Immersion CEO: Begging Sony To Add Rumble

[aldo]

LMAO

GameDaily BIZ - In response to SCEA president Kaz Hirai's recent comments regarding Sony's decision to include motion sensing but not force feedback in its PlayStation 3 controllers because it would not be affordable for the consumer, Immersion Corporation CEO Vic Viegas got in touch with GameDaily BIZ to give us his opinion on these technologies and if cost would really be a problem.

Viegas also cited the results of an Immersion-sponsored survey from Ipsos that indicated most gamers seem to prefer rumble over motion sensing. Sony doesn't believe rumble is as important as motion, however. "It runs completely contradictory to the Ipsos studies and every other study we've conducted... In reality, holding the controller and using the tilt technology to control the game, I have a hard time believing it's going to enhance any game; at a minimum it probably could be used in a driving or flying game, but I just don't see how it plays in any of these other games," Viegas said. "[Sony's] making a decision on behalf of their customer that they're going to decide which features they're going to include and to blame the cost of vibration does not seem to be a genuine statement and I don't think it's in favor of the gamers who obviously like this technology."

While many gamers would love to see Immersion and Sony just settle their differences and work to include vibration into the PS3 pad, it doesn't appear as if the two parties are even talking with one another currently. "The litigation is not our primary focus but if Sony wanted to talk about how to implement rumble technology, paying a license, figure out ways to reduce cost or even enhance the capability with our next-generation technology I would for the most part be available at a day's notice. I'm ready to meet with them and try to work out this issue because at the end of the day it's the gamer that really seems to be suffering," Viegas said. "So I'm happy to try to resolve it but it's hard to have a one-way discussion if the other party is not willing acknowledge the rights that we have under our patent portfolio and all of the brilliance that our engineers have developed over the years."

Unbelievable! I would have loved to see the PS3 maintain the rumble, but I don't blame Sony for not wanting to deal with this guy. What a buffoon. They're suing Sony for God's sake, but they don't understand why Sony doesn't want to throw more money into their coffers.

An now it’s getting down to the wire with the PS3 launch and he gets antsy and contacts a gaming site to plead his case. He even goes so far as to cite his own sponsored survey as the gospel on the need for rumble and the uselessness of motion sensing.

The guy knows that he's going to lose a ton of money if he can't license rumble to Sony. He also knows that if the PS3 is successful with that approach then MS might – doubtful - but might decide to follow suit and focus on a motion sensing non-rumble controller next go around.

Immersion shot themselves in the foot with this one. How pathetic!!



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[font=&quot]-aldo[/font]

 

[Gradthrawn]

LMAO

Unbelievable! I would have loved to see the PS3 maintain the rumble, but I don't blame Sony for not wanting to deal with this guy. What a buffoon. They're suing Sony for God's sake, but they don't understand why Sony doesn't want to throw more money into their coffers.

An now it’s getting down to the wire with the PS3 launch and he gets antsy and contacts a gaming site to plead his case. He even goes so far as to cite his own sponsored survey as the gospel on the need for rumble and the uselessness of motion sensing.

The guy knows that he's going to lose a ton of money if he can't license rumble to Sony. He also knows that if the PS3 is successful with that approach then MS might – doubtful - but might decide to follow suit and focus on a motion sensing non-rumble controller next go around.

Immersion shot themselves in the foot with this one. How pathetic!!



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[font=&quot]-aldo[/font]

I disagree, I think SCE shot themselves in the foot on this one. Maybe, even if they had a settlement, Rumble would not have been included for the reasons Kaz mentions. However, even in that situation, as production cost go down, the viability of adding rumble later on would have been a lot higher. Keep in mind that the PS1 had 3 different iterations of the controller in its lifetime, so SCE changing the controller mid-cycle is not out of the realm of possibility. The way things are now, though, the future of rumble in the SIXAXIS is up in the air to say the least. I also don’t feel they’re in any way begging SCE. However, Immersion’s comments about the surveys seem a little, disingenuous. If you ask a bunch of people about a feature they've never really had exposure to, nor less a well designed and executed exposure to, versus one they've grown fond of and familiar with then the results of said survey are likely to be heavily skewed. Now, redo those surveys 3 years from now when the PS3 and Wii have been on the market for some time. Data from that survey, I think, would be far more representative of consumer taste. Time well tell if SCE made the right move with motion sensing. Though I strongly disagree with Immersion’s sentiments in regards to motion sensing not adding to game play. I think that notion is ridiculous. Heck, the entire premise of the Wii is based on it.

 

[Hardknock]

LMAO

Unbelievable! I would have loved to see the PS3 maintain the rumble, but I don't blame Sony for not wanting to deal with this guy. What a buffoon. They're suing Sony for God's sake, but they don't understand why Sony doesn't want to throw more money into their coffers.

An now it’s getting down to the wire with the PS3 launch and he gets antsy and contacts a gaming site to plead his case. He even goes so far as to cite his own sponsored survey as the gospel on the need for rumble and the uselessness of motion sensing.

The guy knows that he's going to lose a ton of money if he can't license rumble to Sony. He also knows that if the PS3 is successful with that approach then MS might – doubtful - but might decide to follow suit and focus on a motion sensing non-rumble controller next go around.

Immersion shot themselves in the foot with this one. How pathetic!!



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[font=&quot]-aldo[/font]

I don't see the "begging" and I definitely don't see what's so funny. Gamers are losing out no matter how you slice it.

 

[nintenho]

I don't think they would leave out rumble because of one annoying guy.

 

[Sis]

LMAO

Unbelievable! I would have loved to see the PS3 maintain the rumble, but I don't blame Sony for not wanting to deal with this guy. What a buffoon. They're suing Sony for God's sake, but they don't understand why Sony doesn't want to throw more money into their coffers.

An now it’s getting down to the wire with the PS3 launch and he gets antsy and contacts a gaming site to plead his case. He even goes so far as to cite his own sponsored survey as the gospel on the need for rumble and the uselessness of motion sensing.

The guy knows that he's going to lose a ton of money if he can't license rumble to Sony. He also knows that if the PS3 is successful with that approach then MS might – doubtful - but might decide to follow suit and focus on a motion sensing non-rumble controller next go around.

Immersion shot themselves in the foot with this one. How pathetic!!



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[font=&quot]-aldo[/font]

This debate usually unfolds along the lines of those who vehemently hate patents and those who don't. I'm not a fan of software patents, but I do believe hardware patents are a little more sturdy.

Also, you say "Immersion shot themselves in the foot." How so? Sony is unwilling to pay them for their intellectual property, which is why Immersion sued them in the first place.

 

[Synergy34]

They shot themselves in the foot because if they let Sony get away with it chances are they would be in the new PS3 controller making even more money. I don't personally agree with that however, Sony likes to control as much as possible that goes into their consoles and I just think Sony is having a hard time doing what Immersion says they can. Either that or Kaz is telling the truth, it will bump the cost of the controller to a higher amount.

 

[aldo]

This debate usually unfolds along the lines of those who vehemently hate patents and those who don't. I'm not a fan of software patents, but I do believe hardware patents are a little more sturdy.

Also, you say "Immersion shot themselves in the foot." How so? Sony is unwilling to pay them for their intellectual property, which is why Immersion sued them in the first place.

Sorry guys.

This just hit me on the funny side for some reason. As I read it it seemed like a pretty desperate plea for Sony to throw rumble into the controller. They probably should be working with Sony directly instead of trying to sway them through the court of public opinion. But again, that's only my opinion.

And if you read the article you will see that Sony doesn't get off the hook they'll have to settle soon.

And I hope that somehow they work things out. I'd like to see rumble in the PS3 as I said before.

-aldo

 

[aldo]

They shot themselves in the foot because if they let Sony get away with it chances are they would be in the new PS3 controller making even more money.

That's exactly it.

Time will tell whether we, the gamers, or Sony will lose from the lack of rumble and I don't know if any of that will ever be clear, but it's certainly clear that Immersion wll certainly be losers in this.

-aldo

 

[SPM]

They could perhaps sell a wireless add-ons you could sit on, or insert into your shoes or wherever else you want.

As for immersion's patent, vibrating ringers for pagers and mobile phones have been around before immersion as have vibrating pedal controls on the AV8 Harrier to warn of sideslip while hovering. If Sony put it in a pager-like unit or a pedal-like unit, would immersion's patent still apply?

 

[Rangers]

They cant get the rumble and the motion sensing to work together for a decent price. That is what Sony said. Think about it, makes sense. A runble is going to throw off motion sensors.

They decided a controler input is more important than feedback. They might be right, at least it sounds sound.
________
Rebeca live

 

[V3]

They can sell rumble that attach to your head, it would be cool for games like Fight Night or other fighting games, it'll simulate knocks to the head If you get knock out in the game, you'll get knock out for real too

 

[rounin]

Why not add electric shock too

 

[Sis]

They could perhaps sell a wireless add-ons you could sit on, or insert into your shoes or wherever else you want.

As for immersion's patent, vibrating ringers for pagers and mobile phones have been around before immersion as have vibrating pedal controls on the AV8 Harrier to warn of sideslip while hovering. If Sony put it in a pager-like unit or a pedal-like unit, would immersion's patent still apply?

Immersion patented vibrations? Holy cow!

 

[Sis]

Why not add electric shock too

Actually, wasn't there a little handheld game that would do this? It was a two player game where each player holds onto a handle, and the slower reacting one would get a shock?

If Sony did this they could publish a huge warning on each game: "DO NOT USE IF YOU HAVE A PACE MAKER!"

 

[flick556]

I am glad Sony is standing up on this one. All these patents on obvious technology create cost barriers for new companies looking to enter the marketplace. I'm not against software or hardware patents if they are specific. It seems a precedent has been set that the only way to fight a patent is with prior art. This precedent ignores all the language in patent law regarding patents being too obvious or ambiguous. Perhaps Judges feel as though they are not qualified to determine what is considered non-simple in a technological context. Someone who is qualified needs to make these kinds of distinctions.

Allowing Immersion to patent "vibration" in a controller, is like Edison patenting any and all light producing objects

 

[nondescript]

I'm with aldo.

Seriously, what is rumble used for? "Immersion"?

Ohhh...the controller is SHAKING IN MY HANDS....it's like I'm IN THE GAME!!!

 

[thatdude90210]

They shot themselves in the foot because if they let Sony get away with it chances are they would be in the new PS3 controller making even more money.

If Sony didn't want to pay them for the PS2, why would Sony be willing to pay them for the PS3? If they hadn't sued Sony, Sony would have continue to use the same tech for free and Immersion would have still gotten nothing. I just don't see how they shot themselves in the foot.

 

[a688]

Allowing Immersion to patent "vibration" in a controller, is like Edison patenting any and all light producing objects

....or not since Nintendo doesn't infringe on their patent. Better luck next time.

 

[Hardknock]

They cant get the rumble and the motion sensing to work together for a decent price. That is what Sony said. Think about it, makes sense. A runble is going to throw off motion sensors.

They decided a controler input is more important than feedback. They might be right, at least it sounds sound.

Hmmmm, but some how Nintendo was able to do it. In a smaller form factor at that!

 

[Archgamer]

Couldn't Sony just make their own rumble technology down the line, instead of dealing with Immersion?