5 Video Game Patents That Might Surprise You
From Apex Legends' Ping system in aid of accessibility to Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system, there are many surprising patents out there.
When it comes to safeguarding and protecting ideas, and inventions, developers and publishers will sometimes go that extra mile by taking out patents. As you might already know, developers can file patents to gain sole rights to a new innovation or creation, and protect it from being for a certain amount of time by competitors. It could be anything from a new feature in a game, something that's been developed for hardware, or an original element of gameplay. Once a patent file request has been approved, others can't create or use the same feature or replicate it without the owner's permission. There are now a number of video game patents out there right now that may well surprise you.
When it comes to safeguarding and protecting ideas, and inventions, developers and publishers will sometimes go that extra mile by taking out patents. As you might already know, developers can file patents to gain sole rights to a new innovation or creation, and protect it from being for a certain amount of time by competitors. It could be anything from a new feature in a game, something that's been developed for hardware, or an original element of gameplay. Once a patent file request has been approved, others can't create or use the same feature or replicate it without the owner's permission. There are now a number of video game patents out there right now that may well surprise you.
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00:00 Ever wondered why that amazing bit of tech they use in games or an amazing system never made it
00:04 into other games, like the Nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor? Some of them literally
00:09 transform the game and you wonder why has nobody else used this? Do other gaming developers not
00:14 play this game or know about it? Well it turns out if the system is THAT good, it's probably
00:18 been painted by the company so no other gaming developer can use it without getting sued into
00:23 oblivion. Which has happened and it is on this list. Now Apex Legends' beautifully simplistic ping
00:30 system is one example of a patented system but interestingly it was done for a good cause.
00:35 EA took out a patent on the much lauded ping system in Apex Legends. Patents tend to be used
00:42 by companies to protect innovations but in this instance EA has patented the system as part of
00:46 its Accessibility Patent Pledge, an initiative that opens up accessibility-led patents to
00:51 developers in a bid to encourage collaboration and drive forward accessibility in the video game
00:56 industry. The ping system allows you to communicate with your teammates in Respawn's Battle Royale
01:00 Hero shooter by making points of interest, calling out the location of an enemy and much more,
01:05 as well as reducing in-game toxicity by offering an effective alternative to speaking over voice
01:10 chat. The ping system also helps players with cognitive, speaking and hearing disabilities.
01:15 As you can see here, the patent filing gives a detailed rundown of the system. EA's EVP of
01:20 Positive Play told GamesRadar in a recent interview that "when you patent a technology or idea,
01:25 you publish technical information that would otherwise have never been accessible to the
01:28 public" and as such, this equips developers with know-how and it advances the state of art in game
01:34 development. The Nemesis system introduced in Middle-Earth's Shadow of Mordor and later refined
01:42 in Shadow of War put a refreshing and innovative spin on procedurally generated enemies. Instead
01:47 of fighting nameless, carbon copy foes, Shadow of Mordor pits you against various different members
01:52 of Orc society and each and every one is unique to your playthrough. With their own names and ranks,
01:56 every Orc you come across will remember your encounters to add more depth to the action.
02:00 It quickly became a huge selling point and trademark feature of Monolith's action RPG series.
02:05 Many have wondered why Social Vendettas never made their way out of Mordor and into other
02:10 games in the industry and this, it would appear, is why. After several years of trying Warner
02:15 Brothers Interactive Entertainment successfully painted it the Nemesis system, meaning that the
02:19 appearance of similar systems outside of games produced by Warner Brothers is very unlikely.
02:24 In the medium you take on the role of Marianne who you control in both the real world and the
02:31 spirit world in which developer Bloober team calls dual reality gameplay. The screen is split in half
02:36 so you gain two different perspectives in both worlds. Ahead of the game's release, many were
02:41 quick to notice that Bloober described this dual reality style as never seen before and officially
02:46 painted a gameplay. As it turns out, Bloober filed a patent for this dual reality gameplay back in
02:51 2016. As you can see from the filing, the developer painted the method of simultaneous playing in
02:56 single player video games, where the key feature of the invention is the way of playing in a video
03:01 game for a single player involving simultaneous controlling of several character avatars placed
03:06 in several virtual realities that constitute separately presented story universes. Currently
03:11 active until 2039, it does make you wonder what kind of Bloober projects we might see using this
03:16 style of gameplay in the future. One very prominent part of the Mass Effect experience is actually
03:22 painted by the developer. BioWare requested a patent for the dialogue wheel or graphical interface
03:28 for interactive dialogue used to select your responses back in 2006, which was officially
03:33 approved a few years later. Still currently active, this might go some way to explaining
03:37 why other RPGs that came after this date continue to present dialogue choices in a list form.
03:43 The wheel interface that presents you with a selection of different responses went on to be
03:47 used in the entire Mass Effect trilogy, as well as the more recent Mass Effect Andromeda, and also
03:51 found its way into BioWare's other franchises in both Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age Inquisition.
03:58 With the advent of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, lengthy loading times are quickly becoming a
04:03 thing of the past. But for years we've found ourselves staring at a loading screen as we
04:07 waited to get back into the virtual adventuring. Perhaps one of the most famous and well-known
04:12 patents just so happens to be related to loading screens. Back in 1995,
04:16 Namco took out a patent for the use of auxiliary minigames during loading screens.
04:20 The idea to keep players busy with a minigame while they waited for the main game to load
04:24 was a novel one, with the likes of the classic arcade shooter Galaxian popping up during the
04:28 loading screens for games such as Ridge Racer. There were some ways around the patent,
04:33 with the likes of FIFA including some distractions in between matches,
04:36 but for the most part minigames rarely appeared to mitigate loading times. The patent eventually
04:41 expired in 2015, opening up the door to include minigames in loading screens to developers
04:45 everywhere once more. You may vaguely remember that Crazy Taxi was rather helpful with a big
04:52 green arrow that points you in the direction of your destination. Using this arrow as a guide,
04:56 you try to take your customers to their location in the requested time. Sega filed a patent for
05:01 this directional arrow feature in 1998. As of 2018, it has now officially expired,
05:06 but before it did expire, Sega did sue another game over a green arrow. How dare they?
05:12 It was Simpsons Road Rage that ran afoul of Sega for this infringement back in 2003.
05:17 Eternal Darkness from developer Silicon Knights and Nintendo released on the GameCube back in
05:25 2002. Described as a psychological horror, the adventure included a sanity system which featured
05:31 a meter bar. The meter depletes if your character stumbles upon an enemy or sees a gruesome
05:35 situation. When this happens in game, various effects occur on screen and around the environment
05:40 to show the character is being affected by these encounters. Prior to the game's release,
05:44 Nintendo filed a patent for a video game and game system incorporating a game character's sanity
05:49 level that is affected by occurrences in the game. This patent expired in November 2021,
05:54 so get ready for more sanity systems to start popping up folks.
05:57 Nintendo pioneered the design of the D-pad back in the 80s, and it was such a good design that
06:04 it continued to form a part of Nintendo's consoles and handhelds throughout the years. Given its
06:09 great design, it's not so surprising to learn that Nintendo patented its trademark multi-directional
06:14 switch. While the patent expired in 2005, it is interesting to consider how this patent might
06:19 have influenced the design of button layouts for other controllers for consoles such as the
06:23 Playstation and Xbox when it was still active. Midway Amusement Games took out a now expired
06:31 patent with a rather interesting title back in 2000. It was called "Unlocking Sequence in Video
06:36 Games" and it was essentially a way to sell peripherals by locking game content that could
06:41 only be accessed by using a particular controller. A video game system and method is provided which,
06:46 the enabled content of a video game, depends upon the type of video game controller coupled to the
06:51 video game console, the abstract reads. So, if you were to use a specific controller that's a
06:57 matching type to the game you're playing, it would unlock extra features or secrets,
07:01 in-game that are not otherwise available. Additional paid-for content is nothing new
07:04 in the world of video games, but just imagine having to buy a controller just to get your
07:08 hand on more features and secrets. How annoying. So, what's your favourite video game patent and
07:14 is there any out there that you've heard about? Let us know in the comments below.