Slashdot Mirror
PlayStation Sales Halted?
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.
From what I'm reading, this patent claim may well be legitimate. Apparently several companies already recognize Immersion's patent on the technology as being valid and have licensed it from them.
Is Sony notorious for infringing upon patents?
8==8 Bones 8==8
Play a game like Gran Turismo and you'll see what I mean - you really can feel the terrain (and your car's grip or lack of) through the Dual Shock controllers - they aren't simply in an on-off mode.
And here I was stupidly thinking that variable speed motors had existed before this patent was filed!
Nintendo's Gamecube controllers sell with vibration by default. Is Nintendo somehow exempt?
They've already said their next console won't even use the standard directional pad and buttons, so I guess they're in the clear for Revolution...
Um, Japan isn't in the EU - it's in Asia.