Nintendo's Playstation Settlement Bombshell (or not...updated)

Magamo writes "Console Talk has the story on a settlement between Sony and Nintendo over the rights to the "PlayStation" name, which was originally a joint owned copywrite, given to a CD and Cartridge based system to play SNES games. The settlement is for 10% of Sony's proceeds, past and present on the "PlayStation" name, currently amounting to approximately $2.3 billion. Nintendo is allowing Sony to pay it off in installments over the next 20 years. Nintendo currently plans on using the money to create a new game studio comprised of members of some of the biggest in the japanese industry, in order to create titles exclusively for the GameCube. Hmm, my guess is that Sony's next console will be shying away from the PlayStation moniker..." CD: It seems that I might have fallen for a hoax. Doh!

Comments

WOW

[crumbz]

Considering that the PS2 has been responsible for SONY staying in the black for the past couple of years, this is huge. Even more for Nintendo. Given that the average age of the game player is increasing, methinks that Nintendo better start creating content (love that phrase) for adults pretty soon.

Sorry but

[jchawk]

I'm sorry but this is bullshit, something like this would be major news especially considering that Sony is a publicly traded company and would have been obligated to inform it's investors that it was being sued.

Sorry guys, no news here move along, it's bullshit.

Re:Sorry but

[SuperRob]

I can't beleive Slashdot was taken in by this hoax. This was concocted on an internet forum and has been spreading like wildfire. This ConsoleTalk story is an amalgamation of several popular "rumors" all concerning a major announcement to hit in the next few days, but This one is completely untrue.

Sure

[sprayNwipe]

Yep, this is definitely true. A major story like Nintendo getting 10% of past sales from the PlayStation brand would definitely be only reported on an unreputable site like ConsoleTalk, and not on, say, Yahoo News, CNN, or Reuters.

And as for no news from Nintendo and Sony about this? That's just because they're slow in getting the press release out. Right.

This isn't true. How about doing some small amount of research next time before publishing the article.

This is related to the "Megaton" announcement from Nintendo coming soon. Some sites say it's Capcom being bought by Nintendo, some sites say it's Sony paying Nintendo money for the PS brand, some sites have equally ridiculous stories. All sites are rumours and aren't true (so far), as no announcement has been made.

Re:Hrm...

[Dimensio]

I doubt that much. Only the name is copyrighted, and somehow I doubt that merely mentioning the name when discussing backwards compatability would qualify for royalty payments.

Re:I bet this is a faek story.

[Anonymous Coward]

>Suggestions:
>- Make sure all words are spelled correctly.

That is a good suggestion. Maybe you want to try it yourself next time?

YUO FAEKED ME OUT! JeffK waz hear!

Funny thing is..

[Inoshiro]

Even though I'm an adult, I still find the same things fun.

It's not like I suddenly stopped finding Metroid fun. Metroid will always be fun. To actually say something that implies you stop enjoying certain things once you get past a set age, well.... I call bullshit.

Re:Funny thing is..

[nomadic]

Sure, I like to play fun, "kids" games too.

But I, like a lot of the people here, want to occasionally play a game that someone tried to push the envelope with. Game design should be an art, too, and that means grown up storylines occasionally.

Fun is not synonymous with enjoyable. 2001: A Space Odyssey is not a "fun" movie, but I get more enjoyment out of it than any comedy or mindless action film. The latter may be a good way to kill two hours, but you stop thinking about it soon after you see it. A great movie stays with you for a lot longer.

Anyone who's finished Shenmue knows that sizeable chunks of the game aren't very fun. But the lulls make the action scenes more worthwhile.

Look at Ico. The genius of the game wasn't in the gameplay; it was in the characters' movements, the music, the storyline, the atmosphere. I think most children would miss a lot of the beauty, simply because they haven't developed emotionally enough to catch the more subtle touches.

It's not like I suddenly stopped finding Metroid fun. Metroid will always be fun. To actually say something that implies you stop enjoying certain things once you get past a set age, well.... I call bullshit.

I'm not sure if I could have appreciated games like Ico or Shenmue as much if I played it as a child. In the same way, things I enjoyed as a kid (like FPSes) I don't enjoy the same way anymore. Like any other red-blooded American boy, violence thrilled me; now it just depresses me. When I was younger I liked numeric-based CRPGs (Might and Magic, Bard's Tale, etc), but now I wouldn't even start a game with endless, menu-driven combat like that. Life's too short.

So what's so awful about the idea that tastes change as you grow older?

Somebody just got duped by a fanboy

[nukem1999]

This is all pure speculation related to an upcoming "megaton" announcement Nintendo is supposed to make in the near future. The speculation ranges from this story to Nintendo buying Campcom and Sega. It's all been a contest to see who can get their page linked the most with the most outrageous story, and it looks like this site won.

As for the actual announcement, please don't post any more news on it until you see it on nintendo.com

Re:Well, damn

[brandorf]

Considering that "Playstation 2" is a pretty long name, and The Playstation and Playsion have always has the abbreviations "PSX" and "PS2" respectively, I woud not be suprised if the next console is simply called the PS3.

Re:Well, damn

[packeteer]

Sure you will... this is the most obvious hoax i have ever seen posted to slashdot. Consolenews is FULL of spoof articles. Dont you think we would be reading this from the wall street journal if it was a $2.3 billion settlement? Don't you think Sony would fight this untill the end of time? it would be so tied up in the legal process we would never see the end...

Its a funny reas as are most of the spoof articles but i thought people KNEW it was a hoax at first.

I don't believe it

[mao che minh]

No company whom's livelyhood is in an industry as volatile and sudden as gaming would agree to a "20 year" payment plan. That is absurd. I could see a massive corporation like Canon agreeing to maybe a 10 year suit of this magnitude with a much smaller company like Hewlitt-Packard/Compaq (in case you didn't know, Canon has patents on almost all laser printer and camera technologies, and builds almost all of HP's printers and the components that go in cameras - such a suit could be concievable if HP slipped up). This is because Canon knows that it will be around for at least another 20 years, and HP at least 15. But 20 billion from Sony over 20 years? Not likely. Nintendo would rather have 3 billion right now. The market in which Nintendo thrives would demand it.

True, but not what the original poster said.

[Inoshiro]

The original poster was trying to imply that any game with bright, primary colours, or any game with Mario, had to be a kids game. That such games were only of enjoyment to kids. Ludicrous!

I still enjoy video games a lot. Granted, I don't have nearly as much patience for jumping puzzles as I used to (which could also be linked to the greater numbers of games I own ;)), but I still enjoy Mario Party 4, Super Monkey Ball, Smash Bros, etc. Games marked as "kiddy" by some. I play the crap out of them until my controllers don't work anymore. Is there something wrong with me? Not at all. I also enjoyed Monsters, Inc -- another "cute" movie which happenened to have depth, and a great execution.

OUCH

[katalyst]

That must have hurt Sony. However, this shows how important the "brand"/name is to a company. Hmm.. I wonder if Micrsoft will get sued by some sextoy company for using "XBox".
This case is very interesting though. There was no news about this "Playstation" controversy. Doesn't a company have to run through an agency before it launches a product of a particular name?

Urban Legends

[Smid]

As they happen on slashdot.

Trouble with some modern journalists, is they sometimes research their information before they print it. Otherwise they get sued.

If I hadn't read and dismissed this one from uk.games.video.gamecube three weeks ago, and dismissed it as another bit of unlikely speculation on nintendos "big announcement" (which is more likely a Pokemon game), then I might have believed it.

More importantly the Sony stockholders might have believed it too, and the large corporations.

Ok, so maybe slashdot has the freedom to post an urban legend every so often, but do watch out, it might cost you a lot of money one day...

Chrisd, you should be fired.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's true. Chris, this is your JOB for God's sake! You get PAID to do this! This story is an obvious fraud. The site didn't get "slashdotted," you see, as other people have pointed out, there was no such story on Console Talk to begin with. The submitter posted a fake link. All it would have taken for you to realize this was fraud was to click the damn link!!! But you didn't even do that! What if it had been a link to goatse.cx?

And what about Console Talk? Because of you, thousands of slashdotters think Console Talk is full of shit, when in fact the bogus story was never on their site to begin with!

Chris, you screwed up, and you should apologize to Slashdot, and to Console Talk.

Re:Not slashdotted

[iapetus]

More likely that the site took the article down in a desperate attempt to conceal the fact that they'd been posting blatantly false 'news' stories. I find it hard to believe that anyone who knows *anything* about the console market would believe this for a minute.

Here Here!

[Chris Canfield]

I don't understand this nationwide taboo against admitting to enjoying anything that might be labeled "for kids." How many parents enjoyed Aladdin, or Spirited Away? I have a deep suspicion that Americans refuse to like things tainted with the "kid" label because they never grew out of that pre-adolescent phase where they had to constantly prove they weren't pre-adolescents.

In Video Gaming, anything lighthearted and fun gets labeled "Kids," and anything edgy and violent gets labeled "adults." While an adult movie like What Women Want can be fun, very few adult games retain that sense of lighthearted enjoyment.

Kids games are also in digestably shorter bites, with more intense enjoyment up front, for the little one's attention spans. This is great when you are trying to grab a moment between work and a trip to the grocery store.

That's just my opinion, but I'm not wrong.

-C