http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070301/sfth075.html?.v=79
Quote:SAN JOSE, Calif. and FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Immersion Corporation, (Nasdaq: IMMR - News), a leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) today announced the companies have agreed to conclude their patent litigation at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and have entered into a new business agreement to explore the inclusion of Immersion technology in PlayStation® format products.
"We are pleased to have put this litigation behind us," said Immersion CEO Victor Viegas. "Our new business agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment is specifically intended to enable advanced vibration capability for the benefit of the PlayStation gaming community. We are happy to provide our technology in this regard and hope to make technical proposals very soon with respect to use of our technology in the PlayStation products."
Immersion will receive the amount of the judgment entered by the District Court, which includes damages, pre-judgment interest, costs, and interest, in addition to retaining compulsory license fees ordered by the District Court which were already paid. Terms of the business agreement between the parties provide SCE with certain new rights with respect to Immersion's patent portfolio. Additional financial terms are not being disclosed. The conclusion of this litigation and the agreement will have no material impact on Sony's consolidated earnings forecast announced on January 30, 2007.
"We look forward to exploring with Immersion exciting new ways to bring the largest and best range of gameplay experiences to our customers," said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group Chief Operating Officer, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. "We are very excited about our new partnership with Immersion and the potential for new and innovative products incorporating their technologies."
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http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144611
SIXAXIS DUAL SHOCK coming soon? Sony obviously finally realized that they were losing the case and inevitably would eventually have to pay Immersion a lot of money, and decided to just get it over with now instead of later... this also avoids that little 'pulling lots of PS2 games and systems off of the shelf' issue too, I'd imagine.
And so very MANY of these big news sites, and game development houses, have been saying how they would prefer the rumble to the motion sensing.
Now I think rumble is "nice" and all, and it's got a slight bit of immersion to it to feel things as you hit them or stuff blows up, but seriously, it's not a game breaker to lose it, except in the two N64 Zeldas and they could always change the agony stone to a flashing icon in the corner in those cases. To say one would RATHER have it than motion sensing, which is admittedly little more than a 3rd axis the way Sony does it, is silly to me.
Still, nice to see the situation resolved, and now I get why Sony had been ignoring that other group saying they had a way to fix Sony's problem. At any rate, this is yet ANOTHER big sack of cash Sony has had to burn. Shame that.
Now then, to make up for the costs, or just to save money any way they can, Sony is dropping the PS2 emotion engine out of the PS3 in the European models, opting to do the backwards compatibility for PS2 (not PS1) games via emulation 360 style instead. Lovely... The thing is, I wonder if that means we can soon expect US models to get the same treatment? Sony sure knows how to remove features... Further, a better controller/memory card adapter is needed for that PS3, something that allows two players and a firmware update to get all those old peripherals a'workin. Well, actually there's a lot of things Sony could fix with the PS3.
Quote:Now then, to make up for the costs, or just to save money any way they can, Sony is dropping the PS2 emotion engine out of the PS3 in the European models, opting to do the backwards compatibility for PS2 (not PS1) games via emulation 360 style instead. Lovely... The thing is, I wonder if that means we can soon expect US models to get the same treatment?
I'd say chances are about 99.9% that this will happen sooner or later... when, exactly, I have no idea, but Sony definitely wants to save money, and this will happen sooner or later, unfortunately.
Quote:Now I think rumble is "nice" and all, and it's got a slight bit of immersion to it to feel things as you hit them or stuff blows up, but seriously, it's not a game breaker to lose it, except in the two N64 Zeldas and they could always change the agony stone to a flashing icon in the corner in those cases. To say one would RATHER have it than motion sensing, which is admittedly little more than a 3rd axis the way Sony does it, is silly to me.
Sony was just saying that to try to justify why there was no rumble... I don't think that they believed it more than anyone else did. As for rumble, I like it... it's hardly required or anything, but it's a nice extra. Now if they could put force feedback into the thing somehow... :)
Rumble isn't necessary, but would swinging a sword in Twilight Princess have quite the same effect if you hit something and the controller didn't rumble? Sony will definitely be adding rumble to the Sixaxis, which will kind of make their statements saying rumble is "last-gen" look pretty dumb, but it's pretty much taken for granted that whatever Sony says is dumb nowadays.
Quote:but it's pretty much taken for granted that whatever Sony says is dumb nowadays.
Yeah, that really is amazing... Sony has been arrogant for a long time, but right up until before E3 2006 things seemed to be going their way, or at least they were doing well enough. But then everything fell apart and they haven't recovered... their marketing machine is so geared to assuming that they are on top to not be able to recover now that they aren't, I guess. I would have thought that Sony would be able to deal with this (the general PR problems they have been having since last E3) better than they have... obviously not. :)
They really should try just bringing in the group that made them number one during the PS1 days. Those guys actually knew what they were doing, or perhaps it's an isolated success story independant of Sony's own efforts?
Quote:They really should try just bringing in the group that made them number one during the PS1 days. Those guys actually knew what they were doing, or perhaps it's an isolated success story independant of Sony's own efforts?
That is a good question. I know two ago I was saying that perhaps the PSP's best chance for success was Sony's marketing machine... and that was partially true for the PSP, I think. But the way they have completely failed to deal with the PSP for almost an entire year is a sharp contrast to that analysis... "How did Sony's arrogance (which is not a new thing) so impair their thinking that they failed to be able to deal with this" is a very good question.
Wow... "a lot of money" indeed... $150 million dollars total, $97 million of that immediately going to Immersion!
"Sony stocks down, Immersion stocks up" pretty much sums up the reaction...
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070302/sony_play....html?.v=2
Quote:As part of the truce, Sony will pay San Jose-based Immersion $97.2 million in damages and interest, as stipulated in the original court award that Sony was appealing. Sony will also pay $22.5 million in licensing payments through 2009 plus an unspecified amount of fees and royalties.
In total, Sony will cough up at least $150.3 million to settle the litigation, when factoring in $30.6 million in compulsory license payments the Japanese company has already paid.
Wow... Immersion is doing pretty well for themselves... You know, that's actually a great "get rich quick" scheme they have going there. Invent something and patent it putting in token effort to actually produce the tech, then wait for other big name companies to unknowlingly copy your idea, then wait until they make massive profit after a few years to sue them for big bucks. And, in this case, they got the big ones. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, ALL needing to pay big royalties to them? They have it made. Did Sega ever have to pay up for their "jump packs" or did Immersion just let them go when they realized Dreamcast was going to die out anyway?
Quote:Invent something and patent it putting in token effort to actually produce the tech,
While 'patent sitting' or whatever is sometimes a problem, that doesn't apply here. Immersion truly does develop its technology, and has been from the beginning. All Force Feedback controllers (gamepads, joysticks, and wheels) use their technology, and Microsoft liscenced it after Immersion sued them for the Xbox and uses their tech in the X360 too. Immersion has already said some very interesting things about what they're going to do with rumble/force feedback on the PS3... easier tools for developers, more features, etc... they DO work on their technology. The fact that they back it up with lawsuits doesn't mean that they just sue and don't actually do anything else.
Oh yes, and Nintendo doesn't pay Immersion anything. Their rumble is non-infringing; one motor instead of two and some different internal design as well.
I don't know about Sega. Maybe Immersion just didn't pay attention to them... after all, it took them a while before they went after Sony and MS; by the point they brought up those lawsuits, the DC was already dead, I believe. I don't know if Sega would have been sued or not.