Last night, Warner Bros shocked the industry when it was announced the closure of three studios, including Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’s Monolith Productions. Founded in the 1990s and part of Warner Bros since 2004, the studio was best known for Shadow of Mordor and its follow-up Shadow of War, which both used the studio’s patented Nemesis system.
The Nemesis system, for those unfamiliar, is a clever in-game mechanic which tracks a player’s actions to create enemies that feel capable of remembering past encounters. In the studio’s Middle-earth games, this allowed foes to rise through the ranks and enact revenge.
The Nemesis system was set to be utilised again in Monolith’s Wonder Woman game, though that project has now been cancelled alongside the studio’s sudden closure – leaving the Nemesis system seemingly now lying unused, and protected by Warner Bros due to its successful patent application.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies.
The patent itself – which you can view here – was originally filed back in 2016, before it was granted in 2021. It is dubbed “Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games”. As it stands, the patent has an expiration date of 11th August, 2036.
So, even though Monolith is getting shut down, Warner Bros will be able to retain the patent for the Nemesis system for another 11 years, should it keep up the patent’s associated fees.
Many are upset that this may well mean the death of the Nemesis system. “They really patented the Nemesis System only to do absolutely nothing with it,” wrote one social media user. “RIP the Nemesis system, I guess,” added video game journalist Cade Onder.