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by ecf 1903 days ago
Today I learned that 2021 Sega is still in business. Sad to see them devalue themselves and simply become another patent troll.
4 comments

Sega was the top ranked publisher of 2020. They aren't a patent troll at all.

https://www.pcgamer.com/sega-is-metacritics-top-ranked-publi...

This has nothing to do with patents. They're not trolling, which is generally registering something and sitting on it waiting to sue. Sega is a practicing entity with a copyright on a game that's actively being sold.

Someone's made a mistake in this DMCA complaint and Sega's being difficult to reach to resolve it. It's nothing like patent trolling.

> it’s nothing like patent trolling

Sega has army of lawyers and probably massive budget for court fees vs a small 2 people run shop who are actually not infringing anything and don’t have any of those resources. You get where this is going?

Let's not redefine "patent trolling" as bad thing big bad company does. This was clearly a mistake borne from the outsourcing of brand protection onto a firm that clearly is not the greatest at their job.

Thankfully, somebody in SEGA has responded and it should be soon resolved.

I thought your stereotypical patent troll wasn't a firm with access to top notch legal resources, just some people slinging enough shit that eventually it stuck? This would be pretty firmly different, right?
That depends who you ask, but there are two types of trolls. The first, as you describe, basically extort small settlements out of companies using garbage patents--the classic example being the guys who sued small businesses for using a fax machine.

The second are non-practicing entities that buy at least half-way decent portfolios for cheap and then sue big businesses for big settlements or big jury verdicts. Their lawyers can be very good.

It has nothing to do with patents. It's not a non-practicing entity making a claim against big targets hoping for a windfall. It's probably not even intentional from Sega themselves - people make mistakes, even lawyers.

Yes, it involves legal paperwork and the claim is empty. So why not call it a MAGA election suit? It has two things in common with those.

Sega is probably the most friendly videogame company regarding copyright, specially to fan games.
Except for "Streets of Rage remake"
Sega has had a lot of top tier games in recent years.
Which ones? I see a bunch of remasters of old games, but few top tier titles in the past 5 years.
The entirety of the Yakuza series is absolutely fantastic, especially the latest entry (Yakuza: Like a Dragon).
I tried to look it up on SteamDB, but it wasn't there...
It is on SteamDB, right here[0]. It says in giant text "This page was taken down because SEGA is claiming we distribute their game here (we don't)."

However, if you search for the game in the SteamDB search bar (just enter "Yakuza", don't even need the full name), it will show up just fine, with a picture and all, you just won't be able to see the full page. That's how I found that link, so I have no idea how you missed it.

0. https://steamdb.info/app/1235140/

Persona 5 has sold millions of copies. Yakuza 6, Judgement, and Yakuza Like a Dragon all did well. I'm not really interested in Football Manager but I know it's incredibly popular