7 Legal Decisions That Changed Gaming History

7. Sony & Microsoft Controllers Almost Didn't Have Rumble

As industry-standard as going wireless, at one point both Sony and Microsoft were caught in a class-action lawsuit over the very idea of a rumbling controller functionality.

Coming from company Immersion, who claimed in 2002 that both Sony and Microsoft were infringing on their patent, first filed in 1998, Microsoft eventually settled out of court by buying shares in Immersion to make peace.

Sony though? They wouldn't budge, contesting the case and ultimately losing $90 million in the process.

While Nintendo evaded being skewered by this same lawsuit as their rumble tech was different enough to have its own patent, Sony were forced to suspend sales of hardware that included rumble functionality, giving us the thoroughly underwhelming SixAxis controller, instead of a DualShock 3.

With everything going sideways and vibrating controllers being something both the PS1 and PS2 already gave consumers, Sony caved. Their solution was to pay up (to the tune of $97.2 million) securing a new set of patents with Immersion, green-lighting the DualShock 3, and quelling the fires around who owned what for good.