Nintendo patents Tears of the Kingdom loading screen, abilities, map and more

Several of Link's abilities were previously revealed in 2021 via patent filings

[H9]

What on earth is Nintendo thinking? Is this even allowed? It's just common abilities, even if they were brand new ideas, that's not how patents work!

[mkis007]

Too ambiguous to pass on a challenge I'm sure,

[victorMaje]

I’m against any form of patent of gameplay mechanic.
Why stop there? Why not patent graphics on screen while you’re at it. Or title screens. Or pause menus while playing.
This should be illegal.

[FortWaba]

Don't give them more ideas, omg.

[Seraphim]

this is the very reason we never got mini games during loading screens, or a system like the one LoTR Shadow of War. I agree, these ideas should be accessible to all developers should they choose to utilize them. Certain things must be protected, video game mechanics/ideas are not one of them.

[DigitallyAfflicted]

What's next patent color red?

[YoungKingDoran]

Like WB patenting nemesis system, how can this be allowed... its like patenting the idea of the action-movie genre

[thejigisup]

"Nintendo was also able to patent the process of Link standing on a moving object, and then continuing in the direction of that moving object."

I used to ride around in gta vice city standing ontop of a moving car and causing mayhem. I fought through and ontop of a moving train in uncharted, shadow of the colossus, theres so many examples where this happens, Nintendo is literally trash

[DankSinatra]

Oh so since Nintendo does it, it's now a bad thing but when WB did it with the nemesis system nobody cared? This website keeps showing its bias towards Nintendo.

Yes patent for gameplay mechanics should not be a thing but come on guys, you slap Nintendo on anything and it's suddenly the worst thing you've heard about in gaming history but other companies do it before Nintendo and it's nowhere near the hate that you give them.

[Blastoise]

You can find articles on n4g about the WB patent and literally no comment is positive.

Also this patent is infinitely more vague

[Vengeance1138]

You should probably do more research before making such comments which are already proven false.

[porkChop]

WB didn't get a free pass. A lot of devs, gamers, and journos complained about it. Sony sort of did when they patented Kojima's strand concept. Some people complained but it was mostly quiet from what I remember.

[shinoff2183]

So nobody said anything negative when wb did it. Really. Doesn't sound pike something that would fly.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I have to wonder if some of the posters here just have large blank gaps in their memory, and N4G is definitely not bias in positive way towards Nintendo (more towards neutral or neutral-negative).

[staticall]

> the game will show the player where they currently are on the map, and will then transition to the new location after the loading is complete
Like worse version of GTA V transition between the characters?

> relating to the inability of the player to grab an object that they are already standing on
Sounds like a common logic/bugfix?

> standing on a moving object, and then continuing in the direction of that moving object
GTA 3? Saints Row? Prototype? Standing on a vehicle that's driving. Saints Row: Gat out of Hell even have a challenge related to that.

Here's the full description of "movable object" patent:
«the movement of movable dynamic objects placed in the virtual space is controlled by physics calculations, and the movement of the player’s character is controlled by user input. When the player’s character and a dynamic object come in contact in the downward direction relative to the character (in other words, when the character is on top of an object), the movement of the dynamic object is added to the movement of the player’s character»
Bye-bye trains, cars, even elevators.

What a joke. First WB with their shitty move, now it's Nintendo. Shame on Nintendo and shame on Shuntaro Furukawa personally.

[blacktiger]

PATENT TROLL incoming!

[Macho Man]

OHHHHHH YEAH I tell ya, Macho Man is mad confused while everyone else is AHEAD, makin' and breakin' the need for loadin' screens a thing of the past. Nintendo, like some kinda of "Hulkamaniac" uh-HUH, is out here patenting loading screens? OHHH NOOOO

DIG IT!

[Profchaos]

It's madness like this that made Namco the only company allowed to put minigames in their loading screens.

They pulled this stunt with ridge racer 1 and it's space invaders load screens which were incredibly cool back in the mid 90s.

Seriously the legal system needs to take a step back and make this practice illegal

[LG]

Like when EA (or some other company) patented the mini games in the loading screen and then decided not to have it in any of their games so no games had it in the last 2 decades. But I think that patent is done so now games are allowed to do that again. But yeah, I seriously dislike that they can patent gameplay mechanics.

[ARESWARLORD]

Probably trying to stop another blatant rip off like Gension impact

[shinoff2183]

So not only joycons Nintendo wants to just keep giving me reason to start to despise them. Cool cool.

[MEGANE]

This is what you get for worshiping the most anti consumer company of all them all, not to mention that overrated game that looks exactly like its predecessor from 8 years ago.

[gold_drake]

can you even patent a loading screen?
abilities too?

lol map patent.

[badz149]

F Nintendo! hopefully this will open the eyes of nostalgic reviewers out there on how shitty a company Nintendo is! I didn't see how BG3 is gonna win GoTY this year because most reviewers already put their eggs in TotK, hopefully this changes it! what a shitty company!

[Good-Smurf]

After such reviews of BOTW they must felt invincible and can do no wrong.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

With the way Nintendo is lawyer-ed up and readily drops lawsuits, I really hope they can't patent these things and sue other games for using similar mechanics.

[Inverno]

Non of these make even a lick of sense. Ultra Hand is essentially telekinesis, Fuse has been done before in other games in some form or another, the loading screen isn't even original.

"Nintendo was also able to patent the process of Link standing on a moving object, and then continuing in the direction of that moving object." LBP skateboards anyone?? Frogger??
I find it funny that that they're patenting Ultra Hand when SPOILER ALERT, Link loses the hand in the end. Meaning the mechanic most likely won't even make it into the next game.