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As expected, Warner Bros. patent application for the Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor Nemesis system has been granted.
IGN reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a problem notice, currently offline, on February 3, 2021, confirming that the patent is effective February 23, 2021, with an option to maintain until 2035.
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As we reported last week, Warner Bros. has been seeking approval for this patent since March 2016, although it was referred to as early as March 2015. Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor by Monolith Productions was released in September 2014.
The patent is dubbed “Nemesis Characters, Strong Nemesis, Social Vendettas and Followers in Computer Games”, and is now awarded to Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Its current status is listed as “Pending”, but it should be updated to reflect his recent approval.
According to the patent list, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a final rejection in November 2019. But Warner Bros. stuck to its guns and, in October 2020, a “notice of acceptance. ” has been published. This indicated that Warner was able to overcome the rejections, and the USPTO found the invention to be eligible for a patent.
The revelation of the Nemesis patent, highlighted by Game Maker’s Toolkit’s stunning Nemesis system video below, has sparked a debate over the rights and harms of Warner Bros. actions here.
“It’s really disgusting, especially for a franchise that has built its brilliant Nemesis system on a whole bunch of mechanics replicated from other games,” Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone tweeted.
“Like all games. Because that’s how culture and creativity work. Be a better neighbor, WB.”
“Since I was forced to learn a little more about it: a patent is not a copyright and having one does not necessarily mean that it will enforce it or win a lawsuit”, Rami Ismail, co-founder of Vlambeer tweeted.
“What that means is that they made a move to make sure they could legally and that in itself is ‘meh’ enough that I hate it.”
“lmao what a bunch of crap,” wrote Josh Sawyer, Obsidian’s design director. Twitter last week.
“If you take someone’s design and make a better version of it, you should get a trophy and a triumph on the streets and the people who made the previous version should clap you and say, ‘wow that was really cool. . ‘ “
Has the patent deterred other developers from attempting their own Nemesis-style system over the years? Tweets by narrative designer and writer Cat Manning suggests it might have:
“I looked at the patent and it is so broad it is absurd! Several other emerging narrative systems that I have seen and worked on could be described in their language! It probably would not be legally enforceable, but me and other indie developers don’t have the money to find out!
“I have no interest in copying the whole Nemesis system! Personally, there are a number of other things I would do differently. But the patent is so vast that I am still worried it would be a license to prevent ANY similar work to be developed! “
In truth, many developers and publishers over the years have obtained patents for video game mechanics that appeared in later games. BioWare, for example, has a patent for Mass Effect’s dialogue wheel, but dialogue wheels have appeared in subsequent games. Sega previously held a patent on Crazy Taxi’s Compass Arrow, although it expired in 2018. Nintendo currently holds a patent on the Eternal Darkness sanity meter.
With the patent for the Nemesis system finally secured, it is now questionable whether it could be configured to return in some form or another in an upcoming Warner Bros. game. A new Middle-earth, maybe? Batman? Harry Potter?
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