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Microsoft Gaming Patents — Where They're Going
An anonymous reader writes "BNET looked at some patents which suggest that Microsoft might be thinking about an integrated game console/set-top box. Quoting: 'Patent 20080167128 is for watching television on a game console, while patent 20080167127 covers switching a gaming console between various media, including television, video, music, and games, and even using the console as a set-top box. Clearly Microsoft has been interested in controlling the living room, and combining media, gaming, and set-top functions in a single device would make a great deal of sense.' There are also hints of mobile gaming that support the current round of rumors about a combination Xbox-Zune. "
Anybody else thinking of Media Center Edition? While the required hardware implementation for the PC edition left somewhat to be desired (those required satellite and cable cards still give me nightmares), the Xbox 360 might skip a lot of the more complicated initial setup for a far more user-friendly experience. Or so you would think, in theory.
I already did that on the original xbox
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
Some years ago MS had a survey done that found that in most homes the computer and the TV were in the same room in the house. The conclusion they came to was that people wanted to watch TV on their computer.
No!, Wrong!, people didn't have 22 room mansions with separate computer labs and home theatres. They have their stuff in one room because they only have one room, or one living room.
The idea of a combination TV/computer/gaming/VCR is also based on everyone having their own computer, or probably several, and not having to share. Personally I would dislike having combiation machines, I want separate single function devices, then I can watch TV while working on the computer. I don't play games.
Microsoft, Sony & Apple have all eye'd the sitting room as the next battleground for media domination and control. They know people use their TV's for more and more functions, not unlike a web browser which started life as a simple application but has now grown to be multi-functioned and used to interact with more and more things.
Sony and Microsoft have their consoles able to connect to the net, play DVDs etc. They know that if they can get the trojan horse in the home, they can sell peripherals designed for that unit, and know that if it breaks in a couple of years the customer has already invested a fortune in peripherals that they will most likely replace like-for-like. All three want to be the COMPLETE solution from end to end, rather than just part of a heterogeneous solution. They will use vendor lock-in, proprietary formats, DRM etc to ensure that despite the barriers their customers will face having to deal with it all, when all they want is a system to easily plug together and just work.
It's staggering that Microsoft would get a patent on something which seems blatantly obvious as the next feature on a TV based console. It's no surprise that they applied for it however.
So, they're either trying to patent the general-purpose computer, or they're trying to say that merging your home theatre into one single component is a unique invention.
I mean, you've been able to watch TV, movies, play music, and play games on a Mac for, what, 10+ years now? And you can easily make a PC do all of this as well (most of it right out of the box). And by changing the settings on my amplifier, I can choose between music, movies, video games, and the radio.
All they're doing is taking functionality which has been available individually, as well as already integrated into the function of a computer, and adding one more thing -- being a gaming console. None of these sound like they should be patentable -- you can't take something people do all of the time, and patent the idea of doing it all in one box. That makes no sense to me.
Have patents really devolved to "take what we can already do, put it in a box that also plays video games" and have that somehow be an innovation??
I would argue that the entire computer industry (Microsoft included) has produced enough prior art as to seemingly completely invalidate this entire patent.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I wonder how much it'd knock off US multi-nationals stock prices if the rest of the world decided overnight that patents were a bad idea and scraped them altogether, wiping all existing patents into oblivion. How many large US companies rely on their patents to control their markets, or bully competitors? If their patent portfolio is wiped out in every other area except the US, what happens?
This is a hypothetical nightmare for some patent trolls which they will lobby tooth and nail to ensure never comes to pass.