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PlayStation Sales Halted?

Posted by Zonk on from the you'd-think-they'd-have-thought-that-through dept.

Narf Narf writes "According to Japan Today, the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, has ordered Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and its U.S. unit to pay $90.7 million in damages to Immersion Corp. for patent infringement over controllers used with PlayStation game consoles. In the ruling handed down Thursday, the federal court also ordered Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Entertainment America Inc. to stop selling the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game consoles using Dualshock controllers as well as more than 40 game software products." Update: 03/28 04:51 GMT by Z : ...which was followed immediately by an injunction, to allow Sony time for an appeal, and a compulsory licensing agreement.

5 of 581 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Greed at work? by hendridm · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Would it not have been easier for Sony to acquire the [Immersion Corp.] company before this mess happened?

    Perhaps that's exactly what SCO was thinking. IBM and Sony know better - succumb to blackmail once and you're an instant target for others...

  2. Re:Greed at work? by confidential · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That seemed to actually be the goal of Immersion, according to a family member who worked there until recently. They do make some cool stuff such as some really nice force feedback instruments for medical applications, but it seemed like they were horribly mismanaged and simply looking to last long enough to get their money out of SCE and MS and then run.

  3. Re:Greed at work? by Quarters · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Immersion (IMMR) has 23.72 million shares outstanding with a current share price of $5.75. If Sony had wanted to acquire Immersion they would've had to offer at least Immersions current market cap of $136.39M (US). That's assuming they wanted to buy Immersion *now*. A year ago the price would've been closer to $230M, as the share price was up around $10 in Q1 of 2004.

    While $90.7M (US) isn't chump change it less than buying Immersion out.

    That doesn't even take into account the mood of the Immersion investors. With licensing deals (either patent or SDK) in place with Microsoft, Nintendo, Logitech, and any other FF peripheral maker out there the investors might be more interested in a long term investment, not a quick buck. Sony's going to have to license Immersion's stuff, as they won't hamstring themselves in the marketplace without a FF controller, so there's more money for the IMMR investors after the $90.7M Sony judgement. I would be surprise if Sony didn't do due diligence and investigate buying IMMR. It just doesn't seem as if it would've worked for them, though.

  4. Early Vibration Tech by DanMc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I eventually take apart every toy I get. I've taken apart dozzens of game controllers, and the first time I opened up a vibrating controller, I saw something I'd seen before. A cheap little DC motor with an unbalanced weight on the rotor. The first time I'd seen this was in the Milton Bradley board game, Operation. The little motor did a pretty good job of making an "electric shock" noise, and the vibration discouraged you from bracing the palm of your hand or other hand on the board while plucking the little bones out. http://www.hasbro.com/operation/

  5. Re:The orders and PATENTS... by bigwillystylie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=H&game_ id=8072

    This good enough for you? The force feedback was primitive but you could feel changes in resistance when turning corners, steering would get soggier when leaving the track. I remember wasting loads of time on this when I was a kid. The date says 1989 but I am sure they were around earlier than that in the UK.