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Sony Ordered to Pay For Dual Shock Tech

Posted by Zonk on from the oh-that-was-yours? dept.

GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that a ruling against the Japanese software giant has been handed down in the case of Immersion vs. Sony. Immersion sued the company over the force feedback effect experienced in the dual-shock controller, which it has a patent on. From the article: "Now a Californian district court has ordered Sony to pay a 1.37 per cent license fee based on sales of the PlayStation console and of the named videogames, to be paid quarterly effective from July 1st."

5 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Ditch it by BlackEyedSceva · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anybody think they will just ditch the technology in the next Playstation?

    1. Re:Ditch it by tprime · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Or, because this is only a US court, Sony might decide to remove the forced-feedback component from the controllers sold in the USA while still selling them in Japan. They have split markets in the past with the Playstation and other electronics, I don't know why they wouldn't consider it in this situation.

      If this happens, the market for imported PS3 controllers will be a big one.

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  2. Does anyone know... by Heftklammerdosierer! · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Immersion holds patents for force feedback technology which cover certain aspects of the rumble effect used in game joypads

    to which aspects this refers?

  3. Where is Nintendo in this? by xenocide2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Nintendo was probably the first to market with a rumble device, with the release of Star Fox 64 in 1997. The articles say the lawsuits are over force feedback, which could mean many things. The technical term would be some form of variable resistance applied to the joystick or something, but rumble features are often considered "force feedback." The PS2 has pressure sensative face buttons, which could cause one to contemplate. The Immersion website seems to promote the rumble aspect of force feedback, so clearly Nintendo could be liable.

    Immersion's gone after the other big two (sucessfully), is Nintendo next? Perhaps, but Nintendo's no slouch when it comes to patents themselves, and perhaps Immersion doesn't wish to lose their own patent viability in a court battle with Nintendo. I wonder, if the Immersion and Nintendo patents are similar, if Nintendo can sue for damages and a share of the wealth...

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  4. DIY rumble seat by Mostly+Monkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One of the niftiest things I picked up on while setting up my home theater were some bass shakers. Once set up correctly it causes your chair or entire couch to rumble along with your subwoofer. All you need is a cheap pair of transducers (speaker core without the cone) like the Aura Bass shakers ($30ish a pair) and a cheap amp to drive them ($50 or so if not free. Preferably one that has an output level control for tweeking the amount of shaking). Attach them securely to the framework of the seat and split your linelevel subwoofer output to feed both the sub and the amp for the shakers. The sub output will only send low frequency signals so you don't have to worry about the couch shaking during dialog or other higher frequences.

    There's a huge thread about it at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&t hreadid=330436/.

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