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Konami Sues Viacom Over `Rock Band' Music Video Game

R

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
D-X said:
Every time I walk into an arcade and see Guitar Freaks I always wonder why Konami never made more of it for the home market.
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Too scared to take the risk.


That's what's pretty seedy about this whole affair. Konami knew about Rock Band long before it launched, and could have tried to block it then if they were so concerned about their patents.

Instead, they wait until it is a proven, successful product ... not only so they can claim lots of cash damages (based on sales), but so they can come in and block sales and bring out their own version now that they know the concept is proven.


Both beautiful and disgusting at the same time.
 
K

Kusagari

Member
Onix said:
Too scared to take the risk.


That's what's pretty seedy about this whole affair. Konami knew about Rock Band long before it launched, and could have tried to block it then if they were so concerned about their patents.

Instead, they wait until it is a proven, successful product ... not only so they can claim lots of cash damages (based on sales), but so they can come in and block sales and bring out their own version now that they know the concept is proven.


Both beautiful and disgusting at the same time.
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The funny thing is Konami's will bomb if they try to bring one out.
 
S

Struct09

Member
Golden Darkness said:
Speaking of musical lawsuits, what ever happened to the Gibson lawsuits against Guitar Hero and Rock Band?
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Gibson went after retailers for Guitar Hero (they didn't focus on Rock Band), and then Activision filed a lawsuit against Gibson. I haven't heard an update since.

Adent said:
Did Rockband just become a collectors item?
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No. How often do we see lawsuits like this, and how often do they result in such a thing? Answers are often and never.
 
C

Crisis

Banned
I am torn. On the one hand this is a hilariously misguided lawsuit. On the other the company on the receiving end of the lawsuit is Viacom. I think I gotta go with Konami on this one.
 
M

mollipen

Member
sneaky77 said:
We cannot compete and we did not have the foresight to invest into the idea when we were first to market with it... therefore now we are gonna sue
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This. It's your own damn fault Konami. You sat on your ass and never even attempted to bring your similar Bemani games to the US (or Europe?), and now you look like a chump.
 
C

Crateman

Member
24myucg.jpg
 
I

Igo

Member
If Activision did pay Konami patent fee's doesn't that just legitimize their case against Harmonix/Viacom. I'm pretty sure the patent courts take things like that into account.
 
D

Deleted member 284

Unconfirmed Member
Hopefully a Japanese company can win this patent suit.
 
B

botticus

Member
Kulock said:
Yay for patents! Such useful vague declarations. Can't wait for the person who claims that games interpreting button presses at all falls under their patent, presuming it hasn't happened multiple times already.
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After just getting sued over the Wavebird, Nintendo is now getting sued over the DS.

At least Konami went to market with a product that they had a patent for, as opposed to the usual suits involving some corporate entity that exists solely to hold vague patents to support future lawsuits.
 
Zoe

Zoe

Member
Igo said:
If Activision did pay Konami patent fee's doesn't that just legitimize their case against Harmonix/Viacom. I'm pretty sure the patent courts take things like that into account.
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Yeah, and I can definitely see Activision not being happy with that.
 
The Faceless Master

The Faceless Master

Member
Igo said:
If Activision did pay Konami patent fee's doesn't that just legitimize their case against Harmonix/Viacom. I'm pretty sure the patent courts take things like that into account.
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no, another company licensing the patent isn't taken into account, they only assess the validity of the patent.
 
B

Bahzing

Member
Doesn't it change anything that Harmonix created Karaoke Revolution?
They're re-using the same microphone engine and are getting (well technically Viacom) sued for that?

Or is the case only about the guitar, drums and other "music-rythm machine"?
 
M

majortom1981

Member
Before I blast konami over this where is update 1 to the story. The link says this is update 2. I want to know when did konami actually start this lawsuit.

Also keep in mind konami and viacom where probably trying to make a deal and then viacom stopped talking with konami and then konami filed the lawsuit. S o don't go right away blaming konami without knowing the whole story. The link is a poorly written news story by bloomberg.
 
P

Pachael

Member
shidoshi said:
This. It's your own damn fault Konami. You sat on your ass and never even attempted to bring your similar Bemani games to the US (or Europe?), and now you look like a chump.
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Exactly right. Konami hasn't done much for the Bemani franchise for a while and its potential is far more limited now than when the games first came out.
 
T

Tremis

This man does his research.
TheChaos said:
Us longtime Bemani fans still don't get anything Konami does with that franchise in the USA. Seriously, releasing Beatmania home version 9 years after it came out in the arcade (and a half-assed one to boot)? Really, Konami.
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Konami should sue themselves for how bad beatmania US was. What a piece of garbage.
 
L

lupinko

Member
Azuran said:
Why must Konami embarrassed themselves like this?
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They're not, they're just capitalizing on the situation.

I like Rock Band, own it, and have spent a nice sum on DLC, but yeah, Konami has all the justification to do this.

And Viacom deserves it.
 
T

tokkun

Member
AstroLad said:
Funny thing is they would have never sued if Rock Band wasn't such a great game and a huge hit. So yeah, what does that tell you about their motivations here?
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Konami sued Roxor Games over their In the Groove arcade machines and won. I don't remember ITG ever being a huge hit.
 
T

truly101

I got grudge sucked!
Golden Darkness said:
Speaking of musical lawsuits, what ever happened to the Gibson lawsuits against Guitar Hero and Rock Band?
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How would that work against GH? They allowed Activision the license to model the controllers after the SG, Les Paul and Explorer? I don't know how you can win a lawsuit against a game where you were complicit in its creation.
 
S

Sage00

Once And Future Member
Jonnyboy117 said:
The funny part is that Harmonix developed Karaoke Revolution for Konami.
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Didn't Harmonix just reuse Konami's internally developed engine they made for the Japanese Karaoke Revolution games?
 
S

Spruchy

Member
This just in! In an unexpected turn of events Harmonix is suing Activision for completely ripping off Rock band in their latest game in the Guitar Hero franchise.

:lol :lol
 
A

Awntawn

Member
The Faceless Master said:
it's where patent trolls go for easy wins.
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It's not like they just threw in the patents without ever implementing them before in hopes of farming corporations in the future, like most other patent cases. Konami actually had peripheral music games in arcades way before they reached home consoles. They have a legitimate case, it's just the timing that's surprising people.
 
D

~Devil Trigger~

In favor of setting Muslim women on fire
Reading something on Wiki:

According to Ron Kay, a developer with Harmonix, the idea of Guitar Hero was directly inspired by Konami's GuitarFreaks arcade game, where the player used a guitar-shaped controller to interact with the game. At the time, GuitarFreaks had not seen much exposure in North America.[3][4] RedOctane was making dance pads for games like Dance Dance Revolution for home consoles and also operated an online video rental service similar to Netflix. RedOctane's Kai and Charles Huang recognized the popularity of GuitarFreaks in Japan through their rental service, and planned to create guitar controllers to bring the game to North America.[5] The Huangs raised $1.75 million for the effort, despite being turned down by some investors who "thought [the idea] was too weird".[5] They approached Harmonix, who had previous made music video games such as Frequency, Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution about making a guitar-based video game for those controllers. With a budget of about one million dollars (which Kay noted was "pretty tiny for a video game"), the two companies worked together to develop Guitar Hero. Kay noted that "No one had any notions about it being a massive success; we all just thought it would be fun to do."[3]

The team quickly recognized that "the controller really was the kind of magic sauce for what we wanted to do".[3] They identified three aspects of gameplay that they felt made the game stand out. These aspects included the note-matching aspect and the showmanship created by the use of the whammy bar and tilting of the guitar within the game. The third key aspect was the use of Star Power "to provide a little more depth to the game — some replay value, some interest for people as they were playing beyond just hitting the notes". [3] Harmonix used third party controllers made for GuitarFreaks that were already on the market for development of the game until RedOctane had prepared prototypes for the Guitar Hero controller.[3] The controller initially had pressure-sensitive fret buttons to mimic the playing of a real guitar, but the idea was dropped as it made the gameplay too complex.[6] The idea of using the whammy bar to boost Star Power, in addition to altering the pitch of sustained notes was only realized about a month before the completion of the game.[6]
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R

robochimp

Member
truly101 said:
How would that work against GH? They allowed Activision the license to model the controllers after the SG, Les Paul and Explorer? I don't know how you can win a lawsuit against a game where you were complicit in its creation.
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They were claiming rights to the actual game
 
M

MassiveAttack

Banned
Kobun Heat said:
guitarpatent.jpg


So I actually went and dug up the suit and the three patents in question. As expected, they're the patents that Activision actually licensed from Konami -- they reference them on the home page for Guitar Hero.

You can download the PDF files if you want to see all these awesome illustrations of Guitar Freaks controllers.

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/07/konami-sues-har.html
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And this is where life becomes very difficult for Viacom. Activision is going to enjoy this show immensely.
 
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