The Gaming News Thread

[Mailman653]

300 New Exhibitors Featured Among 2700 at the 2009 International CES

[Mailman653]

Atari Gets Cryptic

[TevashSzat]

Analysts leery of EA, Guitar Hero

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Colin Sebastian believes poor showing of Mirror's Edge could lead to more layoffs and cancellations; EEDAR's Jesse Divnich thinks Activision's rhythm game has "peaked."

With November 2008 US sales figures from industry-research firm the NPD Group expected later this week, the top game-industry analysts have released their own estimates for the month. The consensus is that the traditionally frantic holiday season was subdued somewhat by the surging recession, with game sales enjoying only a modest year-over-year increase. Though he believes all three consoles sold in record numbers, Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter thinks that overall, domestic game revenue was $1.4 billion, up just 7 percent from $1.31 billion in 2007.

While cautiously optimistic about the industry as a whole, analysts gave unusually downbeat assessments of two pillars of the game industry. First, Pachter estimates that Electronic Arts will see a 16 percent year-over-year decline in revenue, thanks to poor showings of the new property Mirror's Edge (300,000 units for the month) and Need for Speed Undercover (350,000 units). Though it enjoyed better reviews, Rock Band 2 also sold a disappointing 350,000 units during the month on two platforms--the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. (PlayStation 2 and Wii versions are due out next week.)

Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Group, the firm helping Midway stave off bankruptcy, went one step further. He thinks the underperformance of Mirror's Edge, Rock Band 2, and Need for Speed Undercover might lead to more layoffs and Tiberium-esque cancellations. "We believe EA is continuing to review its cost structure and franchise base, and it is possible that management will announce further cuts in headcount and the development pipeline (including existing franchises) over the coming quarters," he summarized.


While EA's woes are likely pure schadenfreude to Activision Blizzard executives' ears, this week also saw Pachter predict its sales would slip 14 percent year on year. This slide is in large part due to one of the megapublisher's top franchises hitting market saturation. "Probably the most talked about issue this month is the lack of sales for Guitar Hero: World Tour," declared Jesse Divnich of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR). "Currently, we expect unit sales to decline by more than 50 percent series-over-series for November. This is coming off the October month where series-over-series units declined by more than 60 percent."

Divnich also pointed out that, rather than command a premium like Wii Fit, Guitar Hero World Tour is beginning to sell under its suggested retail price on the eBay auction service. "It is pretty clear that the series has already reached its peak among the mass-market audience," he explained with the following caveat. "Of course, we are not suggesting that the Guitar Hero (or Rock Band) franchise will be disappearing anytime soon."

I suppose the anti-EA people are pretty happy about this.....

[Veho Nex]

You hit the nail on the head.

[Mailman653]

Disney to Buy EA?

[TevashSzat]

EA Abandons Vancouver Studio Plans

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Canada's Globe and Mail says beleaguered publisher halts aims to build out 20,000-square-foot facility; cuts at Black Box, EA Canada already under way.

Like so many other companies, Electronic Arts continues to face the cold, hard realities of an economic recession. The Globe and Mail reports this week that the publisher has decided not to proceed with plans to expand its operations in government-subsidy-rich Vancouver, Canada, due to sagging holiday sales in North America and Europe and overarching global economic instability.

EA reportedly entered planning stages for the 20,000-square-foot facility about a year ago, though the studio's purpose was not revealed. EA currently maintains two development outfits in the Vancouver area: EA Black Box, which develops the publisher's Need for Speed and Skate franchises, and EA Canada, home to top sellers such as the FIFA and NCAA sports simulations.

"These are challenging times, they're uncertain times for our industry and across the board," EA spokesman Colin Macrae told The Globe and Mail. "We continue to be firmly rooted in Vancouver." Macrae also confirmed that EA's Vancouver-based studios would see some staff reductions, though he declined to go into further detail.

On the back of a greater-than-expected $310 million loss during its second fiscal quarter, EA said in October that it would eliminate 6 percent of its workforce--or approximately 600 positions. Earlier this week, the publisher said that the current hostile market conditions will force its hand in executing another round of layoffs, as well as consolidating facilities and scaling back its SKU count next year.

Meh, more bad news for EA

NPD: Wii sales top 2M during $2.9B a month

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[UPDATE] Nintendo's console reigns supreme in hardware, more than doubling Xbox 360; Gears 2, COD: World at War top software; top-20 games.

Recession may be on the tip of everyone's tongues, but consumers' appetite for the interactive medium continues largely unabated. Industry stat-tracking firm The NPD Group today released its assessment for US gaming retail sales in November. Industry sales were up 10 percent year-over-year. Domestic sales of hardware, software, and accessories reached $2.91 billion for the month, pushing 2008's total just over the $16 billion threshold.

2,040,000 units in one month.

November 2008's 10 percent sales growth is especially impressive, considering that last month's tally contained seven fewer post-Thanksgiving shopping days compared to a year ago. One huge reason for the surge was the Wii. With an analyst-noted surge in supply, Nintendo's console more than doubled its 2007 numbers, selling more than 2.04 million units. The Nintendo DS also proved staggeringly popular, shifting 1.57 million units on the month.

While lodged firmly in third place in hardware sales for November, Microsoft made huge gains over rival Sony last month. Xbox 360 sales more than doubled those of the PlayStation 3, with Microsoft's console outselling Sony's system 836,000 units to 378,000. Sony's depth bolstered the company's performance, however, with PSP sales hitting 421,000 units and the aging PlayStation 2 managing 206,000 systems.

On the software side, Microsoft and Epic Games' sci-fi third-person shooter Gears of War 2 took the gold, reaching sales of 1.56 million units in November. That figure represents just over half of the title's global haul, which Microsoft pegged at 3 million earlier this week. Activision's Call of Duty: World at War, which also debuted last month, fell just shy of Gears 2's tally on a platform-by-platform basis, with the Xbox 360 edition seeing sales of 1.41 million units and the PS3 game selling an additional 597,000 copies.

Nintendo's Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Mario Kart Wii had another commendable month at retail, snagging the third, fourth, and fifth slots in November's chart with a respective 796,000, 697,000, and 637,000 units. While the rhythm genre was decidedly underrepresented in October, Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii and Wii Music both surged in November, logging respective sales of 475,000 units and 297,000 copies.

Other strong performers for the month include the Xbox 360 edition of Valve's Left 4 Dead (410,000 units) and Insomniac Games' flagship PS3-exclusive shooter Resistance 2 (385,000 units).

Though the NPD Group does not include PC titles in its monthly report, Frazier also noted that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King enjoyed stellar sales for the month. "We would be remiss not to point out the strength of PC game sales this month as lead by the release of the latest World of Warcraft expansion pack," said Frazier. "Wrath of the Lich King sold over 1.4 million units in the US during its debut month at retail." Worldwide, the game sold more than 2.8 million copies in just 24 hours.

[UPDATE] On Friday, NPD expanded its list of the top console and handheld software sold in November to include the 20 best-selling games. Of note, October's top title--the Xbox 360-exclusive Fable II--saw a substantial drop in sales, falling to 19 on the chart. Another big drop came by way of Bethesda's Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360, which fell nine spots to 12.

US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - NOVEMBER 2008
Software: $1.45B (+11%)
Hardware: $1.21B (+10%)
Accessories: $255M (+7%)
Total Games: $2.91B (10%)

TOP-SELLING HARDWARE - NOVEMBER 2008
Wii--2.04 million
Nintendo DS--1.57 million
Xbox 360--836,000
PlayStation Portable--421,000
PlayStation 3--378,000
PlayStation 2--206,000

TOP-SELLING SOFTWARE - NOVEMBER 2008
Title / Publisher / Units*
1) Gears of War 2 (Xbox 360) / Microsoft / 1,560,000
2) Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox 360) / Activision Blizzard / 1,410,000
3) Wii Play w/ Remote (WII) / Nintendo / 796,000
4) Wii Fit w/ Balance Board (WII) / Nintendo / 697,000
5) Mario Kart Wii w/ Wheel (WII) / Nintendo / 637,000
6) Call of Duty: World at War (PS3) / Activision Blizzard / 597,000
7) Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii) / Activision Blizzard / 475,000
8) Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) / Electronic Arts / 410,000
9) Resistance 2 (PS3) / Sony / 385,000
10) Wii Music / Nintendo / 297,000
11) Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii) / Nintendo
12) Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) / Bethesda Softworks
13) Rock Band (Wii) / MTV Games
14) Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia (DS) / Nintendo
15) Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox 360) / Activision Blizzard
16) Mario Kart (DS) / Nintendo
17) Guitar Hero World Tour (PS2) / Activision Blizzard
18) WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2009 (PS2) / THQ
19) Fable II (Xbox 360) / Microsoft
20) Madden NFL 09 (Xbox 360) / Electronic Arts

* Figures include Collector's Editions and non-hardware bundles.

That is simply insane.......and I thought Nintendo would never be strong in the console industry again after Gamecube.....

PlayStation Home Beta Opens

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[UPDATE] Public trial for the PS3's avatar-based social-networking service has gone live in the EU and US.

[UPDATE] Via its PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Home director Jack Buser has announced that the PlayStation Home beta is now live. Newcomers can now access the virtual world via a PlayStation Home button in the PlayStation 3's borderline dyslexic XrossMediaBar. Yesterday's original story of the beta launch announcement is below. [END UPDATE]

Since being announced back at GDC 2007 by Phil Harrison, PlayStation Home has been the subject of a lot of expectation. Originally planned for a 2007 release, Home has had several delays and setbacks pushing it back to late 2008.

Earlier this week, The Times suggested that the release was coming "within the next 10 days." As it turns out, gamers won't have to wait even that long, because Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and America today jointly announced that the Home beta will be open to all on December 11.

Dog, string vest, and shotgun not included.

PlayStation Home will let users interact and communicate via unique avatars in real time using text or voice. Within Home there will be a variety of minigames, videos, and clubs--areas where users can come together and share similar interests. Each aspect of Home will be customisable, and players will be able to buy new clothes, furnishings, and even whole new apartments direct from the PlayStation store. Clubhouses will also be available for those wishing to create clubs, though for a price--how much was unclear. Sony simply stated that "to be a Clubhouse owner, user will need to buy the entitlement to run the club."

There will also be regional game-related content. Users accessing PlayStation Home in the SCEE regions will have a Far Cry 2 space to explore at launch, with spaces for MotorStorm, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, and SOCOM promised soon in the region. SCEE and SCEA also confirmed that they are working with EA and Ubisoft, among others, with a view to creating more such spaces. The Far Cry 2 space will also be available to those in SCEA territories, and Resistance and Guitar Hero spaces are promised for the region.

Companies will, as expected, also get the opportunity to use Home as a marketing space. Sony has detailed plans involving both Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures, which will involve "dedicated spaces, sponsorship of in-world events, virtual items and exclusive media viewings in the PlayStation Home Theatre."

The first such event was confirmed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and will be centred around the upcoming movie of acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen. It will feature a selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise as well as a chance for some to virtually meet members of the film's cast and crew in a Watchmen-themed environment in 2009.

Ligne Roset joins Diesel among Home's earliest retailers.

The Watchmen promo accompanies two previously announced sponsorships with fashion label Diesel and energy drink Red Bull. The latter will offer the opportunity to take part in a virtual version of the Red Bull Air Race, a stunt-flying championship around Red Bull Island. Ligne Roset will provide contemporary furniture, and users will be able to customise items before they buy them.

PlayStation Home will be available as a free download starting December 11. It should install automatically after rebooting the PS3 once the update becomes available, after which a PlayStation Home icon will simply appear in the XrossMediaBar (XMB).

Has anyone tried this out yet???

[johnhughthom]

Tried to start Home last night but couldn't login, whether it was just too busy I don't know. Think I'll give it a go now.

Edit:Two hours of trying and couldn't get on, kept telling me connection with server was lost.

[Martok]

PlayStation Home Beta Opens

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[UPDATE] Public trial for the PS3's avatar-based social-networking service has gone live in the EU and US.

[UPDATE] Via its PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Home director Jack Buser has announced that the PlayStation Home beta is now live. Newcomers can now access the virtual world via a PlayStation Home button in the PlayStation 3's borderline dyslexic XrossMediaBar. Yesterday's original story of the beta launch announcement is below. [END UPDATE]

Since being announced back at GDC 2007 by Phil Harrison, PlayStation Home has been the subject of a lot of expectation. Originally planned for a 2007 release, Home has had several delays and setbacks pushing it back to late 2008.

Earlier this week, The Times suggested that the release was coming "within the next 10 days." As it turns out, gamers won't have to wait even that long, because Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and America today jointly announced that the Home beta will be open to all on December 11.

Dog, string vest, and shotgun not included.

PlayStation Home will let users interact and communicate via unique avatars in real time using text or voice. Within Home there will be a variety of minigames, videos, and clubs--areas where users can come together and share similar interests. Each aspect of Home will be customisable, and players will be able to buy new clothes, furnishings, and even whole new apartments direct from the PlayStation store. Clubhouses will also be available for those wishing to create clubs, though for a price--how much was unclear. Sony simply stated that "to be a Clubhouse owner, user will need to buy the entitlement to run the club."

There will also be regional game-related content. Users accessing PlayStation Home in the SCEE regions will have a Far Cry 2 space to explore at launch, with spaces for MotorStorm, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, and SOCOM promised soon in the region. SCEE and SCEA also confirmed that they are working with EA and Ubisoft, among others, with a view to creating more such spaces. The Far Cry 2 space will also be available to those in SCEA territories, and Resistance and Guitar Hero spaces are promised for the region.

Companies will, as expected, also get the opportunity to use Home as a marketing space. Sony has detailed plans involving both Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures, which will involve "dedicated spaces, sponsorship of in-world events, virtual items and exclusive media viewings in the PlayStation Home Theatre."

The first such event was confirmed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and will be centred around the upcoming movie of acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen. It will feature a selection of virtual Watchmen merchandise as well as a chance for some to virtually meet members of the film's cast and crew in a Watchmen-themed environment in 2009.

Ligne Roset joins Diesel among Home's earliest retailers.

The Watchmen promo accompanies two previously announced sponsorships with fashion label Diesel and energy drink Red Bull. The latter will offer the opportunity to take part in a virtual version of the Red Bull Air Race, a stunt-flying championship around Red Bull Island. Ligne Roset will provide contemporary furniture, and users will be able to customise items before they buy them.

PlayStation Home will be available as a free download starting December 11. It should install automatically after rebooting the PS3 once the update becomes available, after which a PlayStation Home icon will simply appear in the XrossMediaBar (XMB).

Has anyone tried this out yet???

Well the guys at Penny Arcade are definitely not impressed.

[Husar]

Tried to start Home last night but couldn't login, whether it was just too busy I don't know. Think I'll give it a go now.

Edit:Two hours of trying and couldn't get on, kept telling me connection with server was lost.

Same here yesterday, but I got in early today when most of Europe and America was probably asleep.
It's...well, didn't do a whole lot, just created a char and ran around for 10mins before I had to go to work. But I can say it offered me one sofa, one chair, no lamps and not much else to put in my appartement, either you have to buy everything else or they didn't include a lot in the beta for that aspect. And here I was hoping I could let my inner architect out but I guess I will have to use LBP for that.

[TevashSzat]

Pennsylvania Task Force Says NO to Video Game Legislation

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There is good news out of Pennsylvania today, as the commonwealth will apparently not pursue video game legislation.

A working group assigned by the Pennsylvania legislature to study the video game violence issue has strongly recommended that no laws regarding video game content should be enacted.

The Task Force on Violent Interactive Video Games began meeting in November, 2007 and has just released its findings. The group emphatically recommends that the Pennsylvania General Assembly not pursue video game content legislation. Indeed, the language used by Task Force leaves no room for doubt as to its view:

The General Assembly must avoid enacting restrictive legislation similar to those that have been invalidated by the Federal courts.

The Task Force also called for more research into the effects of games on young people and suggested that legislators fund a program to educate consumers about video game issues.

Among those who testified before the Task Force are some familiar names:
Patricia Vance, ESRB
Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner, authors of Grand Theft Childhood
Dr. Patrick Markey, Villanova University

Task force members included Markey, as well as a pair of well-known First Amendment lawyers, Clay Calvert and Robert Richards. Representatives from the ESA, MPAA and RIAA also participated. Asked about his impressions of the task force and its work, Markey told GamePolitics:

The task force members had extremely different backgrounds -- experts on First Amendment issues, social science, clinical psychology and members of the game industry, law enforcement, and parents. I was the only member who was a social scientist. My main job was to discuss violent video game research (pros and cons).

Although there were disagreements at times, I think the members of the task force worked together extremely well and came to a fairly "common sense" conclusion.

So it took them a year to figure out what everyone knew already????

Rumor: EA Sending Need for Speed to Junkyard

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Electric Playground's show on Friday reported that Electronic Arts has cancelled development of new titles in its Need for Speed franchise. An EA spokesman gave a generic response that did not dispel the rumor.

Electronic Playground did not name its source. Reached for comment, EA said: "We're working through a process on people, products, and facilities at EA and don't have any announcements today." That's no defense for a franchise that goes back to 1994, so, it sounds like something's up.

Need for Speed: Undercover released to very unenthusiastic reviews, to put it charitably. It was one of the titles named by analysts in this week's news that holiday sales would be sharply lower than expected, news that sent the publisher's stock into a dive. EA CEO John Riccitello said the company would cut titles from its "bottom levels of profitability," which exempts EA's sports catalogue.

EA-owned Black Box Studios is the home of NFS. But it also develops FIFA, NBA Live, NHL and others for EA. Correction, that is EA Canada. EA Black Box makes Need for Speed and Skate. Killing NFS would be a serious blow.

Okay, I actually like the NFS series regardless of its dubious quality after Most Wanted. Sigh.....another reason to hate EA I guess

[Mailman653]

Time Warner to Acquire Eidos?

[Veho Nex]

Is it just me or are media corp's taking over the gaming world? I mean Disney for EA and Time Warner for Eidos.

[drone]

The media companies have realized that people are spending more time gaming than watching their crap movies, so now they want a piece of the action. Movies from video game IP and vice versa are just the start. Soon, we can look forward to the same quality in video games as we are getting in the theaters. Yeah!

[Mailman653]

Midway Announces Layoffs

[Veho Nex]

The media companies have realized that people are spending more time gaming than watching their crap movies, so now they want a piece of the action. Movies from video game IP and vice versa are just the start. Soon, we can look forward to the same quality in video games as we are getting in the theaters. Yeah!

Woo hoo.... Aren't we just the lucky ones... You know what, stardock should buy out (edit)EA.

[Martok]

EA/Maxis releases de-authorization tool for Spore.


Wow. That's smarter than I'd have given them credit for. It still doesn't change the fact that they went with the restrictive SecuROM in the first place, but at least this could potentially alleviate its effect(s).

[drone]

I'm pleasantly surprised. Although from the short description, it looks like you are stuck if you suffer a drive crash or OS reinstall without deauthing first. Did they (Take2, I guess) ever release one for Bioshock?

[TevashSzat]

Wow, even more bad news for EA. I guess the EA hater crowd is having a blast this fall

EA layoffs hits 1,000, Black Box "consolidated"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[UPDATE 2] Publisher widens staff reductions to 10 percent, will reap $120 million annual savings; Need for Speed Undercover studio moving in with EA Canada, label will remain intact.

The day before Halloween, Electronic Arts spooked its staff by announcing it was laying off 6 percent of its workforce. Last week, it alarmed analysts by announcing--without revealing any specifics--that its annual earnings would fall below expectations. As a result, it was expanding its layoffs and canceling future projects.

Today, the company announced an expanded restructuring that will see EA increase layoffs to include 10 percent of its worldwide workforce. The 1,000 pink slips will be sent out by March 31, 2009, and will encompass the "consolidation or closure of at least nine studio and publishing locations," according to EA.

The restructuring will both cost and save money. After incurring charges of $55 million to $65 million as a result of severance packages and other reorganization-related expenses, EA anticipates an annual savings of $120 million.

Analysts blamed EA's troubles on the underperformance of several games, such as Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, and Need for Speed Undercover. Little surprise, then, that one affected location is Undercover developer EA Black Box, which will be closing its office facilities. (In an ironic footnote, Black Box's official site still bears the tag line "Growth...and lots of it!") The staff of the Vancouver-based shop, which is currently working on Skate 2, will be relocated to EA Canada's offices in the nearby suburb of Burnaby. However, an EA representative told GameSpot that the studio name will remain.

"This does not mean that the Black Box studio is closing," said the rep. "The studio is moving to our Burnaby campus to share the facility with EAC and other EA teams that operate out of our state-of-the-art facility. We will operate two distinct studios, each with their own distinct culture and teams, out of our Burnaby facility."

EA said that Black Box's expected move date is June 2009. The rep also said that the studio's games would follow as well, but declined to comment if any were being considered for cancellation. "[We've made] no announcements regarding franchises," stated the rep.

In the initial news release, EA also issued the following blanket statement outlining how it will examine each of its series' viability: "EA is implementing a plan to narrow its product portfolio to focus on hit games with higher margin opportunities. The company remains committed to taking creative risks, investing in new games, leading the industry in the growing mobile and online businesses, and delivering high-quality games to consumers."

Its a shame that Dead Space or Mirrors Edge didn't sell well. They actually seemed like decent games

[Mailman653]

I think EA might be a nesesary evil, if they were to shut down, there would be a huge void in the game industry, not to menttion several titles going into the wind if other publishers don't pick them up.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

TevashSzat - I think part of the problem was the saturation of "decent games" at the time of their release...

As usual, Penny Arcade explains the situation well. (Link is rated G, somewhat of a rarity for PA :P).

[Crazed Rabbit]

EA is going to strip starforce DRM from some of its games and release them on steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/2116/

So only Steam DRM for Mass Effect now -
http://forums.bioware.com/forums/vie...orum=22&sp=128

CR

[Husar]

I think they had SecuROM, but it's a nice move anyway.

[TevashSzat]

Worlds.com Files Suit Against NCsoft - Every Other MMO Company To Follow?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

90's virtual world developers Worlds.com has fired the first shot in what could be a game company-spanning battle as they file suit against NCsoft for infringing on their patent for multiplayer virtual environments.

The patent at question is 7,181,690, "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space", which was file in August of 2000 and finally issued in February of last year. Reading over the patent, it basically covers the client/server-based system every single MMO on the market uses to allow multiple players to view and interact with each other in a virtual world. The suit, filed on Christmas Eve, claims that NCsoft has infringed on this patent across all of its MMO titles, from City of Heroes to Guild Wars to Dungeon Runners. After reading over the patent, it looks like they've actually got a pretty solid case on their hands.

Worlds seeks damages from NCsoft, as well as assurances that the MMO publisher will not infringe on their second patent, 6,219,045 - "Scalable Virtual World Chat Client-Server System".

Mark my words here - NCsoft is just the beginning. Their patent pretty much covers every instance where users with avatars interact in a virtual space. From Second Life to World of Warcraft, PlayStation Home to Anarchy Online; everything massively online and multiplayer falls under this patent. This should be interesting, folks.

Okay......this is bad, very bad.

[Mailman653]

I know nothing about patent law but it might be a good time to find a job with Worlds.com because if all those MMO companies have to pay royalties, Worlds.com will have more money than they will know what to do with.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Worlds.com Files Suit Against NCsoft - Every Other MMO Company To Follow?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

90's virtual world developers Worlds.com has fired the first shot in what could be a game company-spanning battle as they file suit against NCsoft for infringing on their patent for multiplayer virtual environments.

The patent at question is 7,181,690, "System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space", which was file in August of 2000 and finally issued in February of last year. Reading over the patent, it basically covers the client/server-based system every single MMO on the market uses to allow multiple players to view and interact with each other in a virtual world. The suit, filed on Christmas Eve, claims that NCsoft has infringed on this patent across all of its MMO titles, from City of Heroes to Guild Wars to Dungeon Runners. After reading over the patent, it looks like they've actually got a pretty solid case on their hands.

Worlds seeks damages from NCsoft, as well as assurances that the MMO publisher will not infringe on their second patent, 6,219,045 - "Scalable Virtual World Chat Client-Server System".

Mark my words here - NCsoft is just the beginning. Their patent pretty much covers every instance where users with avatars interact in a virtual space. From Second Life to World of Warcraft, PlayStation Home to Anarchy Online; everything massively online and multiplayer falls under this patent. This should be interesting, folks.

Okay......this is bad, very bad.

I think its BS - or at least it should turn out that way. They patented a architecture of 3d MMORPGs (see here for indepth patent info), filing the patent in 2000 - after some 3D MMORPGS had already been released, of course.

Basically, they've patented a game's structure (when a player enters a room, load various things from the server) not a actually end product. We'd need an expert in software patent law, but this seems stupid - worlds.com [which has basically done ****-all since filing that patent] is suing because NCSoft had a game where info on objects and players are loaded from servers. Now if NCsoft was stupid enough to copy actual code (of which there is relatively little in the patent) that'd be one thing. But this looks like some parasite company trying to make bank on a shady patent.

CR

[Kekvit Irae]

I recently patented breathing. Does that mean I can now sue every living being on this planet?

[Tratorix]

I recently patented breathing. Does that mean I can now sue every living being on this planet?

Unfortunately, yes.

[Jolt]

I recently patented breathing. Does that mean I can now sue every living being on this planet?

No, because I patented patenting. Therefore, you will be the sued one.

[Kekvit Irae]

No, because I patented patenting. Therefore, you will be the sued one.

Fine, but I patented suing and the judicial system.

[Veho Nex]

I patened forums. Now get off till I get my royalties.