Making a video game is extremely hard to do, no mater how many people or how much money you have, it is always a long and tedious process to even get close to the first draft. However, it helps when an idea or a mechanic for a game has already existed, and these devs can make their own special twists and changes to make it special and unique.

What doesn't help is larger corporations patenting basic game designs, creating massive legal obstacles and annoyances for especially indie developers. This instance happened recently to the indie game Palworld, developed by Pocket Pair Inc. The game is similar to the Pokemon games, which involves capturing creatures and having them fight, but blends survival and crafting mechanics to give the game a unique and we'll executed idea. This is quite clear due to Palworld being one of the most successful games on Steam, reaching over 6 million downloads within 24 hours. Because of this, Nintendo, the owners of the Pokemon franchise, we're working to prevent it from succeeding further.

They actually started all the way back in 2021, where shortly after the release of the trailer for Palworld, Nintendo filed for a patent shortly after the trailers release. The patent was for throwing an object at a creature in a field, which causes something to occur. Below is an image of the patent.

Nintendo called on Pocket Pair to go to court, but Pocket Pair did nothing wrong. In fact, Nintendo is in the wrong here. They created the patent in 2021 just a few months after the trailer for Palworld dropped, and it got approved in 2023 shortly after it's release. Nintendo had this planned, and the only reason they would make a patent after the trailer drop was because they couldn't infringe them for copyright for copying designs. They had a plan B, and they're using it to destroy Pocket Pair, and Palworld along with it.

This cannot keep happening. Indie games and developers keep getting destroyed, their passion projects destroyed by major corporations. We are slowly getting closer to this freedom from these suits, but one thing that can you can help with is by helping support this cause. We can help release the truth and prove Pocket Pair not guilty. We can only do this together.

Thank you for your support!