Japanese-headquartered publisher Konami has sued Rock Band developer Harmonix over alleged patent infringements with its range of rhythm action games and associated controllers.Konami’s long-running Guitar Freaks and DrumMania series of titles feature similar gameplay to Rock Band and also use musical instrument shaped controllers. Konami also publishes a range of karaoke themed games, including the Karaoke Revolution series on consoles, which Harmonix has worked on in the past. Harmonix’s first game to feature a proprietary controller was the original Guitar Hero in November 2005 and its unclear why Konami has only now disputed its patents. However, according to a Bloomberg report, the patents in question date from 2002 and 2003 and relate to “simulated musical instruments”, a “music-game system” and a “musical-rhythm matching game”. Gamasutra exclusively exposed some of the patent-related licensing between Konami and Activision in late 2007, done at the time for Guitar Hero III's release. (Gamasutra) noted at the time of that game's release: "Patent disputes and licenses such as this have major ramifications for the future of music games - and one area of particular interest might be how Harmonix/MTV's Rock Band deals with the same patents... Harmonix itself has several patents related to its music game history." Konami’s demands include cash compensation and a court order blocking Harmonix and owner/publishers MTV Games from continuing to sell the products. MTV Games owners Viacom have not responded to the complaint at time of press. Konami is planning to release its own Rock Band style title named Rock Revolution for home consoles, while Harmonix recently announced Xbox 360 timed exclusive Rock Band 2. SOURCE : http://www.gamasutra.com/…ews_index.php?story=19374 |
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ʊIrishancest
Legally Certified Warthog Operator
Beware. The Internewt is real!
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ӝAmras
That Guy...
They own the patents to the technology in this case. Yeah, there's some merit in saying there are only so many ways to make a guitar controller (only so many ways to break an egg after all), but that's not the point. The burden of respecting patent law and licensing (or coming up with a completely different input mechanism for the guitar controller) falls on Harmonix. They should have looked into the situation and acquired licensing for it, and they didn't. I, for one, hope Konami wins.
Also, I'm not sure if you're talking about the Immersion lawsuit against Nintendo, or the Nintendo lawsuit against Nyko... But I'll say this: in case of the former, it's totally bogus. Immersion's rumble feature patents don't give them the right to sue Nintendo - because Nintendo has its own patented rumble devices that are used in the Wii remote (as well as the N64 rumble pack and Gamecube controller). In case of the latter, it's totally justified. Nyko ripped off the design, down to the joystick rubber, of Nintendo's nunchuk device and neglected to secure licensing.
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ʊIrishancest
Legally Certified Warthog Operator
Beware. The Internewt is real!
I'll have a loil, on the rocks.
Come Riot over in Napalm Chat: http://www.napalmriot.com/chat/