User-made mods should not be considered prior art, Nintendo has argued, as part of the company’s lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair.
Nintendo’s claim appears to be an attempt at blocking Pocketpair from using popular Pokémon mods as evidence that the franchise’s patented gameplay was already being featured in other games elsewhere.
The argument put forth by Nintendo — essentially, that mods require a separate base game to function, so therefore are not art by themselves — has raised eyebrows across the games industry and among Pokémon fans alike, with many suggesting it could have far-reaching consequences if accepted by a judge.
Writing in Games Fray, which first reported the development, games industry reporter and legal analyst Florian Mueller described the suggestion that gameplay ideas or innovations featured in mods were not viable as prior art as something that showed “utter disregard for the enormous creativity” of many mod makers.
Additionally, and perhaps more concerning from a legal perspective if accepted, the ruling could potentially open the door to mods being considered “fair game” for patent thieves, who could swoop in and incorporate the same ideas into full game releases — which would then be protected.
“Patents are a special monopoly granted by the governments of the world to encourage creative invention,” business lawyer and creator of the Virtual Legality podcast Richard Hoeg told IGN today. “If something already exists in the world, some new person is not allowed to claim they invented it and get that protection.
“We call everything that already exists ‘prior art,’ and it would be ludicrous to exempt any piece of game design from that category simply because of how it’s stood up in the software. The mechanism for access shouldn’t really matter. It exists. It makes things like it in the world non-novel and thus not subject to protection. We don’t give out monopolies to second place.”
Will Nintendo succeed with its claim? Mueller suggests it is unlikely, as courts typically reject any attempt to narrow what can be considered prior art — with Nintendo taking an “extreme position” here. But time will tell, as the lawsuit shows no sign of winding down.
While Nintendo’s legal threats continue, Pocketpair is busy putting together Palworld’s big 1.0 release, due at some point in 2026. In the meantime, development will focus on removing “jank” from the game, communications director and publishing manager John “Bucky” Buckley said earlier this week, though a smaller winter update is still planned.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
On January 20, 2026, students at the University of Tennessee will attend the world’s first Grand Theft Auto college history class. That’s right: we got a GTA college history class before GTA 6.
‘Grand Theft America: U.S. History Since 1980 through the GTA Video Games’ was devised and will be taught by history professor Tore Olsson, who eagle-eyed IGN fans might remember from our coverage of his Red Dead Redemption American history class — another world first. Accompanying that course was Professor Olsson’s book, Red Dead’s History, and its audiobook narration by none other than Arthur Morgan actor Roger Clark.
It turns out, Professor Olsson had planned to launch his class with GTA 6 firmly under his belt, but Rockstar’s high-profile delay to May 2026 dashed those plans — just as they did those of so many video game publishers. So, with what will no doubt be the biggest entertainment launch of all time waiting in the wings, Professor Olsson will soldier ahead.
In this wide-ranging interview with IGN, Professor Olsson discusses why Grand Theft Auto was the right choice for a history class after Red Dead, what the GTA games get right and wrong in their portrayal of contemporary America, and the place of GTA 6 in the class. But perhaps most important of all, we ask the question: will playing the Grand Theft Auto games count as ‘studying?’
IGN: What’s the basic idea behind this class?
Tore Olsson: Video games are great at conjuring fictional worlds, but they also impact players’ thinking about real-world times and places. And just as Red Dead Redemption 2 has shaped folks’ perception of the nineteenth-century American West or Ghost of Tsushimahas informedtheir vision of feudal Japan, millions of people around the globe imagine contemporary America through the lens of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Just think of how many GTA veterans have recognized landmarks in Los Angeles and New York thanks to their hours in Los Santos and Liberty City!
In my class, I take seriously GTA’s fictional representation of the United States: its characters, its urban and rural landscapes, and its storylines. And I use that world as the framing device for a serious history class that examines what’s actually taken place in the United States over the last half-century. The class is much more about American history than the games themselves, but GTA provides the framework that structures our exploration of the past. My hope is that after the class, students will never look at these games, or modern America, the same again.
IGN: The Red Dead Redemption series, which you’ve worked with in the past, is obviously historical in its framing. Few people think of the Grand Theft Auto games in the same way. How can the GTA games’ contemporary setting serve as the backbone of a college history class?
Tore Olsson: Of course, most folks wouldn’t put GTA in the same category as games set in distant eras, like Red Dead, Assassin’s Creed, or Kingdom Come: Deliverance. But because the franchise is now nearly 30 years old, and because some of the early titles were set a decade or two before their release date, the games capture a particular historical epoch: the United States from 1980 to the present. Vice City Stories (set in 1984) and Vice City (1986) cover the 1980s. San Andreas (1992) and Liberty City Stories (1998) speak to the ‘90s, and then 3, 4, 5, and soon 6 provide different snapshots of the twenty-first century.
I really believe that the years between 1980 and today mark a distinct and cohesive era in American history. If we want to understand the divided and unequal U.S. of today, we have to grapple with what’s happened in that time. 45 years ago, the political fires that burn so hot today were much cooler. Most Americans got their news from the three TV networks – ABC, NBC, and CBS – which presented a very centrist spin on controversial topics. In 1980, the average CEO earned about 25 times the salary of their rank-and-file employees; today it’s nearly 400 times as much. 45 years ago, just over 5% of Americans were immigrants; today the number surpasses 15%. And the U.S. prison population quadrupled between 1980 and 2005.
In many ways, the America of today is unrecognizable from its 1980 version. In my class, we’ll explore how all of this came to change – and we’ll use the fictional world of the GTAgames as the window for this exploration.
IGN: What do the GTA games get right in their portrayal of contemporary America? What do they get wrong?
Tore Olsson: Unlike Red Dead Redemption and other historical games, the GTA franchise is a satirical parody of the past (and present), rather than an attempt at faithful recreation, which means it’s almost a waste of time to list what it gets wrong. But just for fun… here’s a few. Every GTA game depicts an America plagued by violence and criminality. This is rather ironic given that homicide and car theft, as two examples, plunged dramatically from the early ‘90s until the pandemic. The games imagine an America largely without suburbs or traffic. (Have you ever actually visited L.A.?) They present a society where most women seem to find their primary employment in sex work, and where people of color are often gang members. It’s not hard to see the flaws (and ugliness) in such a portrayal. Or what about the fact that no vehicle seems to have door locks?
But I find the games much more interesting – and useful in the class – when their parody rings true. For example, Los Santos, Liberty City, and Vice City are each home to bustling container ports – what 5 calls “the orifice of American capitalism” – that often sit near rusting manufacturing districts. This is spot-on: arguably no technology was more transformative of post-1980 America than the shipping container, which facilitated the global outsourcing of U.S. industry. Or there’s GTA’s radio stations, where much of the games’ sharpest social commentary takes place. In 4 (set in 2008) and 5 (2013), we encounter a highly polarized media landscape where rival political commentators spit acid at each other from separate stations. But the talk radio of the Vice City and San Andreas era are very different: here, an assortment of weirdos debate each other on a single station. It’s an interesting (and perhaps unintentional!) reference to how in 1987 Ronald Reagan began the deregulation of television and radio with the repeal of 1949’s “fairness doctrine,” which paved the way to overtly partisan networks like Fox News and MSNBC.
IGN: Can you give an example how you plan to use the games’ storylines to teach historical content?
Tore Olsson: I’ve invested more hours than I care to admit in playing these games, and I’m eager to use their plots and characters to teach big historical topics. I’m perhaps most excited to use San Andreas, set primarily in a fictional Los Angeles of 1992. As many know, the game follows Carl “C.J.” Johnson as he returns to the West Coast, seeking to evict drug dealers from his neighborhood and then free his brother from prison, while crooked cops seek to derail his plans. The narrative climax of the game comes when these police officers are found innocent of their crimes, which triggers a vast urban rebellion against the miscarriage of justice. “Los Santos will burn tonight,” declares an in-game news anchor ominously.
It’s probably obvious to many that this drama is an allusion to the L.A. Riots of April and May 1992, one of the most significant turning points in contemporary U.S. history, but also one that is widely misunderstood. Explaining the origins and meaning of this violent convulsion is a key goal of my class. Most folks understand the 1992 riots as a knee-jerk reaction to the videotaped police beating of Black motorist Rodney King and the near-total acquittal of the officers charged. But that explanation lacks backstory and context, some of which San Andreas hints at, but much of which is absent from the game.
Immigration, policing, capitalism, drugs, government policies – these are all towering dilemmas of contemporary America. And it’s my plan to use GTA’s allusion to them as the entry point for a history that I hope will be fresh and timely to many students.
IGN: How can a less-than-serious video game be the foundation for a serious college class?
Tore Olsson: It might surprise or even shock some folks to learn of a college class built around the fiction of a video game, and especially this franchise. But video games have by now moved from the margins to the mainstream. Other forms of pop culture have made the same journey before. 50 years ago, it would have been unthinkable to find a “history of rock’n’roll” class at a college or university, thanks to the music’s edgy and risqué reputation. Today, that exact course is one of the most popular at my institution. Perhaps a generation from now we’ll see many more courses built around the digital fiction of games.
When it comes to GTA’s unique brand of unseriousness, I’ve certainly played enough to become familiar with its cynical, irreverent, and crude sense of humor. Sometimes this is amusing; often it’s not. In my class, I’m steering clear of the games’ most distasteful satire. Instead, I’ll be emphasizing the elements that are most evocative of big social, cultural, and political paradoxes – of which there’s plenty.
And from day one, I’ll take great pains to establish that this is a serious college class that will handle weighty and difficult topics, which we’ll always approach with sensitivity and respect. I’ll make clear that my classroom is a professional environment for students, nothing like their friend’s basement where they may have played GTA for the first time. I’m confident that my 20 years of experience teaching challenging subjects – and my four years of working through such material via the Red Dead games – have prepared me to navigate the unique demands of teaching through a complex piece of pop culture like GTA.
There’s also the question of GTA’s nihilistic violence, which has been the subject of controversy many times during its career. In no way do I celebrate or endorse that digital bloodshed. Indeed, the core message of my course is profoundly anti-violent, revealing the common humanity and strivings of all Americans. My hope is that students will walk away from this class with the understanding that Americans are divided today because powerful forces profit from that division, and that a more harmonious future is possible.
IGN: Has there ever been a class like this before?
Tore Olsson: Not really! Certainly there have been other college classes built around pop culture, whether Taylor Swift or HBO’s The Wire, and there are other historians who teach using video games – though it’s fairly rare to see instructors frame a class around one particular game franchise. There’s been a game design course at a Canadian university on GTA, but its goals are very different from what I’ll do as a historian. I’ve searched far and wide but have come across no previous examples of instructors in traditional disciplines who’ve made these games central to a class – which is rather surprising, given how astoundingly popular GTA has become in the last two decades.
IGN: Are students required to buy or play any of the games? Will playing the games count as ‘studying?’
Tore Olsson: I bet many students would embrace that kind of studying! But no, I’m afraid they will be disappointed on that count. As with my previous courses on Red Dead Redemption, I don’t require students to own or play the games during our semester. I’d be anxious asking cash-strapped students to buy a pricy console or gaming PC plus the games themselves. And I never examine students on the fictional content of the games; there’ll never be an exam question about Trevor Philips or Niko Bellic.
However, that’s not to say that the games will be absent from the class – far from it. I begin each lecture by showing game footage or screenshots on our topic of the day. Sometimes I’ll pull out a controller and briefly play on my laptop and projector – perhaps loading shipping containers in the Port of Los Santos – before proceeding to the core historical content. I expect many students will be familiar with the GTA franchise, though ultimately their knowledge of game lore won’t do much to earn them an A. Yet I do hope that their passion for the games’ fictional world will inspire a similar dedication for learning the history that informs the games in the first place.
IGN: What is the place of GTA 6 in the class?
Tore Olsson: I had originally hoped that it would be a major part! I first began planning this class more than a year ago, when GTA 6 was scheduled for release in late Fall of 2025 – well-timed for the start of our semester in January 2026. Of course, the recent delay to May 2026 made that impossible. So yes, that’s why we got a GTA college history class before we got GTA 6! (I really hope 6’s release date doesn’t fall during Spring final exams week, because I’d be very worried about my students’ ability to concentrate…) I certainly plan to integrate the new game into future versions of the course, but for now I’ll have to rely on the older games. Thankfully that’s a ton of material.
IGN: Is it a coincidence that you’re turning to another Rockstar game after RDR, or is there something unique about that developer’s game formula that allows a historian to base a course around?
Tore Olsson: I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Few developers rival Rockstar in terms of the granular detail that goes into their games. But I also think Rockstar is rather rare in their eagerness to comment on the social fabric of American life. Their games – from L.A. Noire through Red Dead through GTA – are all interested in saying something about the unique strangeness of the American experiment. What they say is sometimes thoughtful, sometimes not – but that they’re trying is fascinating.
IGN: What advice do you have for folks who are curious about your class but are not students at the University of Tennessee and can’t enroll in it?
Tore Olsson: First off, follow me on social media – on X/Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok – where I’ll be sharing regular updates about what we’re doing in the class, and my thoughts on GTA 6. I loved the work of adapting my college class on Red Dead Redemption into a book for wider audiences, and it was a dream to work with Roger Clark as the book’s narrator. So I’m very much considering the possibility of doing the same with ‘Grand Theft America’ – perhaps with an equally perfect audiobook narrator? Stay tuned!
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
I confess, after reading the comments on yesterday’s Endless Legend 2 early access impressions, I am mortally afeared that I’m one of those accursed “positive outliers” I keep reading about in the Gamer Witchfinder Almanac. Seemingly, a fair portion of you were turned off by the recent Steam demo. You may be interested, then, to read specifics about how Amplitude have changed the game in response to demo feedback.
There was really only one way to enhance the prospect of an Antarctic open world game with a choice of playable penguins that’s actually a fractious retelling of Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness, created by the developers of Umurangi Generation. And that one way was to hire Lenval Brown, narrator for Disco Elysium‘s special edition, to voice the first proper trailer. And also, make the trailer look a lot like John Carpenter’s The Thing. No further words from me are needed or desired. Find the footage below.
Fortnite maker Epic Games will allow creators to sell in-game items through its platform — and earn a better cut of sales than via Roblox.
The announcement comes at an interesting time for Fortnite as a whole, which has seen lower than average player numbers for its core battle royale modes over the summer. At the same time, Roblox’s player count has spiked thanks to trending hits like Grow a Garden and Steal a Brainrot.
Now, Epic Games is doubling down on encouraging creators to its platform, after several weekends where a Fortnite version of Steal a Brainrot soared in popularity. Next up for Fortnite’s third-party offerings will be the ability to sell items directly, with a better cut of the sales than in Roblox handed over to creators.
In a blog post on the announcement, Epic Games highlighted that it will hand over 50% of the V-Bucks value of purchases made in third-party experiences after store/platform fees, raised to 100% through the program’s first year (until December 31, 2026). Taking those store/platform fees into account, that translates to creators earning 37% of in-game sales, doubled to 74% for the first year. In comparison, as Epic Games itself points out, Roblox offers 25%.
The message here is clear: come launch your game on Fortnite’s platform and you’ll earn more money per dollar spent — and considerably more to start off with. It’s a similar tactic to one Epic Games has used before, to encourage developers onto its Epic Game Store rather than Steam. But it’s worth remembering that, while a better percentage, Fortnite’s player numbers are far below those of Roblox — meaning that while creators might earn less per dollar spent, they may still see far more money made.
Alongside this announcement, Epic Games has also announced a tweak to its creator payouts for engagement in third-party experiences, with better rewards for those who are detected as bringing in new or lapsed players. Here, it feels like Epic Games is clearly pushing creator content as a way to widen its audience further, rather than something that simply offers current players new things to do (another challenge it has faced over the past few months, with new additions in various battle royale offerings feeling like they’re just shuffling existing players around modes).
The push to highlight creator-made content will continue with the introduction of a “sponsored” block on Fortnite’s main screen, Discover, where creators will be able to pay Epic Games for placement. Long-term, Epic says it will use 50% of this revenue for its creator engagment payouts, though this will be boosted to 100% of the revenue for the first year. After that, Epic Games will keep the other 50%, for use covering server costs, safety and moderation tools, and R&D. “In recent years, Epic has been investing and operating the business at a loss,” the company noted.
Another change that better angles Fortnite towards its creator-made experiences will be the long-awaited launch of the game’s “thin client”. Beginning on mobile and PC, players will be able to download a smaller version of Fortnite with just its popular Blitz Royale mode included, along with the ability to play creator-made games. Other modes — even including Fortnite’s main battle royale — will then require additional downloads, if desired. It’s a smart way to get people playing trending hits like Steal a Brainrot without requiring a larger download than necessary. But it’s also feels like an eye-opening shift in priority for the company, and an acknowledgement Fortnite’s core Epic-made modes may no longer be the game’s hottest draw.
Fortnite has changed repeatedly over the years, from PVE zombie experience to battle royale, to a metaverse-y platform full of other genres. And while Fortnite’s next transformation isn’t wholly unexpected — the percentage of players in creator-made modes has been rising for years — it feels like it may be its most dramatic yet. There’s no suggestion that Fortnite battle royale is going away, of course, and there’s good reason to think its lucrative battle passes and live events will stick around for a long time yet as a differentiator to other platforms, as well as a way to introduce more IP crossovers. But with the growing focus on creator-made content — and the sheer number of players now engaged with it across Fortnite and Roblox — the game’s next era looks clear.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
The great ‘dematuring’ of videogames continues with reports that Valve are now forbidding “post-launch NSFW content” for games on Steam, even those that are already “adult-only”. That’s according to Crimson Delight Games, the developers of fantasy RPG Tales of Legendary Lust: Aphrodisia. They launched it on September 15th with adult content warnings, after submitting it to Valve’s review process in August, and had planned to add sexy scenes through updates while working on a big DLC expansion for 2026.
These updates are not going to happen anymore, apparently because everybody’s favourite PG-rated cartoon villains, global payment networks, are putting pressure on Valve. Instead, the updates will need to be submitted as proper official DLC so that Valve can give them a formal review.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds‘ street date has reportedly been broken by some retailers, and the physical copies getting into fans’ hands seemingly confirm what’s coming up in the upcoming DLC via a leaflet nestled inside — including one character we didn’t yet know about: Mega Man.
What the leaflet doesn’t reveal is when we can expect to play, committing only to a broad “coming soon” window. But as we already knew that additional content from fan-favorite franchises like Minecraft and the inimitable SpongeBob Squarepants are coming in October and November, respectively, it’s possible the DLC logos have been listed in order, which could suggest we’ll see the Mega Man DLC ahead of TMNT and Avatar Legends, possibly in January if its a monthly schedule.
CrossWorlds is, of course, going up against Switch 2 exclusive kart game Mario Kart World, which has so far resisted adding guest characters from outside Nintendo’s portfolio. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is due out on both the Switch and the Switch 2, so it looks like fans are getting some old-fashioned Mario vs. Sonic rivalry when Sega’s effort launches later this month.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
As the reviews for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds go live this week, physical copies of the game (which aren’t available to the general public until next week) have now reportedly “leaked” upcoming Season Pass and DLC collaborations.
If you don’t want any spoilers, you might want to navigate away from this page now. Right, with the warning out of the way, according to a photo of the physical version doing the rounds, Capcom’s Mega Man series will be featured in the Season Pass as the last “paid DLC” collab slot.
Pokémon‘s fifth generation kicked off 15 years ago today with the release of Pokémon Black & White in Japan.
On 18th September 2010, the world first stepped foot into Unova, a brand new Pokémon region based on North America, specifically New York City’s metropolitan area, with a mix of landmarks inspired by the area and other part of the whole country.
A long, long time ago, in a faraway land, a group of indie developers from El Salvador landed in Spain with great excitement in their luggage. After making connections and overcoming hardships, they finally managed to settle in Barcelona and begin their adventure to “Turn nostalgic games into beautiful experiences!”
With this in mind, HyperThreeStudio team formed by brothers Isaac and Abraham got to work. Their condition as twins became the inspiration for the main theme of their game, where the player will have to “spot the differences” between two almost identical 3D dioramas.
With the theme decided, the team could start working, although there were still many critical points to settle first, such as the game’s core gameplay, the style to use, the type of rewards for the player, and countless other details they gradually worked their way through.
The process of creating new levels is slow and requires a great deal of attention, as all the models used in the different 3D dioramas are unique and are manually created by Abraham, the main person responsible for bringing the models to life.
With the game taking shape and the “No Penalty” concept in mind, they were certain that the game’s mechanics and levels had to be pleasant and relaxing. With BigRicePiano’s talent at the melody, combined with the beautiful 3D dioramas, the team achieved the calming atmosphere they were aiming for. From there, it was just a matter of continuing to create more models and levels featuring tiny people, tuned controls for both gamepad and mouse, adding snow and wind particle effects, ambient sounds of seagulls, many other small but cozy details so the player only has to sit back and enjoy.
The team wanted to offer a complete game, packed with levels and differences, with a personal charm and also affordable for everyone and guess what? Their formula was a success! Tiny Lands was released on Steam in January 2021 and boasts 92% “Very Positive” reviews, which led the team to fully commit to creating more levels and DLCs for their community.
In this way, over the following years, HyperThreeStudio kept creating and adding levels to the game, which already had 100 levels in its base version. After releasing the DLCs Expansion Pack 1, Expansion Pack 2, Expansion Pack 3, and The Final Challenge, the game reached a total of 200 levels, every single one handcrafted and with no repeated models!
And that’s how we arrive at the release of Tiny Lands: Deluxe Editionon Xbox, offering the entire collection of levels in a single product, with no additional purchases or annoying installations. Just relaxation, peace, and plenty of differences! Will you be able to find them all?
The HyperThreeStudio team is currently working on the game’s sequel, applying all the feedback and experience gained from the first version. Stay tuned in their socials for more information, and pick up Tiny Lands Deluxe Editionon Xbox today!
Tiny Lands – Deluxe Edition is a relaxing 3D game about finding the differences between two handcrafted dioramas. If you are looking for a game that allows you to just sit back and play Tiny Lands is for you!
Tiny Lands – Deluxe Edition includes all DLC worlds:
– Desert mysteries
– City lifestyle
– Warmy christmas
– Traditional food
– Cozy interiors
– Fairy tales
– Fish tanks
– Amusement park
– Pirates
This also includes the “Final Challenge” special world for those who are ready for the ultimate Tiny Lands experience.
Over 100 additional handcrafted dioramas are waiting for you!
