BardicStorm - Slashdot User

Zynga and Blizzard Sued Over Game Patent 179

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday January 06, 2011 @07:06AM from the swinging-for-the-fences dept.

eldavojohn writes "Thinking about developing a game involving a 'database driven online distributed tournament system?' Well, you had better talk to Walker Digital or risk a lawsuit, because Walker Digital claims to have patented that 'invention' back in 2002. The patent in question has resulted in some legal matters for the makers of 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War, Blur, Wolfenstein, DJ Hero 2, Golden Eye 007, World of Warcraft and its expansions, Mafia Wars, and many others.' Walker Digital (parent company of Priceline.com) said it's not sure how much damages are going to be, and requested that through discovery in the court. If you think Walker Digital is not a patent troll, check out their lawsuit from two months ago against Facebook for using privacy controls Walker Digital claims to have patented. It would seem that any online competitive game that uses a database to select and reward contestants in a tournament could potentially fall under this patent — of course, those with the deepest coffers will be cherrypicked first."

Comment Re:Won't Be On The Market Long Enough To Matter (Score 2, Informative) 280

by BardicStorm on Friday November 05, 2010 @07:51AM (#34134286) Attached to: iFixit Tears Down Microsoft's Kinect For Xbox 360

Just as an observation, in the live demos they were doing in the Macy's windows in NYC a week or two ago there was only about 3-4 feet of width and roughly 6-7 feet of open space in front of the Kinect. I would say the demoer was roughly about 5' away, and had just enough room to swing her arms. That's a much better representation of a living room than most stage demos, and the Kinect was still picking up all her movements just fine.

Comment Re:Seems unlikely (Score 1) 363

by BardicStorm on Saturday April 08, 2006 @11:13AM (#15090804) Attached to: Microsoft Buyout of Ailing Sony Possible

Except that, if you look at the list, aside from one in 2002 and in 2003, their investment essentially stop after 2001, whereas their aquisitions continue on through 2005.

Looking at that list, you get a sense that they used to put more into investing than aquisitions, but their focus seems to have changed.

Also, if you consider that an aquisition usually costs quite a bit more than investments, then it would seem that even in 1999 and 2000 (the seemingly biggest investment years), more was spent on aquisitions even then.

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