stories about: "nintendo"
Latest Pointless Patent Claims: Who Invented The Wii Controller?
from the you-need-to-own-a-patent-to-enforce-it dept
One of the problems we have in the various discussions about patent and copyright law is that people falsely assume that both systems are designed to give "credit" to the original creator and to somehow enforce "fairness" in making sure that original creator receives recognition. That has never been the case. Both are designed to create monopolies, to provide incentives to create. That has nothing to do with credit -- and, that's especially clear in patent situations where the actual people named on the patent are rarely parties to a case, as it's more often owned by a firm (such as the company the person worked for). Most companies require that their employees assign any patents to the company. So it seems fairly ridiculous to find out that a guy who doesn't actually own the patents he received is pissed off at Nintendo for using his idea in their Wii controllers. The guy worked for Midway Games, a popular videogame maker, who now owns the patents in question. It's difficult to see what his complaint is, since the patents are no longer his and Midway does not appear to have any problem with what Nintendo has done. In the video itself, a patent attorney suggests that the Wii seems to go well beyond the patents in question and it seems unlikely that Nintendo is infringing -- but since the few second demo looks similar, it makes for a nice news cast claiming someone "stole" an idea.The likely situation is probably a lot less interesting. Lots of folks have been working on motion sensing videogame controllers for quite some time. This wasn't a new concept that sprung up overnight. There are also many different ways to create such a tool and just because the end results look similar, don't mean that a patent was infringed. However, an even bigger point is one that we've been trying to drive home for a while. The invention part is only one small part of the equation. Innovating and actually bringing the product to market is more important -- and that's what Nintendo did successfully. This guy worked for a gaming company and came up with a prototype six years ago and didn't do anything with it. While lots of folks were trying to come up with motion sensing gaming devices, Nintendo successfully brought one to market.
Filed Under: inventor, patents, wii
Companies: midway, nintendo
Nintendo's Own Study Show Wii Not So Great As Exercise
from the honest-results! dept
There's been a little buzz around the news of a new study in the UK pointing out that playing games on the Nintendo Wii really isn't a particularly good substitute for real exercise, as some Wii-players would like to believe (and I'll admit that I'm guilty of playing some Wii boxing in lieu of real exercise). However, what may be even more interesting is the fact that the study was actually paid for by Nintendo. Perhaps we've just become so cynical about corporate "studies" like this in the past, that it's relatively shocking to find one paid for by a company that shows the opposite of what the company probably hoped to see -- and then to still see that study actually published somewhere.Nintendo Moves Into The Educational Market
from the whatever-happened-to-burgertime? dept
While Sony and Microsoft duke it out with price cuts on the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360, Nintendo keeps chugging along in the background, with the Wii continuing to sell well despite still being hard to find at many retailers. A big part of the success of the Wii, and Nintendo overall, has been the company's focus on creating products and games that appeal to a wide audience, and don't rely on sheer processing and graphics power, but rather innovative and creative game play. This is the sort of strategy that EA's new CEO recently alluded to, when he said his company has become stagnant and caught in an endless loop of franchise title updates, and isn't doing enough to court casual gamers and other non-traditional market segments. Even more so than the Wii, Nintendo's DS portable console reflects its strength in this area. It started with things like Brain Age, which attracted an older demographic by blurring the line between learning and gaming, but now the DS is becoming a platform for reference materials and educational programs in Japanese schools. The DS is an attractive device for the schools because it's relatively inexpensive (compared to laptops), and it's easy to use, while its touchscreen and voice-recognition functionality provide a useful platform. Nintendo trumpets the fact that 60% of DS buyers don't consider themselves videogamers -- and it's by catering to this market that Nintendo is finding a lot of success, rather than by rolling out expensive, yet powerful, consoles that focus on complex, involved games.
