Sony Corporation has finally settled with Immersion after years of bitter fighting over Immersion's patents covering force-feedback and vibration technology, known in Sony lingo as "rumble." A press release from Immersion proudly announced that the companies have concluded their patent litigation at the US Court of Appeals, and are now working together to "explore the inclusion of Immersion technology in PlayStation format products."
"We are pleased to have put this litigation behind us," said Immersion CEO Victor Viegas. "Our new business agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment is specifically intended to enable advanced vibration capability for the benefit of the PlayStation gaming community. We are happy to provide our technology in this regard and hope to make technical proposals very soon with respect to use of our technology in the PlayStation products."
This announcement brings to a conclusion a very long and strange tale. Sony first ran afoul of Immersion's patent lawsuit back in 2002, but it wasn't until 2004 that Sony had their first major setback in court, and was ordered to pay $82 million in damages. Around the same time, Microsoft settled with Immersion for about one-third that figure.
$82 million isn't really a lot for a company the size of Sony, but the electronics giant decided to stick to their guns and appealed the decision. Unfortunately for Sony, they lost that appeal. In response, Sony removed the rumble features from the PlayStation 3 controller, and at the last moment put in "tilt" motion sensitivity as a replacement. Sony denied that the lawsuit had anything to do with the decision, instead saying that including it would interfere with the motion sensors. This explanation didn't hold water, though, as Nintendo had no problem integrating both in its controller for the Wii.
Just last week, Sony was still justifying taking out rumble by calling it a "last-gen" feature. While Sony executives can be commended for staying on message, it is a little jarring when the message changes so quickly. "We look forward to exploring with Immersion exciting new ways to bring the largest and best range of gameplay experiences to our customers," said Kazuo Hirai, President and Group COO of Sony. Suddenly, rumble isn't "last-gen" any more. Still, if Sony and Immersion come up with new and more innovative uses of rumble technology in games, gamers are likely to forgive their past squabbling.
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