It’s still somewhat protected in the US. The big one in table top gaming was tap mechanics from Magic. That expired in 2014 though. In video games the Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor/war is also patented.
Loading screen mini games are also patented. That’s why loading screens never have mini games. Less of an issue now that game devs have begun avoiding loading screens, but they were extremely common in older generations and they never had mini games to pass the time.
That patent exired almost a decade ago: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12/loading-screen-game-patent-finally-expires
Erm, acktchually! I think Nintendo is pretty cringe here, not based!
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist)
Ok, I’m outta here.
All jokes aside, I would like to weigh in and say that I find the whole patenting of game mechanics to be absolutely appalling. I genuinely don’t get how this is legal, even in Japan. They filed this patent way too late for it to even make sense.
You could’ve made an argument if they patented it back in 1996, but even so… Fuck this. Imagine patenting a screen transition or something?
