Sony and Immersion reach settlement, feel good vibrations

30. to #26 robby1051

Please do research on Immersion before proclaiming them as pateny squatters.
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Actually please do some research and see that Immersions patent is total BS and immersion has never made a viable consumer product. Immersions original business was to make a handle for sonar operators that vibrated when it picked up something under the water. Somehow this applies to vibrating controllers.

Imeersions patent is essentially "handheld controller that vibrates" Covering any company that makes a controller shake. The lawsuit was thorwn out of every court in the world other than the USofA. Sony has an international patent that trumps Immersion but that doesn't matter in lawsuit give the judge a nice backroom bribe land.

@ JesseJames

Here's to Shitty Battery life of the PSP2 if you say it's going to have thoses battery draining features.

i'm one of those people that said i'd rather have motion control than rumble, and i stand by that. am i glad rumble will probably be back in playstation controllers? absolutely. the more features, the better. i still don't think rumble is essential to gaming but this is a good development nonetheless.

i am incredibly excited that force feedback will be back for wheels (if in fact the immersion patent also affected steering wheel force feedback). that will be very crucial for GT5.

Sony, how bout you patch up GTHD with wheel force feedback for us now?

to #50 Iridium

If the patent is so vague, then why isn't the Gamecube controller affected? Unless of cause the patent is more precise than what you make it out to be... try again.

that's why there isn't any rumble in the SIXAXIS, they got sued and probably couldn't use rumble until the whole thing was settled. F-Ing scammers, Sony you SUCK!!!

Great news for PS3 owners!

Now we all can feel the gravel under our tread in racing games!

Now we all can feel the tumblers in the next Splinter Cell's locks!

Now we all can feel that rifle kickback in the next generation of shooters!

I'm glad to see that competition has driven industry to cater to the gamer this generation.

A bit of irony is that 10% of Immersion's profits from this relationship will go to Microsoft, as MS bought 10% of Immersion's shares in their settlement.

Thanks Iridium for comment #49
I was gona point out how Immersion was in the habit of buying preexisting patents,
and that sony's whole arguement was that they paid logitech for the patent to rumble but it got dismissed...

I thought MS had already bought out Immersion to settle their problem...guess not...

Okay... first off, Nintendo licensed the Immersion technology as early as the Rumble Pack. Sony and Microsoft were both sued however Microsoft settled and licensed the tech. Sony went ahead on the lawsuit. They lost, fought further, lost again, now they are settling and licensing the tech. Now, having said that...

"I think he was just trying to save face for all the blind sony support he might have previously bellowed regarding the uselessness of rumble. I dont see how anyone can not like it. At worst its a nifty feature that can usually be turned off, at best its in integral part of the game that constitutes a portion of the gameplay."

Actually, no. Aside from a mere handful of games, rumble is often a glitch and when they decide things should get "really heavy," it's downright annoying. I'm a big boy. I've been playing games since getting hit meant I flashed or blew up. I know when I've been damaged and likewise, I know that explosions are action packed. I don't need a rumble anytime a monster busts through a wall. I've been disabling vibration in games since about a year into the first Dual Shock. If developers were willing to do things more interesting with it, I might be willing to change my opinion but for a vast majority of the industry, rumble implimentation is as formuliac as the end user agreements.

And talk about a joke of rumble, have you tried the DSs? The damn thing makes more noise than shakes.

I've stated it before, I'll state it again. A developer usually has 20 minutes in a game to convince me their rumble is interesting and not annoying. If it's the same old shit everyone else does, then it's disabled.

Meant to say above...

"Aside from a handful of games, rumble is just a crutch"

"Covering any company that makes a controller shake."

That can't be true, because Nintendo wasn't sued, yet their controller shook,

Lets say Sony paid the 91 million dollar lawsuit. That is about the cost 191,666 Playstation 3 consoles. For a company that is selling at a loss and has stock sitting on the shelves it must such ass to have to fork over 91 million. LOL

I'm not so bothered about rumble in the pads, I'm bothered by the apparent lack of FORCE FEEDBACK in the Logitech Steering wheel range! I heared from a few Europeans that the Forcefeedback still works here, its just America where it doesn't. I can't Play GT5 with a Logitech G25 wheel and not have any Feedback! THATS more worrying than the stupid vibrator-in-a-pad. If Force feedback works in Europe on 23rd March with PS2 racers AND PS3 (F1) then that almost definately means this whole Rumble affair was due to the Immersion patent (As It only applies in USA AFAIK).

At least sheppy's keeping it real. What about all the other folks who agreed with Sony? Like Sony said--rumble is last-gen. If you have supported that statement in the past, then I suggest you all disable rumble on your next PS3 controller. Otherwise, stick up your asses and activate it every time Sony makes another bullshit statement.

Thank God! There actually might be a PS3 in my future. Now if they can only replace the gimmicky Sixaxis with a Wii type controller, then we're talking buy.

"WAIT A SECOND DID SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING ABOUT STEALING!!!!

MICROSOFTS EMPIRE EVOLVED FROM THE ROBBERY OF THE GUI THAT APPLE DEVELOPED FOR THEIR OS AFTER STEALING IT FROM XEROX!!!! LMAO!!!!

Micro-soft needs to just lay the gloves on the floor because the one two KO punch was just delivered with Massive TNT by sony!!!!" -jessiejames

umm....microsofts empire was built around the invention of the FUCKING PERSONAL COMPUTER!!!! (u know? that thing ur using right now to type this bullshit)

would someone shoot this fool in the head and spare us all his nonsense?????

@sheppy "I know that explosions are action packed."

Hehehe! Something about that phrase just cracked me up.

Nah, Sony won't be able to release a rumbling Sixaxis because rumble interferes with the tilt sensors, remember? And I KNOW that's true because Ken Kataragi says so!! =D

Couldn't Sony just have waited until the whole thing was settled? Was launching in Japan and N.A. for Xmas 2006 so important? (..because, we all know how well that went...) They could have had more games, more consoles, rumble AND some people would still be ALIVE if they waited 5 months and launched worldwide now.

i wouldn't want something so last gen anyway...


.. but i did almost respect sony for standing up to patent squatters while the rest caved...

Whats funny is now since MS owns part of Immersion that Sony will be paying MS for every controller made.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2003/07/29/msimmersion/

Ha Ha Ha... In your face Jesse.

@sheppy "I'm a big boy"

Are you, really? So, now rumble is kiddie?

"I know when I've been damaged and likewise, I know that explosions are action packed. I don't need a rumble anytime a monster busts through a wall."

I also don't need the sound of those explosions being pumped through my sub-woofer so that my whole living room shakes, but it's more fun that way! I can see how it could be distracting to a very technical player, but you should just sit back and enjoy the full experience.

Rumble is all about immersing the player in the game. That's why lack of rumble really hurts the PS3. The PS3 has the graphics and sound that, when displayed on a big HD screen and played through a surround sound system, could truely immerse the player into the game experience, but without rumble, the experience is not as deep as it could be.

Jesse James is a Sony plant. Either that, or he's slightly retarded. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

"54. Great news for PS3 owners!

...Now we all can feel the tumblers in the next Splinter Cell's locks!"

Haha yeah, in like '09 when the Splinter Cell franchise reverts back to multiplatform from Xbox exclusivity.

I thought vibration was a last generation feature?

OH well, glad to see they're finally making some good moves :)

Whoever says that vibration isn't required is totally blind by sony.

I lvoe how the fanboys are celebrating this as the second coming. Two days ago rumble was so last gen, now, here it is! Just more of Sony playing "me too" with it's failure of a console. Desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose but Sony finally crawling back to Immersion puts a huge smile on my face because we were right all along. Games need rumble and the douches at Sony couldn't figure out how to do it without getting fucked in the ass by Immersion. Too little too late.

The PSP2 is not even confirmed! DEVs are not even supporting the currently PSP fools. What makes you think Sony will go that route after the beating they took from the DS? I would bet on a MS hendheld before another PSP jacka$$. Sony has there hands full with getting the PS3 off the ground. I'm not even a fanboy fools. This is just common sense...

@x silence x

If PSP is not being supported, how come there are well over 120 games announced in Japan before the end of the year? Likewise, why does EB games list 6 pages worth of upcoming games (missing tons of announced titles, no less)? PSP is not dead, games are still coming, and anybody who claims the console is dying when just last week, a PSP release broke records as the highest selling debut of a handheld game by a third party, is a complete and total moron.

I wonder how much a controller with tilting motion sensing, rumble and being sued by the company you're working with will cost the gamers, and everyone complained the Wii Remote was expensive.

"And this is a discussion about rumble. Thus I brought up the DS rumble cart which manages to make more noise than vibrations, and yet it's a cheap shot or I'm somehow trying to compare the PS3 to the DS. Way to stretch it, Reed Richards."

The problem here is when people think they are smarter than everyone else, they don't realize how stupid they come off to those who are smarter than them.

It is rather obvious that the only reason you always bring up using a Nintendo or Microsoft product in your posts is because you don't want to come off as the rampant fanboy that you are. You want people to think your opinions are validated by the fact that you're a multi-console user. Sorry, it's not working.

Man, the most entertaining part of this thread got killed.

"Man, the most entertaining part of this thread got killed."

Yeah, sheppy must have threatened to blackball the comments section.

Gamers are dumbasses after reading the 1st 50 comments I realize that NOBODY mention the fact that sony said it couldnt be done because it would interfere with the motion in the controller. We ALL knew it was BS but that's how much sony thought of its customers was to tell a load of BS. They couldve just said this shit from the beginning\. Makes me wonder what else they will/have blantantly lied about

this is a huge step.

not just the feature itself (come on Motostorm was born for rumble), but something much more meaningful.

it means Sony is finally getting off their high horse and actually beginning to listen to the general gaming community. more importantly, maybe they're even beginning to listen to their CUSTOMERS.

Sony still has a ways to go within their own organization - like the "rumble is last gen" comment, "full playstation library legacy" comment - it's clear that one hand of Sony still doesn''t know what the other is doing. (easy to pick up Phil Harrison's own frustration of this in the newsweek interview).

but at least the strongest hand at Sony, the one with the MONEY, is finally doing something right by gamers (and not format development)

now if only everyone at Sony could get on the same track with the Playstation3 like microsoft did with the 360 (XBL,XBLA, Peripherals etc). then maybe they can get back into our gaming graces.




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Psaakyrn says:
"No, the biggest insanity happened during the Wii naming announcement. There's almost nothing in the gaming scene that can ever beat that. :p"

you mean when everyone on the internet with the mentality of a 5-year-old was making pee jokes?