Nintendo to Sony: Stop Copying!

[CornMonkey]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=140270


Nintendo: Sony steals our ideas
Friday 19-May-2006 10:28 AM Handbags at the ready - Nintendo UK boss lashes out at Sony's new motion sensing controller

Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton has lashed out at Sony's new motion sensing controller, suggesting that the PlayStation creator has copied Nintendo's ideas - past and present.

Speaking to MCV in the wake of Sony's E3 press conference last week, Yarnton was quick to point out Sony's change of attitude since Nintendo unveiled their motion sensing Wii Controller late last year. "I'd love to dig up some old Phil Harrison comments and say 'hang on a second - six months ago when we launched our controller you said one thing, and now why are you doing this?'" Yarnton thundered.

Yarnton also slammed the lack of force feedback in Sony's redesigned PS3 controller, blaming patent issues for the omission: "Historically we're always developing new things. We know Sony have had a lot of issues with their rumble feature and they've had to withdraw it - because they didn't innovate, they copied."

Yarnton went on to suggest that Sony has not only followed Nintendo's lead, but copied their ideas in the past: "I don't know what [Sony's] decision making process is but I think if you look back, any innovation that has come in gameplay has come from us," he said.

"With Nintendo, I'm trying to think of anything we've copied... but I can't," concluded Yarnton.

[InfiniteNothing]

DVD functionality for one. It's minor though.

[ProMinx]

It is true that the rumble in the Playstation controllers has been removed due to patent issues, but though Nintendo was the plaintiff in the lawsuit, THEY WERE NOT THE INVENTORS! After Nintendo saw that Sony was using force feedback in their controllers, Nintendo switched from licensing the technology to acquiring partial ownership. Once nintendo owned an interest in the patent, they immediately sued Sony and Microsoft. Pretty disgusting stuff. Microsoft settled and pays a licensing fee so they can continue to use force feedback, but I remember hearing that the judge in the case described Nintendo's actions as despicable or underhanded...or something like that. One of those "I hate to agree with you, but you found a *bleep*ing morally questionable loophole" decisions.

[zero2dash]

Sony copies off everybody.
Well, except for the pricetag. :P Oops. :D

And technically, Nintendo didn't come up with the core idea on their own either.
http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3blog.html?topic_id=24600407

If You're Going to Say Sony Stole the Controller...
...then be sure you attribute the correct source. They didn't steal from Nintendo. They actually stole from Microsoft (and Logitech). The picture you're looking at here is a picture I took of gyroscopic, motion sensing controllers that Logitech and Microsoft manufactured for the PC in 1999. Yes, 1999 as in more than seven years ago.
http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2006/127/motioncontroller641_screen.jpg
(Note: I remember and have used that Microsoft controller on the right.)

Granted, Nintendo did throw a lot of new technology into the Wii controller than what these use, but the general idea behind it - they stole from companies before them. In this case here, Microsoft and Logitech. Before those two - remember the UForce and the PowerGlove for the NES? That link above to the Gamespot article also mentions a motion sensing controller for the Atari 2600 I believe also.

Sony tacked on the idea at the last minute (it's easy to see) so that they could say "we've got controller motion sensing too!" and try to sway some of those Wii buyers. But the fact also remains that the DualShock3 doesn't have the same sort of motion sensing ability as the Wii controller - from what I've read, the DS3 only senses one type of movement...side to side. It doesn't sense how close or how far away it is to the tv (example: move the controller closer to the tv and the character walks forward, move it away from the tv and the character walks backwards). I can't find a link about this but I know I've read it somewhere recently.

Another excellent point I read on Joystiq is:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/09/anatomy-of-shame-dual-shake-vs-wiimote/

Consider that Nintendo's system has been built to utilize the more wobust wiimote right from the start, with every single game being created to take advantage of the primary controller in some way or another.


It is true that the rumble in the Playstation controllers has been removed due to patent issues, but though Nintendo was the plaintiff in the lawsuit, THEY WERE NOT THE INVENTORS! After Nintendo saw that Sony was using force feedback in their controllers, Nintendo switched from licensing the technology to acquiring partial ownership.

Immersion was the patent inventor. Nintendo bought stock in Immersion therefore they were exempt from the lawsuit; Microsoft (in paying Immersion money) also now owns stock in the company and is therefore exempt from any future lawsuits. Sony OTOH thinks they'll win their court cases and continue to fight...how they think they'll win I'll never know.