Honestly, the idea of patenting a vehicle system that treats the driver as a separate physics body is one of the most egregious things here—because it isn’t a new technique; it’s just choosing not to use another technique. That’s literally the default.
The article also mentions
Some of them are specific to Link’s latest adventure, including things like Riju’s lightning ability, which lets the player target enemies with a bow and bring down a lighting strike wherever the arrow lands.
Which isn’t even unique to Zelda, Minecraft did it a decade ago.
These are a stretch, even for Nintendo, and I’ll be surprised if any of them stick. But, then again, I was also surprised (and very upset) by Bamco successfully patenting loading screen mini games (and then hardly ever even using them) back when that happened. So who knows.
it is also known by the more common term “calling in an airstrike”
I am almost certain that there’s a Skyrim mod for that, that’s been around for a decade. It’s trivial.
Frankly, this is stuff that trademarks exist for, not patents. None of this sounds like an actual invention.
I can only think of one game that doesn’t do that and that’s because it’s intentional to launch the driver out of the vehicle: Rekkaturvat (Truck Dismount).
Honestly, fuck Nintendo. This is ridiculous and terrible for the gaming community.
Proposing that some of these are original is just ridiculous.
Great… so first they basically wrench their own arm out of the socket trying to pat themselves on the back for being “original” and “not taking any inspiration from other games”, and now this. Feeling better and better about not having bought a Nintendo game in years.
Man I like totk but jeebus creebus
I’m thinking more and more that patents are stupid
