A videogame patent lawyer breaks down Nintendo’s risky Palworld lawsuit- ‘It definitely feels like a punishment’

Last week, Nintendo announced that it was pursuing a patent lawsuit against Pocketpair, the developers of Palworld. The announcement kicked off a frenzy of discourse and speculation: Is Nintendo suing Pocketpair over patents on Pokémon catching? What are Pocketpair’s odds of survival when staring down the Nintendo legal behemoth? Why can a videogame publisher hold patents on game design in the first place?

Navigating the complicated world of intellectual property law is a nightmare in the best circumstances, so I sought out an expert. Earlier this week, I spoke with Kirk Sigmon, an IP attorney whose early days in Tokyo law firms has led to a lengthy history with videogame patent law. Sigmon regularly writes on videogame law, recently publishing a paper in the Cardozo Law …

Asus’ tone deaf response to ongoing RMA support issues isn’t going to encourage me to keep recommending Asus tech-

Almost a week on from a Gamers Nexus video detailing its own, and many others’ terrible RMA experiences with Asus’ customer support, the company has finally released a statement addressing what it calls “some gaps in our RMA communication process in the US and Canada.”

And it’s still not a good look.

I’ve said this to Asus myself; it’s a pretty damned tone deaf response to the issue. Its statement, which you can read in full below, seemingly absolves itself of any problems within the process beyond poor communication, and effectively lays the issue at the door of customers getting confused and not understanding how it all works.

Here’s the statement in full:

Enhancing Our RMA Communication Processes in US and Canada

Recent feedback has highlighted som…

Indie games showcase Day of the Devs is now officially a non-profit organization-

Day of the Devs has come a long way from its debut in 2012 as an indie games showcase hosted by Double Fine Productions and iam8bit. It’s now “a fully independent 501c3 non-profit,” which organizers say will make its fundraising efforts in support of indie developers “more transparent and public.”

The announcement of the shift to official non-profit status was accompanied by the start of Day of the Devs’ first fundraising campaign and details about its plans for 2024, including an in-person event in March in San Francisco, an online Summer Game Fest showcase, and then in winter a “Game Awards Edition” of Day of the Devs that will be both in-person and online.

“We have essentially always run things as a non-profit, but making it official—through a fiscal sponsorship par…

Major Taiwan earthquake temporarily halts production at Nvidia and AMD chipmaker-

A ~7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Taiwan on Wednesday morning has left many injured and at least seven dead in official reports. The earthquake, one of the strongest to hit the island in decades, also led to TSMC, the largest manufacturer of computer chips in the world, closing its doors temporarily.

TSMC, the primary manufacturer of many of today’s leading performance computer chips, including those from Nvidia, AMD, and Apple, had reportedly halted production and evacuated some locations, according to a report from Bloomberg. 

The Guardian has confirmed with TSMC that workers are now returning to its many fabs in the area, though further inspections of the highly sensitive equipment used in the production of computer chips is still ongoing.

Here’s the stat…

Here’s the trailer for Destiny 2’s new raid, teasing The Final Shape’s final showdown with The Witness-

Watch On

Destiny raids have always featured fights against the universe’s biggest bad guys, but they don’t get bigger than what’s waiting at the end of Salvation’s Edge. The Final Shape’s raid, opening its doors tomorrow at 10 AM Pacific, will finally pit players against The Witness—the primordial antagonist whose forces we’ve been fighting for a decade. Imagine like, the most evil guy, but times a million. The Witness is like that. But worse!

In the raid trailer released today, Bungie’s hype building is as on-point as ever, with all the slick slow-motion and song-synchronized gun reloads we’ve come to expect from a Destiny sizzle reel. Judging from all the clusters of massive, grasping hands and agonized, dismembered statues, Salvation’s Edge looks like it’ll be spo…

Star Wars Jedi Survivor shows off slick prequel-style combat and a weird walk-

Developer Respawn has released a nine minute clip of the upcoming Stars Wars Jedi: Survivor and, yep, this sure looks like a Star Wars game with a Jedi, surviving. What it does show is returning protagonist Cal Kestis (and his droid BD-1) making their way around a new planet, Koboh, which they’ve apparently crash-landed on.

Koboh is a lush environment that is host to a Separatist hideout, with various battle droids patrolling around alongside plenty of local fauna, and of course some bigger nasties that demonstrate the game’s lightsaber combat. Respawn had already talked about the combat focus of the sequel, with Cal having five “full realised” stances to switch between while fighting

Cal has clearly been in training with new combo moves for his double-bladed lightsab…