[XPerties]

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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.

http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/03/27/2...tid=123&tid=155

[Zxian]

That's just rediculous... what a scam for money...

[SiMoNsAyS]

can't agree Zxian, they stole a patent like some pc manufacturers or nintendo (nintendo was not sued because they get an agreement with immersion).

this is still not finished yet, 1 year is resting until the final decission.

[DigeratiPrime]

Nintendo unlike Sony and Microsoft developed its own technology from if any recall the N64 Rumble Pak, which was the first Force Feedback controller for a video game system. Nintendo's Patent predates the Immersion one.

From slashdot post:

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Someone else mentioned that Nintendo uses a different approach to rumble (the unbalanced weight is inside the motor, not attached to it).

Additionally, Nintendo patented [uspto.gov]the GC controller as a continuation of the RumblePak patent.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/250,160, filed Feb. 16, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,253 which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/727,239, filed Oct. 8, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,437. The contents of the prior applications are incorporated by reference herein.

Link: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?...do+AND+feedback

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In truth, Immersion's patent references Nintendo's. The two are compatible and can be enforced independently, because the technology is different.

But yeah, Nintendo's rumble technology pre-dates Immersion's. Immersion can't touch Nintendo, and in fact is capable of maintaining a good working relationship with them. Just do a search for Immersion's press release for Logitech Speed Force Pro steering wheel for the GameCube. Immersion speaks respectfully of both Nintendo and Logitech, who used Immersion's force feedback technology for that product.

Also, to put to rest other speculation that I've seen on the issue, there is no reason to believe that Immersion is a shadow company owned by Nintendo, Nintendo is not a secret licensee, Nintendo never pre-emptively settled with Immersion, and Nintendo did not have to work around any sort of prior art from Immersion. Nintendo came first, did their thing the right way, and is basically immune from anything Immersion can do.

Ars Technica's statement that Nintendo licensed Immersion's technology was irresponsible and inaccurate. It simply propagates a common lie, the type of which you normally only see on braindead fanboy web forums.

Go Nintendo!