Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis System was patented by Warner, which is why it hasn’t appeared in more games.

The reason you haven’t experienced Middle-earth’s Nemesis System: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War in other games is because Warner Bros. patented it.

The patent details the Nemesis System built for both games and was found by Game Maker’s Toolkit and discussed in the last video which you can watch below (thanks, PSU).

If you are unfamiliar with the Nemesis system, it primarily uses memory techniques, which means the game can remember actions performed that are part of the narrative. In turn, enemies in the game will remember what you did as you come into contact with them.

In Middle-earth games, named orc bosses that you kill will have their abilities passed on to another orc. But if you die at the hands of your enemy instead, said orc can rise through the ranks with new abilities and will come after you. Orcs will also fight to climb the ranks.

And since it’s been patented, we’ll probably never see something exactly like this in other games. Maybe something similar, but not the exact system. Right now, the closest thing we have is the Mercenaries system from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

As RPS points out, this is not the only system patented by a game maker. Bioware patented its dialogue wheel and Take-Two has filed for an AI navigation-related patent developed by Rockstar.