Friday, March 2, 2007

Rumble on the PS3 Coming Soon

So what was the real reason that Sony didn't add rumble to the sixaxis? I recall they said it was because it interfered with the gyros in the controller. Another reason was that Sony claimed rumble was so 2005. Turns out that Sony didn't have the permission to use the technology from Immersion Corp. Sony is finally following Microsoft's lead and paying millions to Immersion for the patent. From the AP Wire article the monthly payments breakdown as such.

As part of the truce, Sony will pay San Jose-based Immersion $97.2 million in damages and interest, as stipulated in the original court award that Sony was appealing. Sony will also pay $22.5 million in licensing payments through 2009 plus an unspecified amount of fees and royalties.

In total, Sony will cough up at least $150.3 million to settle the litigation, when factoring in $30.6 million in compulsory license payments the Japanese company has already paid.

Not a bad chunk of change for Immersion. Apparently their stock jumped 32% after this news broke. So how long will it be till we see a sixaxis controller with rumble now that Sony has the permission? I'm guessing PS4.

3 comments:

E-goD said...

There won't be a PS4 because PS3 is future proof dumbass. Seriously.

Unknown said...

Where do you here this "future proof" lies from? The chips in the PS3 are already out of date. The hardware is all out of date. Sony will have a new format for movies 2 years from now making their own PS3 last gen.

On another note, you read the news, but you don't write any news. We need some Wii news in here.

Jester013 said...

Future proof!