Microsoft to pay Immersion 200 million to never settle!!!

[Anthony1]

yeah right!


But that would be sweet!


Could you imagine? If Microsoft payed Immersion some huge money for them to never reach a settlement with Sony, and then in 13 months when their appeal is denied they would no longer be able to sell PS1's or PS2's or Dual Shocks in the U.S.?


Sure, in 13 months the PS3 will be released, but still, don't think that Sony won't be selling PS2's in the U.S. for another 5 years, just like they are still selling PS1's right now.

[brykasch]

Well considering MS owns part of the company I could actually see that.

[Jibbajaba]

Preeeetty sure that's illegal.

Chris

[joshnickerson]

Yeeeah, that'd be illegal out the ***, and if the courts ever found out about it, Microsoft and Immersion would be in even bigger trouble than Sony is currently in.

[bargora]

Why would it be illegal?

[Anthony1]

It might be illegal for Microsoft to actually sign an agreement with Immersion for them to never settle the deal with Sony, but it certainly wouldn't be illegal for Microsoft to buy more of the company to have 51 percent of outstanding shares.

Then they would have controlling interest in the company, and they could simply tell Sony to kiss their azz.


Actually, I believe that Immersion is valued at around $130 million or so, so it wouldn't cost Microsoft that much money to buy them, considering they already have a small stake in them as it is. They only need 51 percent of the company to have a controlling interest.


I seriously doubt that anything like this would actually take place, the negative press that M$ would get over such a deal wouldn't be worth it to them.

Although I wonder, is Sony going to have to license the technology from them again for their PS3 controllers? If that was the case, then maybe M$ should actually look into this more, because if Sony had to leave out force feedback from their PS3 controllers, that would be a pretty significant blow.

Force Feedback is considered standard now, for game console controllers, and to not have it would be somewhat of a downer for Sony. Although I think this only applies to the specific way in which immersion designed their force feedback technology, so Sony could probably come up with an alternative method, but it could be kinda crappy, and it could play a role in the next console battle.

[JJNova]

How about that being Pointless, considering that SOny already announced that the PS3 will have a different controller than the previous PlayStations, but will still be backwards compatible with older games. Henceforth implying that the new controller will most likely be compatible with the older consoles.

Sony knew they were getting a lawsuit long before we did, and have already made their planned changes to avoid it getting larger than it currently is. Fight the decisions, if you lose, pay the fee's. Sony isn't worried about what's going to happen, they are just doing what the textbook tells them to do, which is deny everything.

[NeoSNightmarE]

yeah. its like with any other lawsuit with a company, they know its gonna happen and then plan accordingly. it probably wont happen. but just to say that if they hypothedically had an external feedback device (Rumble Pack anyone) i wouldnt be too surprised.

[NeoSNightmarE]

sorry guys, double. :embarrassed: