Sega seeks 1 billion yen damages for suing MementoMori over mechanic patents.

It's still too early to tell which way the wind will blow, but it feels like Nintendo has opened Pandora's Box in Japan. For those who are unaware, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Palworld in September after a few quiet months. Sega is now attempting to claim damages for MementoMori - a 2022 mobile game with a PC client.

According to Otaku Souken's report, the lawsuit alleges a set five patents were infringed. These patents are, as you may guess, primarily relating to fairly innocuous mechanics of gacha. I am unable to go into the specifics of the case myself. Patent language is obnoxiously roundabout and specific at best, but there is also a language barrier here in terms translation.

Serkan Toto, a Japanese game industry consultant, analysed the changes yesterday on X. He noted that 5930111 "solves conflicting psychological issues" when using rare items, but translates to a "specific system for fusing characters of the same type more easily". One of the changes, 6402953, appears to describe a gacha system specific for character pulls.

Otaku Souken notes that MementoMori, which accounted for 90% of recent sales at Bank of Innovation, was a huge success. According to the report, both companies had been in discussions about the dispute but "could not reach an agreement". Bank of Innovation, as expected, disputes Sega's claim and says it will continue to run the game if necessary. Toto reports that the stock price of the studio dropped sharply by 17% in response to the news.

According to IP attorney Kirk Sigmon who PC Gamer spoke with in the aftermath of Nintendo's suit, filings such as this must be hyper-specific and prove that each word in the patent has been infringed by the developer. This is a risky step in itself.

"If Nintendo asserted a patent and they went overly broad, it's possible that Palworld will find proof that these concepts were not new. They've exposed them in a major way."

Sega is even more aggressive with this legislation. It has filed five patent claims instead of what appears to only be two from Nintendo. Logically, this means that it has more to prove. I'm still trying to figure out what the reasoning behind this one is.

Palworld is - and I'm not saying that I agree with this--a kind of direct challenge to Nintendo. It's a clear satirical jab at the Pokemon games. It's actually more shocking that the notoriously litigious company waited so long before going for the kill. Has there ever been so much animosity between Sega and MementoMori (which has mobile games) in the past? The damages sought total Y=1billion (around $6.6m) and are a mere drop in the ocean compared to the SegaSammy operating income of Y=56.8billion (around $376m).

It's not the case for Bank of Innovation. They stand to lose much more. And no matter how you feel about gacha games (mine is pretty scathing, to be honest), it's hard to think of this as anything but another company entering a market where there should be a lot of innovation, and putting pressure on smaller studios. The mechanic patents are a real blight in the industry. They're the reason why the awesome nemesis systems from the Mordor game series never saw use.

To see more of this nonsense is to weaken the spirit. Especially as part of a growing trend that could see smaller Japanese studios fearing to cook. Especially since Toto portends similar doom. "Sega's suit following Nintendo's legal actions against Palworld's owner Pocket Pair may also signal a trend of big Japanese studios seeking damages from smaller ones who launch surprise hit games." We can only cross fingers that there's hope at the bottom of this box.