Nintendo, Pokemon Co. sue ‘Palworld’ maker over patent infringement
Nintendo and the Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit Wednesday, Sept. 18, in Tokyo against Pocketpair, accusing the video game maker of patent infringement. Pocketpair is the company behind the popular survival adventure video game “Palworld,” known by fans as “Pokémon with guns.”
In a statement released Thursday, Sept. 19, Nintendo said, “This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights.”
On its website, Pocketpair says “Palworld” is “home to over 100 unique pals, each equipped with a diverse set of skills to enhance the player’s adventure. Along your journey, you will also encounter formidable boss pals… Naturally, these boss pals are also capturable.”
As for “Pokémon, The Pokémon Company’s website said the world of Pokémon was launched in Japan in 1996 and features “creatures of all shapes and sizes who live alongside humans. People known as Pokémon trainers form lasting friendships with their Pokémon partners, and as a team, they go on adventures, train to improve their skills, and battle in friendly competitions.”
Pocketpair said in a statement of its own on Thursday, Sept. 19, it was alerted of the lawsuit on Sept. 18.
“At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details,” Pocketpair said.
Pocketpair, which describes itself as a small indie game company whose goal is to “create fun games,” said it will begin “appropriate legal proceedings.”
“It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit,” Pocketpair said. “However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas.
In July 2024, Pocketpair announced a partnership with Sony to promote the licensing of “Palworld” globally in a new joint venture called “Palworld Entertainment.” Nintendo, in the meantime, said it will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement “to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years.”
Blame game: What’s causing massive layoffs in video games amid record year?
Projects are being canceled and studios shuttered amid a wave of layoffs in the video game industry that has put thousands out of jobs. But many are wondering what’s driving these deep cuts after video game revenue hit another record in 2023.
The new year is off to a rough start for those working in gaming. In January and February alone, Kotaku reports that more than 8,100 people have or will be laid off. This is headlined by EA cutting 5% of its workforce, Sony letting go of 900 employees from its PlayStation division, and Microsoft laying off 1,900 Activision-Blizzard and Xbox employees.
“It’s both the best year and the worst year for the games industry,” Aldora co-founder and CEO Joost van Dreunen told Straight Arrow News.
“The expectation for 2024 is a flat year. 2023 was such a blowout year in terms of these big releases that we’re now seeing,” he said. “Everybody kind of took a step back and said, ‘Let’s take it easy because 2024 doesn’t look like it’s going to be amazing.’”
Behind the company curtain
While software sales have been massive, lagging hardware sales could be to blame for some of the cuts.
“Sony probably assumed that the PlayStation 5 would trend the same way that PS2, 3 and 4 did,” said Michael Pachter, managing director at Wedbush Securities. “And it’s not selling as many, period. They’re three full years into the cycle and they sold 54 million units. They typically sell north of 20 million a year.”
Meanwhile, Pachter chalks up Microsoft’s layoffs to its massive acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, which was finalized last year despite objections from the Federal Trade Commission. Shortly after the cuts became public, a lawyer for the government regulator took issue with the job loss.
“Microsoft, I think, is largely a function of their combination with Activision,” Pachter said. “So it’s probably about 20% of the Activision workforce that they laid off. So there was certainly a lot of redundancy. You don’t need two CFOs or as many HR people or as many legal people.”
Joining forces
Consolidation is a huge part of the current gaming industry. Microsoft’s $69 billion deal to purchase Activision-Blizzard was the Windows-maker’s largest in its history. It also acquired ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in 2020, adding the Doom, Fallout and Elder Scrolls series to their stable.
Well before it gobbled up some of the biggest publishers in the business, Microsoft spent $2.5 billion to buy Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft, in 2014.
“Either you invest a lot of money internally and develop it yourself or you acquire and hope it works,” van Dreunen said of the push to acquire studios.
Subscription surge
Microsoft’s recent string of acquisitions is an attempt to draw gamers to its subscription service, Game Pass, which offers a rotating list of games. It’s similar to Netflix and Hulu for video games.
“If you spend enough time in Game Pass, you never have to leave,” Pachter said. “If you spend enough time on Netflix, you never have to leave. Do you miss out on Oppenheimer? Yes, you do. But can you live without seeing Oppenheimer?”
“They rely upon scale to bring down the cost of the components… We’re not seeing component costs coming down as rapidly.”
Subscriptions help to subsidize the business as console makers often take a loss on hardware sales.
“When somebody goes and they buy an Xbox at their local retailer, we’re subsidizing that purchase somewhere between $100 and $200, with the expectation that we will recoup that investment over time through accessory sales and storefront,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer told The Wall Street Journal in 2022.
“They rely upon scale to bring down the cost of the components,” Pachter added. “But that’s not happening anymore. We’re not seeing component costs coming down as rapidly.”
How live games changed the game
The business behind video games was once a simple proposition: Develop games in the most cost-effective way possible, sell a lot of copies of the game, and come up with a new idea to do it again.
Today, juggernaut live games boast big player counts and screen time on the platform of the player’s choosing.
“We’ve sort of seen this inversion over the last five years, where it used to be that the platform was the biggest thing and the games would sort of tuck in within the platform,” Microsoft President of Gaming Content Matt Booty said during an episode of “The Official Xbox Podcast” in February. “Today, big games like Roblox or Fortnite could actually be bigger than any one platform. And that really has changed the way that we think about things.”
More and more, companies are looking to games as a service, which offers studios a continuing revenue model rather than relying on the initial purchase.
“You could also sort of shape the experience according to the likes of the audience.”
Joost van Dreunen
This can be done in various ways. Some of the most popular include subscriptions for playtime, a feature seen in many large-scale, multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft.
Microtransactions, low-cost purchases that can include cosmetic items or power-ups, appear in a good portion of games these days and are most prevalent in mobile games.
Then there are season passes, where users pay to have access to a progression tree that features in-game items that could be worth double or triple the player’s initial investment.
“The real rationale for season pass is not to collect the $10 for the pass, it’s to keep the player engaged with daily tasks,” Pachter said. “Because the player who comes back every day to make sure he gets his money’s worth and earns his little thing tends to stay an extra 10 or 20 or 30 minutes. And more engagement just necessarily translates to higher in-app purchases.”
“The idea is to convert monthly active users into daily active users and that conversion goes up with a season pass,” he added.
A constant stream of revenue is just part of the benefit of live service games.
“It’s much better to have live services and ongoing engagements where we build the game to 40% completion and then we just iterate on the model as we go,” van Dreunen said. “This gives you two benefits. One of them is you sidestep the issues traditionally associated with demand uncertainty.”
“But at the same time you could also sort of shape the experience according to the likes of the audience,” he continued. “So it’s much more of a back and forth rather than, ‘We develop this pristine experience right here. It’s secret and now we hope that it works.’”
“Some people like to watch movies in a theater, be entertained for two hours and go home and talk about the movie for a week,” Pachter said of the difference in models. “And others like to watch reality TV shows and watch dating shows and guess who the bachelorette is going to pick. So those are completely different experiences. Live services is far more analogous to reality TV than it is to a self-contained film.”
Exclusive game viability
Since the dawn of modern video games, console-exclusive titles have driven sales for any specific platform.
“They’ve built their fan base very strongly around these exclusives,” van Dreunen said. “Sony and Microsoft have really put together a marketing plan for the devices that have a particular personality. And so people identify very closely with.”
In February, rumors swirled that Xbox would be offering its exclusive titles to competitors PlayStation and Nintendo. In response, the gaming media painted the situation as the end of the brand.
“The gaming press plays to that stupid, infantile approach by saying, ‘Oh no, no, Microsoft, our understanding as gaming press is all console-first party titles should be exclusive. And you’re violating our preconceived notion of how it should be,’” Pachter said of the reaction.
The perceived drama culminated with a special episode of “The Official Xbox Podcast” featuring Spencer.
“So we’ve made the decision that we’re going to take four games to the other consoles, just four games, not a change to our kind of fundamental exclusive strategy,” Spencer said.
Those games are Pirate-sim Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, a far cry from Halo and Gears of War leaving Xbox.
“I actually think Microsoft’s overarching goal is to sell Game Pass subscriptions,” Pachter said. “And their strategy is to hook the consumer. And I think that they’re acknowledging right now that they don’t have everybody.”
“What makes Fortnite so successful, makes Minecraft so successful, is that they’re available on any platform,” van Dreunen said. “And increasingly, we’ll be moving in that direction. And then we become much more platform agnostic.”
But even with these changes in the gaming industry, decades-long console wars are not heading for a peace treaty.
“I just think sales get cut in half next cycle, not to zero,” Pachter said of the next console generation. “And then they get cut in half again the next cycle, and they get cut in half again the next cycle.”
“It’s a little bit the equivalent of having really, really expensive headphones or really, really, really high-definition televisions and there’s always going to be an audience for that,” van Dreunen said. “And then there’s everybody else.”
While this year’s gaming layoffs are on track to far outpace 2023’s numbers, it doesn’t appear to be a warning sign for the industry that has seen significant growth in recent years.
“I would expect all these companies in 18 months to be rehiring a lot of the people that they just laid off,” van Dreunen said.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis testifies in Trump election interference case: The Morning Rundown, Feb. 16, 2024
The district attorney leading Georgia’s election interference case against former President Donald Trump takes the stand. And Amazon is sued after a subscriber says the addition of ads to Prime Video is ‘immoral.’ These stories and more highlight The Morning Rundown for Friday, Feb. 16, 2024.
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Lawyers for Trump and his 14 co-defendants are seeking to remove Willis from the case, as they argued that her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade presented a conflict of interest. On the stand, Willis fired back at the lawyers’ claims.
“I object to you getting records,” Willis said. “You’ve been intrusive into people’s personal lives. You’re confused. Do you think I’m on trial? These people are on trial for trying to steal an election in 2020. I’m not on trial no matter how hard you try to put me on trial.”
A former friend and coworker of the district attorney testified Willis and Wade had been romantically linked before Willis hired Wade for the case, an allegation both parties deny. Though the relationship has since ended, attorneys for the defendants allege Willis personally profited from the case while the two were together, arguing that Wade had used his earnings to pay for trips for the two. Wade testified that Willis always paid him back.
Should Willis be disqualified and removed from the prosecution, a new attorney would be appointed who could either continue with the charges or drop the case. There are updates in other cases involving the former president; a judge in the hush money case has set a trial date for March 25. On Friday, Feb. 16, a verdict is expected in Trump’s New York civil fraud trial.
FBI informant charged with lying about Biden family’s ties to Burisma
According to the indictment, Alexander Smirnov lied to the FBI in 2020 when he said Burisma paid both Bidens $5 million. Prosecutors said Smirnov “expressed bias” against Joe Biden, who was running for president then. Smirnov’s claims have been central to House Republicans’ efforts to impeach the president over his family business dealings.
Congressman Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called for an end to the impeachment inquiry. Meanwhile, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the Republican chair of the committee, said the inquiry will continue, claiming it’s based on “a large record of evidence.” Smirnov faces charges of making a false statement and falsification of records. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
New details released in Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting
New details have been released about what led to panic following a shooting at the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City that left a woman dead and 22 others injured. Police report that about half of the injured victims are under the age of 16, with 11 children, the youngest just 6-years-old, taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries. Nine of them suffered gunshot wounds. Seven children have since been released from the hospital.
The identity of the woman who was killed in the shooting has also been confirmed. Lisa Lopez-Galvan, a mother of two and beloved radio host for the local KKFI station, died celebrating the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory with nearly a million other fans.
According to Kansas City police, the shooting was not terrorism or extremism; rather, it stemmed from a personal dispute between several people. Police initially detained three juveniles but released one they determined was not involved. Police said they are working with prosecutors to file charges against the other two juveniles who have been detained.
Amazon subscriber sues over ads playing on Prime Video
Details on what games and when they will be made available have not been disclosed. Revenue for Microsoft’s Xbox-related business grew by 61% in the fourth quarter, overtaking Windows in earnings, which is largely attributed to the $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October. Microsoft is now looking to generate even more revenue as its Xbox system ranks third in sales behind its rivals.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark becomes all-time NCAA women’s basketball scorer
History was made in college sports last night as Iowa Hawkeyes guard Caitlin Clark became women’s college basketball’s all-time leading scorer. Clark only needed to score 8 points early in the game against Michigan to break the NCAA record.
Hitting a three-pointer to reach the milestone, Clark scored a career-best 49 points in the game in Iowa city, which put her at the top of the list with 3,569 career points. WNBA star Kelsey Plum, who previously held the college record, said she is “grateful to pass the baton” to Clark.
A museum about failure aims to help people learn to innovate
Washington, D.C., is known for museums that tell the American story and all of its triumphs, including the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History. But one particular museum tells the story of some great American failures like New Coke, Blockbuster and the HD DVD.
The Museum of Failure is a pop-up exhibit started by Dr. Samuel West, a clinical psychologist. He hopes to help people improve their ability to learn from failure.
“The aim of the museum is to really drive home the point that we need to accept failure if we want progress, we want innovation,” West told Straight Arrow News.
West defines a failure as “a deviation from the expected or desired results.”
The exhibit is filled with all sorts of things that didn’t go as planned, like Harley Davidson cologne and Little Miss No Name, a doll that was supposed to build empathy for the homeless, but it instead scared kids with its giant red eyes and raggedy clothing.
“I started the museum because I was frustrated with all the success stories,” West said. “In my field of work, innovation and business, there’s just too much, too many successful, happy, rich people trying to say, ‘Look at me, do like I do, and you’ll be happy.’ And we all know that’s not the truth.”
Kashiff Thompson visited the museum with his homeschooled daughter, Riley, hoping to teach her that lesson.
“It’s important, I think, for her to see that it’s okay to try things and failure doesn’t mean you give up, it means that it can lead to something different,” Thompson said.
Here are the biggest failures on display:
Pets.com
This website arguable came before its time. It was supposed to be the Amazon of pet products, Jeff Bezos was even an early investor. But after opening in 1998 it closed in 2000 partly due to selling too many bags of dog food at a loss.
Segway
In 2001, the inventor of this electric chariot, Dean Kamen said that the Segway “will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy.”
That didn’t happen. But in big cities, electric scooters are now everywhere, helping people get to work or the bar.
Hawaii Chair
This spinning seat was designed to help people who sit all day at work build their abdominal muscles, but it quickly became the butt of jokes for comedians.
Nintendo Power Glove
The motion control device was supposed to make video games more interactive. For instance, instead of using a joystick to control a race car, users could put on the glove and turn their hand.
The product was only on the market for a year but the motion control technology ultimately led to the Nintendo Wii, which sold more than 100 million units worldwide.
“The Segway, or the Nintendo Power Glove, or Nintendo Virtual Boy, these were all failures, commercial failures that changed, you know, technology forever,” West said.
The Museum of Failure will be in Washington until Dec. 10 before moving on to another city.
Trump to surrender in Georgia Thursday: The Rundown Aug. 22, 2023
Former President Donald Trump said he plans to surrender to authorities in Georgia, and it’s the end of an era for an iconic plumber. These stories and more highlight The Rundown for Tuesday, Aug. 22.
Trump to surrender to authorities in Georgia
Former President Trump planned to surrender to authorities on Thursday, Aug. 24 in connection to an indictment in Georgia on charges he attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state. Trump confirmed as much on his social media platform on Monday, Aug. 21.
“Can you believe it? I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be arrested,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Hours before that post, Trump’s bond was set at $200,000. According to the bond agreement between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Trump’s attorneys and the judge, the former president is barred from intimidating co-defendants, witnesses or victims in the case.
Willis had given Trump and 18 other co-defendants until Friday, Aug. 25 to turn themselves in. Trump’s former personal lawyer John Eastman has agreed to surrender on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
Trump will surrender at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia a day after the first Republican primary debate. He has already said he will not be taking part in the debate. Multiple news outlets have reported a prerecorded interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson will be made available at the same time.
Biden visits Maui two weeks after wildfires ravaged island
President Joe Biden visited the island of Maui Monday to survey the devastation left behind by massive wildfires earlier in August. President Biden met with survivors, reassuring them federal resources were there to stay as long as recovery efforts take.
On top of mind on the island are the more than 800 people still considered missing. One hundred fifteen people have been found dead.
Officials said there are still weeks of searching to go as crews slowly clear a five-mile disaster zone left in the wake of the historic wildfire. Biden offered his condolences to the community and recognized their strength shown in the process so far.
“Many of you have lost more than just that. Many of you have lost family. Not even sure where some are,” Biden said. “You know, I’ve been impressed how you look out for one another, you turn your pain into purpose. This town has stood as a sacred spot for centuries.”
Judge considers legality of Texas buoy barriers
A federal judge in Texas will consider whether the state has legal grounding to keep its buoy barrier afloat in the Rio Grande River. The border security tactic has been controversial ever since it was implemented in July of 2023.
The Biden administration and Mexico have both pushed for Texas to remove the buoys, citing safety concerns. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) argued the state first deployed the buoy barriers because of safety concerns.
“Just last month here in the Eagle Pass area, there was an infant who drowned crossing the border,” Gov. Abbott said on Aug. 21. “That was before we put the buoys up, a little infant drowned and not a peep out of Washington, D.C.”
The state of Texas has moved its buoys closer to the United States side of the river to appease a request from Mexico. However, Abbott has stood firm the state is within its legal rights to have the buoys deployed.
Japan to release treated radioactive water into Pacific Ocean
Starting Wednesday, Japan plans to release treated radioactive wastewater from its Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. The move comes amid criticism from some countries like China and support from others like the U.S.
The plan, in the works for years, came to be after the nuclear plant was damaged during a 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Japan had to pump more water into the plant to cool down fuel rods in the reactor. Because of this, space has been limited.
Japan has said the water release is safe. The water will be filtered to remove most radioactive elements except for tritium.
According to Japan, the water will be diluted to well below internationally approved levels. However, some scientists believe the wastewater could still harm marine life.
American Airlines pilots ratify contract that includes pay raises
The contract includes $1.1 billion in one-time payments and ratification bonuses, immediate pay raises averaging 21%, annual raises and increased company contribution to retirement plans. In addition, the pilots will get more vacation benefits and more predictable schedules.
American has approximately 15,000 pilots. The union said 73% of pilots who took part voted in favor of the contract.
Original voice of Nintendo’s Mario steps down
The original voice of Nintendo’s beloved character Mario will step down. Charles Martinet has been voicing the adventurous plumber in Nintendo games since the 1990s.
The company said Martinet will now be serving in the role of “Mario Ambassador,” traveling the world to promote all things Mario. Nintendo has not said who will be replacing Martinet.
Earlier in August, the company reported a 52% increase in net profits. The rise was in part due to the success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which has grossed $1.3 billion.
Even with Activision Blizzard, Microsoft wouldn’t top this list of 5 gaming giants
The European Union and United Kingdom are divided on regulatory approval of Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The U.K.’s main concern is that the deal would give the Xbox maker too much control in the gaming arena. But this merger still wouldn’t give Microsoft the highest revenue in the industry. Here are the biggest gaming companies in this week’s Five for Friday.
5: Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard’s $7.5 billion in revenue in 2022 was enough to make it the world’s fifth largest gaming player. Last year, it had the highest selling mobile game with Candy Crush Saga and the biggest selling console game in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Its back catalog of games — in the Spyro the Dragon, Tony Hawk and Crash Bandicoot series — are enough to get Microsoft’s attention. That doesn’t even account for the hugely successful World of Warcraft.
But the company has faced a culture problem with California suing over a “frat boy” environment following claims of sexual harassment. Unfortunately, it’s not the only gaming company that has faced legal issues due to its handling of the workplace.
4: Nintendo
Japan’s Nintendo was founded in 1889, making Japanese playing cards at the time. It’s now a nostalgia-driven gaming behemoth that made $12 billion in revenue last year on the back of a unique brand of games. Mario, Zelda and Pokemon continue to be blockbuster franchises.
Nintendo also got grandma off the couch to play Wii bowling in the mid-2000s. There are even studies that show it can prevent dementia. Its latest console, the Nintendo Switch, has been a huge hit, selling 125 million units, making it the third best selling console of all time.
3: Microsoft
The $16.2 billion Microsoft made from gaming in fiscal year 2022 is just 8% of its overall business. Activision Blizzard would be the company’s biggest acquisition ever, which is pretty significant considering it has faced criticism dating back decades for being too big.
The Windows maker spent billions of dollars in recent years to buy ZeniMax media, the publisher of hits in the Doom and Elder Scrolls series, and Mojang, the studio behind Minecraft. All of this is to bolster its cloud gaming offering, which has been the biggest issue for regulators in the Activision Blizzard takeover talks.
2: Tencent
China’s Tencent is one of the biggest entertainment conglomerates on the planet. The company’s gaming division brought in more than $24 billion in 2022 and that’s only 31% of its total revenue.
Tencent has a stake in many major players in gaming, the most significant of which has been League of Legends maker Riot Games and Fortnite developer Epic Games. The first quarter of 2023 saw more growth in the gaming sector as it makes a play to be the most dominant player in the space.
1: Sony
Japan’s Sony will still be No. 1 with $26.5 billion in annual gaming revenue even if Microsoft is able to close the deal with Activision. But the PlayStation maker is still doing its best to stop its rival’s acquisition.
Sony’s first foray into gaming was a partnership with Nintendo to make what was essentially the SNES-CD. The partnership fell apart and the tech eventually became the first PlayStation. While it’s onto pushing the PS5, the PlayStation 2 is the best selling console of all time.