🎮 Nintendo is suing Palworld, Ragnarok's PSN Requirements and Concord's production costs...
Nintendo is suing Palworld, Ragnarok's PSN Requirements, Concord's (alleged) production costs, Blood Line: A Rebel Moon Game from Netflix and more!
Hello friends,
Today is September 24th 2024 and I hope you’ve had a great week 🙌
In today’s news:
🎮 Nintendo is suing Palworld
🎮 Ragnarok's PSN Requirements
🎮 Concord's (alleged) production costs
🎮 Blood Line: A Rebel Moon Game from Netflix
⚡ Lightning Round!
🫡 True Tribute!
😄 Personal Update
All of this is brought to you in a 5 min format ⏲️
Let’s dig in!
🎮 Nintendo is suing Palworld
After almost a yeat since Palworld’s release and numerous speculations about whether this is going to happen or not, Nintendo eventually decided to settle its disputes about patent infringement with Pocketpair in a court of law.
Filed in Tokyo District Court on Wednesday of last week, Nintendo and Pokemon are seeking 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.”
Here’s what Pocketpair has to say about this:
Yesterday, a lawsuit was filed against our company for patent infringement.
We have received notice of this lawsuit and will begin the appropriate legal proceedings and investigations into the claims of patent infringement.
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 is a small indie game company based in Tokyo. Our goal as a company has always been to create fun games. We will continue to pursue this goal because we know that our games bring joy to millions of gamers around the world. Palworld was a surprise success this year, both for gamers and for us. We were blown away by the amazing response to the game and have been working hard to make it even better for our fans. We will continue improving Palworld and strive to create a game that our fans can be proud of.
It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. 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.
We apologize to our fans and supporters for any worry or discomfort that this news has caused.
As always, thank you for your continued support of Palworld and Pocketpair.
I mean, it’s kind of funny that Pocketpair is “unaware” about what patents Nintendo is talking about, but alright. Honestly, I think this whole dispute is a little bit overdue already. It will be interesting to see what is going to happen next as any outcome of this legal dispute would be kind of detrimental for the video game world. Either you can’t do anything that even remotely resembles somebody else’s IP without getting an army of lawyers up your project or you can do it and get away with it…
What do you think? Who’s going to win, David or Goliath?
🎮 Ragnarok's PSN Requirements
God of War: Ragnarok is finally available for PC players via Steam. But the reviews are not doing so hot… And it’s because of PSN login requirements.
The game currently sits at “Mixed” reviews with almost half of them being negative and citing PSN.
A few months ago we talked about it when Helldivers 2 decided to implement the same and the game was thoroughly roasted for it. The same thing is happening with God of War. The difference here is that this requirement has been clear for a while. It still made no difference for PC gamers in their campaign to post negative reviews.
And I can definitely understand them. Whether it was clear or not, it’s a bit unfair requirement considering how frequently Sony gets hacked and how it’s easy for corporation to sell their client’s data to third-party companies. Yeah-yeah, of course, nobody does it without consent 😉 But I think Sony should be a little bit more flexible when it comes to PC gamers.
Personally, I’m hesitant to play any games that REQUIRE me to log into another launcher/system that I’m not already a part of. For now I think that this requirement is going to burry this game one way or the other if Sony doesn’t remove it.
What do you think about a PSN login requirement for PC games?
🎮 Concord's (alleged) production costs
According to Insider Gaming, Concord, the failed hero shooter Concord cost over $400 million to develop over its reported eight-year development cycle. Wow!
According to the source information, among the major factors that contributed to the project's failure were:
Outsourcing development to other studios in order to simply get the game out the door
“Toxic positivity” culture that caused any negative feedback about the game to be brushed aside due to how Sony put all the eggs in this basket and had such high ambitions for it
Up to the point that that game went into Alpha state, Sony had already spent about $200 million on it
It was also said (again) that the game sold just about 25,000 copies.
With that being said, it looks like Firewalk Studios is scrambling and cleaning the proverbial ship. A few days ago it was revealed that the game’s director, Ryan Ellis, has stepped down from his position and moved into a ‘support role’.
I mean, it was kind of expected. When a major project like this flops in such a spectacular manner, you should expect blood and feathers everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about the studio closure or major layoffs too. But just with any such news, I’m sorry to hear that. This game definitely had ambitions and it could be a great game if they’d just taken a few different routes. Now it’s unclear what’s going to happen next. But most definitely nothing good.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, this button is just for you ⤵️
🎮 Blood Line: A Rebel Moon Game from Netflix
Interestingly enough, Netflix recently announced another title joining their Games platform. And it’s a game based on somewhat controversial movies.
Developed by acclaimed mobile game studio Super Evil Megacorp (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate, Vainglory), the game is set in the Rebel Moon universe and will find players joining the fray and taking the fight to the crushing Imperium forces. The battle against the tyrannical Motherworld will unfold across multiple action-packed missions, from massive, screen-filling skirmishes to surgically executed assassinations.
So far it looks very similar to the original Helldivers, but there’s not much official information as to what this game is going to be. Though Netflix already opened the registration to a closed Beta.
I’m very surprised that Netflix decided to support this franchise further as the movies received a very underwhelming response (the original ones). But I quite liked the Zack Snyder cuts. I can’t say it was great, but it’s definitely worth spending an evening on. So, I’m interested to see how this game is going to fit into this universe as it looks like it’s far from over.
⚡ Lightning Round!
1…2…3…Go!
🎬 Cyberpunk, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell and more animated projects on Netflix
As part of Geeked Week 2024, Netflix announced a whole bunch of new animated projects coming down the pipeline and I couldn’t be more excited! Among other things, we are going to have:
Cyberpunk project
And my favorite Devil May Cry
Can’t wait to see them! 🤩
🎮 Days Gone is allegedly getting a PS5 Remaster
Unfortunately, that’s not the news I was hoping to hear from this studio, but better than nothing, eh?
According to Insider Gaming, it would appear that Days Gone is going to be one of the games that are getting a PS5 Remaster and that it’s going to be announced during the upcoming State of Play from PlayStation.
It’s a pity these guys aren’t working on Days Gone 2…I’ve been waiting for it since I played the first one and loved it to death!
🎮 Annapurna Interactive seems not to care at all about their staff
After a surprising turn of events that resulted in Annapurna’s entire game division resigning, it looks like the parent company couldn’t care less.
An Annapurna spokesperson offered the final statement to IGN regarding the resignations:
The whole situation is a baffler, but now we're focused on moving forward. We've had really great conversations with an overwhelming majority of our existing development teams and are grateful for their partnership. If our inbox is any indication, a ton of developers continue to want to be a part of what we're building, and we look forward to seeing their pitches. We've also had an influx of quality job applicants and are excited to build a team passionate about our mission to tell original stories that aren't being told elsewhere. P.S. We're hiring.
I mean, when the leadership doesn’t change, the company won’t… It looks like it’s business as usual if nothing else.
🫡 True Tribute!
Today I wanted to salute
and one of the recent publications about a D&D campaign!If you’ve seen my summer recap, I’ve spent a lot of time reading Kathy’s content and I find it amazing! From writing tips to cat photos,
got you covered.😄 Personal Update
My eyes are going to be on this community-building thing for a while, but I wanted to take a moment and thank all of you who sent your comments and advice! I appreciate it more than you know!
As I mentioned on Sunday, a lot of things are still WIP, so I’ll continue to update you as time goes on.
For this week, my goals are to start setting up the space and the infrastructure and figure out the rules and policies that are going to be the centre of this whole thing.
Wish me luck!
This is all the news I have for you folks today.
Thanks for making it this far! 🙌
If you feel like supporting me and my work, consider Powering-Up GameDev Relay 🎮
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay.
I didn't know that Pocketpair was based in Tokyo. :D
I always thought they were based in another country where they wouldn't care.
The Annapurna situation is dreadful, especially their response to it. What greed does to people. And I'm excited to see the inevitable 1 hour long in-depth analysis video on Concord someone will upload.