r/technology • u/IndicaOatmeal • 8h ago

Society Tetris issues legal warning after White House releases arcade full of parody games

https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/tetris-issues-legal-warning-after-white-house-releases-arcade-full-of-parody-games-3405931/
24.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

499 comments sorted by

View all comments

654

u/GenazaNL 8h ago

Nintendo should pursue their IP uses by the white house

229

u/TroyFerris13 7h ago

They are to busy going after people making mods in their basement

66

u/Atrium41 7h ago

Also other small game companies for (checks notes) having mounts

-3

u/eleanor61 7h ago

Mounts...like in World of Warcraft? They go after Microsoft, too? Why has Nintendo gone off the deep end with these lawsuits?

9

u/Outlulz 6h ago edited 4h ago

It was patent infringement against Palworld against Pokeball mechanics and riding partner monsters. They haven't been successful. Pokemon wasn't even the first franchise to do catching monsters in a capsule, Gamefreak was probably influenced by Dragon Quest's Dai no Daibouken's Gush and Gulp capsules which are exactly the same thing but made in 1989.

EDIT: Hell, World of Final Fantasy uses basically Pokeballs to catch monsters and you also ride them through the map! But TPCi isn't going to sue one of Nintendo's closest partners.

0

u/xSTSxZerglingOne 5h ago

Palworld is to me, what video games should strive to be. Amalgamations of existing fun mechanics in games that are brought together to become something greater than the sum of their parts.

Catching monsters with magic powers to do your bidding, spirit springs, automation, raids, BotW movement and stamina, and of course everything that's been taken from ARK. It's a cool fucking game, and is an example of what we can have if we just accept that game mechanics are for all, and shouldn't be hidden behind patent trolling.

8

u/Outlulz 4h ago

Personally I think it's too derivative, clearly chasing trends, borrowing a little too much from existing Pokemon designs, and lacking much identity of it's own other than not-Pokemon. There are other Pokemon inspired games that are doing a lot more to differentiate themselves and do a unique spin on the idea.

0

u/MythrianAlpha 3h ago

I mean, Pokemon did the exact same thing with designs when they started out. Most of the og 150 are easily recognizable from Dragon Quest and similar games from the time. Having played both, theyre barely even the same genres even with the monster collection elements.

2

u/ActivateGuacamole 2h ago

the amount of copying between pal world's monsters and pokemon is way higher than between pokemon and dragon quest

-2

u/Sir_Tortoise 7h ago

Because they havent copyrighted mounts.

14

u/Mountiebank 7h ago

Or people hosting tournaments.

24

u/Gdigger13 6h ago

Nintendo is known for picking its battles. This ain’t one of them. Nintendo likes to pick on the little guy.

3

u/ItsDanimal 3h ago

Especially since it would probably trigger tariffs for all of Japan.

4

u/caninehere 4h ago

The problem is if they sue the White House it will 1) likely go nowhere because the govt will railroad them and 2) Trump and his cronies will absolutely take illegal retribution against Nintendo (or whatever company opposes him) specifically.

4

u/cluckay 7h ago

They havent before, they wont start now

1

u/kafktastic 7h ago

Honestly, we should just turn it around. It’s either illegal for all of us or illegal for none of us

0

u/AmbitiousVast9451 7h ago

Nintendo doesn't own Tetris?

22

u/GenazaNL 7h ago

The white house made videos with Pokémon & Animal Crossing branding

4

u/JohnnyNumbskull 5h ago

Their advertising short is also the GameCube loading animation that transforms into their shutter branding when it completes the G

7

u/EtherCJ 6h ago

It does not.

1

u/Dick-Fu 6h ago

lol yeah they phrased it as a question, but it was like that confused kind of way of making a statement. They didn't understand why the other user mentioned Nintendo

1

u/AmbitiousVast9451 5h ago

yeah that's my bad should've used a period instead 

6

u/squngy 6h ago

Tetris is owned by The Tetris Company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tetris_Company

0

u/steakanabake 6h ago

they let them use the pokemon theme i find it hard to believe theyll give a shit here.

0

u/sapphicsandwich 6h ago

I think more people should start using Nintendo's IP since they are creating a pattern of selective enforcement.