65
Fuck software patents. Zero advantages to anyone except greedy bastards who fear competition.
They're not "playing it safe," they're just killing art.
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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Yeah - and they also don't seem to licence the patent. They are not using it, so there is no reason to sit on it.
Not even just art, they are also just stupid for the most mundane types of software problems too, the kind that everyone would do the same because there is just an obvious solution to a simple problem if it wasn't for idiots patenting the obvious solution.
All I wanted was an Arkham game with the Nemesis system.
That would be siiiick, I’d want it to be more goofy in tone (though I only played Asylum and a couple minutes of City so maybe I don’t have a good handle on the whole series) imagine kite man heckling you from the shadows until he gets bathed in gamma rays or dumped in toxic waste and becomes a huge threat,
On the patent - can a European dev not make a game using it and.... Just not release it in the US?
I assume that they would get money stolen from them from any other games they have released in the US? Or could steam be forced to take money from them for non US sales?
Software patents are BS
Countries have treaties around mutually enforcing intellectual property, probably would come into play here and allow for the US party to file a claim against them in a European court.
European courts don't recognise software patents, no matter where they were filled.
That seems to be wrong at least according to the ESA.
The software itself is copyrighted, the invention is patented, either way the Nemesis system seems to be protected in europe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_under_the_European_Patent_Convention
The European Patent Convention (EPC), Article 52, paragraph 2, excludes from patentability, in particular
...
schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers; [emphasis added]
That excludes video game related patents twice in one line.
That's very neat then, you'd probably get sued anyway cause companies don't care, but it does make me want to make a game like that and see what happens.
Hopefully Europe puts an end to those treaties because of Trump
At which point the US copies a ton of European IP and floods the world market with less expensive replacements.
There are very good reasons why in general we recognize IP rights
You spelt "China" wrong.
No I did not. China already does this. The US will as well.
Honestly, the US doesn't have the high skill workers to copy all the stuff actually worth patenting from Europe.
Lol, sure we do. We might even have more simply because global wealth inequality pushes them towards the USA.
You mean into the racist shit hole that is extremely anti-immigration the US is becoming?
And much of Europe is doing the same?
The point isn't to say America doesn't have smart and educated people but that America would need additional smart and educated people to do all the things Europe is doing currently and America is not. The same problem would be exactly identical in reverse if you wanted to reduce a world where Europe imported half (lets simplify a bit and ignore everyone else's contributions from other parts of the world) of the high skill products from the US and produced half domestically and now suddenly wanted to switch to doing it 100% domestically.
Where would the US in the current anti-immigration (and anti-education for that matter) political climate get high skill and high education people who can have their pick of any country in the world if they want to uproot their life at home at all? Not to mention in numbers that replace essentially every high skill and high education job in Europe?
And no, it doesn't really help that you only need to produce for the domestic market because you can't half write a piece of software or half invent a drug if you only need it for half the people.
And the point is Europe is adopting the same anti-immigrant attitudes while being on average much worse of a place to integrate within.
so BS. A patent on the game remembering your previous actions???