Ever since Nintendo and The Pokémon Company first announced the patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld maker Pocketpair, people have been worried about the broader implications of the case. According to IP consultant Florian Mueller, who has been covering the lawsuit extensively at Games Fray, Hoyoverse’s upcoming open-world creature collecting game Honkai: Nexus Anima appears to fall within the scope of one of the Nintendo patents Palworld is accused of infringing.
The patent in question is the recently amended “mounting-of-flying-objects” patent (JP7528390). This patent originally focused on the ability of players to “smoothly switch” between different mountable creatures in-game. Early in litigation, a Japanese patent attorney noted that the “seamless” bit described by Nintendo didn’t apply to Palworld’s Glider Pal mechanics, and thus judged that there was no infringement. Moreover, Pocketpair made swift moves to remove the ability to glide on Pals from the game.
But after Nintendo amended the patent mid-case (using language Mueller describes as “puzzling” and not seen in other patent claims), it came to broadly cover any scenario in which a player summons and mounts rideable flying creature, which is a arguably a basic mechanic that can be seen in many games, one such example being Honkai: Nexus Anima.
On August 29, Hoyoverse released preview footage of Nexus Anima’s gameplay. The video shows the player riding both ground-based and flying creatures within the first 30 seconds. Based on the video, Mueller says Nexus Anima clearly infringes the Nintendo patent, and that this “infringement” demonstrates how much the patent overreaches. “It is so basic that it cannot be right to prohibit all other game makers from implementing it,” he comments.
It’s important to note that this does not mean Nintendo will take legal action against Hoyoverse, and the outcome of their litigation with Pocketpair still remains to be seen.
