Sony Might Be in Deep Doo-Doo

According to this article on Slashdot Games, the U.S. Distict Court in Oakland, CA has ruled against Sony in favor of a company called Immersion Corp., who sued Sony for copyright infringement regarding the vibration feedback design of Sony's DualShock controllers. The court has ruled that Sony must halt all sales of any systems that use the DualShock controllers, including all currently marketed PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles, as well as about 40 software products, and pay the company $90.2 million. Sony has had an injunction issued, allowing them to sell consoles temporarily, but this could be a major blow to Sony's hardware sales.

An interestinng side note to the story: Microsoft and Nintendo do not have this problem becuase Nintendo lisenced the technology from Immersion Corp. and Microsoft settled with the company out of court for about a third of the price that Sony was forced to pay. Now Immersion is fighting tooth-and-nail to have a permanent injunction banning PlayStation sales. Looks like Sony underestimated the importance of the lawsuit.