First of all, thanks to everyone who pointed out in response to my earlier post that the problems Sony has had with the rumble feature have been in regards to a patent dispute with Immersion. I actually did know about this, but I had assumed that David Yarnton, I dunno, was talking about the rumble device exploding out of the controller in a jagged storm of plastic shards and maiming small children.

But since we're on the subject of Immersion's lawsuit against Sony, looks like Immersion has offered rumble technology back to Sony. The only stipulation? Sony needs to drop to the 2004 lawsuit that granted Immersion tidy sum of $90M in damages for the violation of a similar rumble patent. And, of course, pay licensing fees.

"I don't believe it's a very difficult problem to solve, and Immersion has experts that would be happy to solve that problem for [Sony]," said Immersion president Victor Viegas. Gee, how generous. Nine times out of ten, patents are overly vague and used by companies to blackmail more successful competitors. I suspect Immersion's case is a tad more clear cut than the norm, but even so... making a condition of licensing a technology that is good for gamers the forfeiture of Sony's legal right to appeal is about as scummy as it gets in the world of corporate game politics. - Florian Eckhardt

Drop the appeal and we'll help with PS3 rumble - Immersion president [Games Industry]

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