10 Gaming Moments That Led To Massive Lawsuits
3. Immersion Vs. Sony
Remember when the PlayStation 3 was announced and Sony revealed that they were removing the rumble feature from their iconic DualShock controllers? They claimed that motion-sensing technology was the future, and that nobody cared about rumble feedback anymore. And then everyone who bought a PS3 stood up and declared, "We hate this."
There was a real reason for that debacle and it wasn't just Sony being weird.
In 2002, Sony and Microsoft were sued by haptic technology developer Immersion. Immersion argued that Sony and Microsoft had infringed on their patents with their rumble controllers. And they had pretty good evidence to back up their claim. Microsoft, smartly, settled out of court. But not Sony. Sony fought...
... And Sony lost. Not only the initial suit, but two subsequent appeals. By the time it was over, it was decided that Sony owed Immersion over $97 million, plus future royalty payments on sales of their DualShock controllers.
Sony couldn't continue to infringe on the patent during legal proceedings, and so came up with an excuse that was the equivalent of "the dog ate my homework."