Opinion: By playing it safe, WB makes it harder for other games to experiment.
Game studio Monolith, part of Warner Bros. Games until yesterday’s multi-studio shutdown, had a notable track record across more than 30 years, having made Blood, No One Lives Forever, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, F.E.A.R., and, most recently, the Lord of the Rings series, Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War.
Those games, derived from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction, had a “Nemesis System,” in which the enemies that beat the player or survive a battle with them can advance in level, develop distinct strengths and weaknesses, and become an interesting subplot and motivation in the game. Monolith’s next game, the now-canceled Wonder Woman, was teased more than three years ago, and said to be “powered by the Nemesis System.”
Not only will Wonder Woman not be powered by the Nemesis System, but likely no other games will be, either, at least until August 2036. That’s when “Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games,” patent US2016279522A1, is due to expire. Until then, any game that wants to implement gameplay involving showdowns, factions, and bitter NPC feelings toward a player must either differentiate it enough to avoid infringement, license it from Warner Brothers, or gamble on WB Games’ legal attention.