As expected, Warner Bros. applied for a patent on Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system.
IGN reports that on February 3, 2021, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued an issuance notice, which is currently offline, confirming that the patent will take effect on February 23, 2021, with the option to maintain it until 2035.
Eurogamer Next-Gen News Cast – Will PlayStation Studios release more games on Xbox?
As we reported last week, Warner Bros. since March 2016 trying to obtain approval for this patent, although already referenced in March 2015. Monolith Productions’ Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor appeared in September 2014.
The patent is called ‘Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendors and fans in computer games’, and is now awarded to Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. The current status is listed as ‘pending’, but it is expected to be updated to include recent approvals.
According to the patent list, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection in November 2019. But Warner Bros. held on and in October 2020 a ‘Notice of Allowance’ was issued. This indicated that Warner could overcome the rejections, and the USPTO believes the invention qualifies for a patent.
The unveiling of the Nemesis patent, revealed by the amazing video on the Nemesis system by Game Maker’s Toolkit below, sparked a debate about the rights and injustices of Warner Bros.’s actions here.
“It’s very rough, especially for a franchise that built its brilliant nemesis system on top of a whole bunch of mechanics that were repeated from other games,” said Mike Was Alone’s creator Mike Bithell. tweeted.
“Like all games do. Because that’s how culture and creativity work. Be a better neighbor, WB.”
“Because I’m forced to learn a little bit about this: a patent is not a copyright and it does not necessarily mean that they will apply it or win a case over it,” said Rami Ismail, co-founder of Flame Bear. tweeted.
“What it does mean is that they have taken a step to ensure that they can legally and that in itself ‘meh’ is enough to hate it.”
“Lmao what a bunch of shit,” wrote Josh Sawyer, director of Obsidian Twitter last week.
“If you take someone’s design and make a better version of it, you should get a trophy and a triumph through the streets, and the people who made the previous version should applaud you and say, ‘wow, that was really it. cool. ‘”
Has the patent deterred other developers from having their own Nemesis system over the years? Tweets by narrative designer and author Cat Manning suggests that it may have:
“I’m looking at the patent and it’s so broad that it’s absurd! Several other emerging narrative systems I’ve seen and worked on can be described with their language! It would probably not be legally enforceable, but I and others indie developers do not have the money to find out!
“I’m not interested in copying the Nemesis system completely! Personally, there are a number of other things I would do differently. But the patent is so wide that I’m still worried it’s a license to prevent ANY similar work from developing! “
In fact, over the years, many developers and publishers have obtained patents for mechanics for video games that appeared in later games. BioWare, for example, has a patent on Mass Effect’s Dialog Wheel, but Dialog Wheels appeared in subsequent games. Sega once held a patent on the Crazy Taxi compass arrow, though it expired in 2018. Nintendo currently has a patent on the Eternal Darkness odometer.
With the patent of the Nemesis system finally secured, thoughts are now going on as to whether it could return in some form in an upcoming Warner Bros. game. A new Middle-earth, perhaps? Batman? Harry Potter?