Sony Loses Appeal in Immersion Case
If you'll remember, a few years back, a technology firm named Immersion sued Sony and several other companies over patent infringement regarding their touch feedback license (basically, the tech that makes your DualShock2 rumble). While some companies settled out of court, Sony stuck to its guns and eventually lost the case.Sony filed for an appeal, which, as reported by the Wall Street Journal today, they have now lost. What does this mean for Sony and the gamers? Well, while not everything has been hammered out yet, they'll likely be required to pay damages on a percentage of every DualShock2 produced in the US to Immersion. This may or may not affect future production of the controllers depending on whether Sony continues to pay Immersion royalties (costing Sony around $30 million a year) or decides to redesign aspects of the controller to get around the patents. Either way, they lose money.
For gamers, this means there is the possibility that DS2s will be harder to find in the future.
3/13/2006 Cavin Smith
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