This lawsuit from Nintendo is wild. It's crazy how a big corporate entity like Nintendo can wait 8 months for the hype of a game to die down and the money to already be made. Nintendo's legal team is always calculating. The fact that they hit Palworld with a patent lawsuit over ball catching mechanics makes me worried for the future of open world monster catching games. Will this put other games, like Ark Survival Ascended, at risk for lawsuits? Probably not. The patent was mainly filed in Japan, where both companies are based, and Tokyo is known for being strict with these types of patent cases. This probably wouldn't hold up in a US court.

That being said, if Nintendo wins this patent lawsuit, it will set a bad precedent and be a bad day for gamers and developers alike. Patenting game mechanics shouldn't be allowed, and courts should block these practices. Copyright is one thing, but patenting core game mechanics could halt progress in game development. Take the "Nemesis System" as an example, it made Shadow of Mordor an amazing game. However, the patent filed by Warner Bros will be in place until 2036, preventing other developers from using this type of system in their games.

Imagine a world where Activision patented the mechanic of firing a gun at another player in a video game. What if they copyrighted the use of a scoreboard or in-game voice chat in a lobby? It would have completely prevented future games like Gears of War, Battlefield, and Fortnite from ever being created or released. It's scary to think about what could have happened, not exactly a thought anyone wants to have. Nintendo needs to lose this lawsuit for the future of gaming.