this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2024
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Palworld removes Pal Sphere summons amidst lawsuit over Nintendo patents (nichegamer.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works to c/games@lemmy.world
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[โ€“] echodot@feddit.uk 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

At one point didn't a company have a patent over an interactive loading screen?

Which is why loading screens in games have been boring for years, because actually having any kind of thing to do while the game loads is apparently banned.

[โ€“] Kelly@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

This wasn't as general as many people think:

  1. It applied only to "auxiliary games" so anything using the primary engine was ok e.g. running in the fog for assassins creed or practicing moves in a combat game.
  2. It applied only to US and Japan so anywhere else was unrestricted. The entire PAL region was unaffected.

But also:

  1. The patent was held by Namco / Bandai Namco, they are a prolific publisher but made very limited use of their ability to use loading screen mini games freely.
  2. The patent expired in 2015, despite this very few games have used loading screen mini games since.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US5718632

I can only conclude that the industry just wasn't that interested in the idea.