in development when Warner Bros went ahead with the patent. It remains to be seen if Warner Bros Discovery will do anything with the Nemesis system. It had nine years of heavy game development to make use of it across its entire IP portfolio, but didn't. In that time period, plenty of Batman games and Hogwarts Legacy all came out. Those would have surely benefited from the unique mechanic. Oh well. WB will still focus some resources on game development, but the company's efforts will be primarily spent on four franchises. These include Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, the DC universe and Game of Thrones. Three of those four seem like good fits for the Nemesis system to me.
Yahoo
08-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wonder Woman Video Game Update: Monolith Game Looks Doomed
' video game was revealed back at the tail end of 2021. Over three years later, it seems the studio still has nothing tangible to really show off its project which is supposed to utilize its popular Nemesis system from the Shadow of Mordor games. According to a new report, the game is in some sort of development hell with not clear vision of when it could possibly be released. In a new report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, he gives details on Monolith and the current struggles they are having with the Wonder Woman video game. The game was allegedly one of WB Games' 'biggest bets,' and has already cost the company $100 million according to people familiar with the situation. It also seems that there is doubt it will ever launch to the public with it being 'years away' from being finished. 'One of the company's biggest bets in development, a video game based on Wonder Woman, has struggled to coalesce, according to people familiar with the project,' says Schreier. 'Early last year, it was rebooted and switched directors. The game has already cost more than $100 million, said the people who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information, and is still years away from release, if it ever makes it to market.' According to the report, it has been a struggle for Monolith Productions to get anything out to the public since its 2017 release Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Following the sequel, the studio began work on a brand new franchise that experimented with procedural storytelling. It was inevitably canceled in 2021 in which they began working on the Wonder Woman video game. Now three years later, the studio still has nothing to show due to shifts in leadership at the company, and technological issues with the game. 'It has now been more than seven years since the studio's last game. An initial version of Wonder Woman tried reimagining the Nemesis system with the game's namesake heroine befriending enemies, but that idea has since been tossed out in favor of a more traditional action-adventure game,' said Schreier. 'Now, Wonder Woman's fate remains in question, according to the people familiar with the business, because of challenges following the changes in Monolith's leadership and issues surrounding the game's technology.' The post Wonder Woman Video Game Update: Monolith Game Looks Doomed appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
