Sony has been Owned.

[Yuoko]

"Just to bring you up to speed: Immersion, a company specializing in haptic technology, in 2003 sued both Sony and Microsoft for patent infringement, claiming both companies used Immersion's intellectual property (IP) in their console's controllers. Microsoft settled out of court, but Sony fought on. Sony lost, and following the Judge rule that Sony must suspend the sale of "Playstation consoles, Dualshock controllers," and a few dozen games, including Vice City, Final Fantasy X, and Metal Gear Solid 2. Sony filed for appeal, and has been allowed to sell all aforementioned products while the decision is under appeal.

The Wall Street Journal this morning reports that a federal judge rejected Sony's appeal and upheld the earlier decision (which also includes a $90.7 million payment by Sony to Immersion). Sony argued that Craig Thorner, a former paid consultant to Immersion who submitted testimony on Sony's behalf. However, US District Judge Claudia Wilken noted that Thorner was an "unreliable" witness, citing "strong evidence" that suggest Thorner's testimony was directly affected by the $150,000 Sony had paid him as "advance royalty" to license Thorner's patents in the future.

It seems very incredulous that Sony would have to halt production on its flagship console, as well as most of the company's best-selling titles, but that may very well be the case here. Could this be a reason for Sony's (conceptual) "boomerang" PS3 controller? If the PlayStation 3 cannot utilize its force feedback technology from the past, how is this going to affect backwards compatibility? Chalk this up as another issue for Sony, alongside Cell processor issues, Blu-ray issues, delay rumors, and more than a few ad campaigns that have backfired."
Source
I apologize in advance if there has already been a topic.

[s.w.a.t]

Who cares, it's just Sony. Plus their system was estimated at what? $900?

[ChrisPBacon]

Sony depends on their plasma Televisions and their computers to make a profit. Their video gaming industry is not performing at its "peak". I predict Sony will stop selling video games eventually, and stick with TVs and computers.

[s.w.a.t]

That will leave Microsoft and Nintendo, and Nintendo is slowly dropping out of the market....
I would love a new Atari or Sega.

[Yuoko]

Sega's still in it's little hole...
But, I would like to see a new Sega Console, they always had an excellent game to play...

[Skill]

^ Do you really want sega to come back i mean to me they have been dead since the SMD all sega has is sonic if they made a console it would die faster then the dreamcast (poor poor dreamcast). Well there are alot of people that hate sony for some reason but i like them and hate Xbox, i think sony have alot of great games to offer but thats proberbly because i love RPG's so i hope it works out alright for them and they get rid of the PS3's crap controller and design

[Hakey Wake]

This is pretty...erm..well old as I remember the whole Immersion/Microsoft/Sony debacle happening awhile ago.

And yes there's no doubt in my mind that this is the main reason why Sony are now using the "boomerang" for the PS3.

Edit:

I apologize in advance if there has already been a topic.

No worries, seems not that many people here knew about it after all.

[???]

They don't only have Sonic hes just the more popular guy for them like Mario and Nintendo. Sega had better graphics then everyone else back then.

[Goatmancer]

Nintendo isn't sinking slowly, they just have a different approach and it seems they're sinking because they're releasing so little information at a time AND the 360 is already out.

SEGA can't really get back in because they are lisenced developers, and would still be under contract with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Atari can't for the same reason, plus they've had a blundered past that almost killed the gaming industry and their current-day profits are too small to develop and produce a console.

But then again, you never know

[hatrickpatrick]

Sega's still in it's little hole...
But, I would like to see a new Sega Console, they always had an excellent game to play...

As far as I know, Nintendo pretty much opwns all of Sega now... Thats that was reported ages ago in NGC magazine, and that's always been a very reliable source of information... They were the first ones to realise that something was up with rareware in the weeks leading up to the sale to MS, they were the first to print the BK sandcastle codes and feature the PD face mapper...

[Gold Jinjo]

Originally Posted by ChrisPBacon

I predict Sony will stop selling video games eventually, and stick with TVs and computers.

I live for that day.

[s.w.a.t]

Originally Posted by Goatmancer

Nintendo isn't sinking slowly, they just have a different approach and it seems they're sinking because they're releasing so little information at a time AND the 360 is already out.

SEGA can't really get back in because they are lisenced developers, and would still be under contract with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Atari can't for the same reason, plus they've had a blundered past that almost killed the gaming industry and their current-day profits are too small to develop and produce a console.

But then again, you never know

Nintendo is sinking. Not just inn recent times. Actually, since the N64. Most people bought the PS1. Gamecube isn't doing to good either.

[Gold Jinjo]

Nintendo is far from sinking. They make way more money than Microsoft or Sony does. Nintendo isn't going anywhere. They're sinking in popularily, perhaps, but definitely not financially... nor are they slowly dropping out of the video game industry.

There are so many third-party developers that are frothing at the mouths at the idea of the Revolution and its controller. Heck, EA Games was thought by all the nay-sayers to be the last company who'd benefit from the controller, yet they were the first to say that they would.

Yes, the GameCube has been a lackluster system that was used as more of a stepping-stone. Nintendo knows that. It's unfortunate, but with the Revolution on the way, Nintendo is turning heads. They're becomming the Apple Computer of the gaming industry. They might not have a huge install base, but they're doing crazy innovative things that really do have more of an impact on the market than one would think.

Nintendo's has a huge presence in this industry. To say they're sinking is stupid and naive.

[Ice Lightning]

You say Nintendo is sinking but at the moment Sony is the most popular then Nintendo then Microsoft is last in popularity/sales etc. In the UK and USA it goes Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo but Japan changes that.

Also Nintendo is the only one of the 3 companies who makes a profit on their consoles. For every console Sony/Microsoft sell they are losing money but Microsoft is too rich to care and Sony make everything electronic so they don't care. Nintendo is the only one all about the games.

EDIT: I would like to add that Sony wouldn't even be making game consoles if it wasn't for Nintendo.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

In the mid-90s Nintendo of America eased up on its stringent policies on blood and violence. After Sega created the Mega CD (Sega CD in North America) add on for its 16-bit machine, Nintendo initially contracted with Sony to develop an add-on CD-ROM drive for the SNES, but afraid that Sony would get all the profit from the CD-ROM media, and also surprised at the failure of Sega's Mega CD, Nintendo terminated the contract and went with Philips. Nintendo announced their alliance with Philips at the same conference that Sony announced their CD-ROM drive. Nothing happened about the add-on drive in regard to the SNES, but Sony took the time and research and began to spin it off into a new product, the PlayStation. Phillips took a similar route and developed the far less successful CD-i. Since Phillips had already gained license to create games using Nintendo's exclusive characters, games from series such as Mario and The Legend of Zelda appeared on the CD-i, though most fans discard them from being part of the series due to their entirely third-party development and poor quality.

[repobanjo]

The only thing I can contribute to this page is this.

"We have gathered here today to mourn for the death of Sony's video game division..."