On the Nintendo website, they have published a Q&A session between two legends of the gaming industry, Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto. I was was having a read through it and found this little ditty. Apparently, in the 80's Nintendo were considering to patent the art of jumping in video games. Now, this may seem a little silly. I mean, I jump from time to time, you from time to time but at this stage of making video games, no one had really thought of this yet. Nintendo really were the pioneers of jumping in video games. Anyway, here is what they had to say
However, it never came to fruition and Nintendo did not patent jumping in video games. However, I was wondering how different the gaming world would be if he did. Look at it like this, Assassin's Creed 2 just came out and sold 1.5 million copies in it's first week. Now, in this game, all you do is jump. You climb buildings and jump from one to another like it's nothing. Think of the fat pay cheque Nintendo would have received from Ubisoft just to be able to make that game what it is. Then you have Halo. Halo has become synonymous with something called the "Halo jump". Think of the money Nintendo would have received for that.
I don't think it is too much to say that if Nintendo patented jumping in video games, the landscape of the full industry would be different. Would games like Assassin's Creed exist? Maybe Ubisoft would not pay the money to be able to use it and would go on to other expeditions. Would Nintendo have a bigger monopoly in the gaming world? I think so.
But what do you guys think?
However, it never came to fruition and Nintendo did not patent jumping in video games. However, I was wondering how different the gaming world would be if he did. Look at it like this, Assassin's Creed 2 just came out and sold 1.5 million copies in it's first week. Now, in this game, all you do is jump. You climb buildings and jump from one to another like it's nothing. Think of the fat pay cheque Nintendo would have received from Ubisoft just to be able to make that game what it is. Then you have Halo. Halo has become synonymous with something called the "Halo jump". Think of the money Nintendo would have received for that.
I don't think it is too much to say that if Nintendo patented jumping in video games, the landscape of the full industry would be different. Would games like Assassin's Creed exist? Maybe Ubisoft would not pay the money to be able to use it and would go on to other expeditions. Would Nintendo have a bigger monopoly in the gaming world? I think so.
But what do you guys think?
