While Electronic Arts was named the worst company in America by gamers recently, the other giant in gaming, Activision Blizzard, has been hit with something potentially worse – another lawsuit. On March 30, Worlds Inc. filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, Inc., Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and Activision Publishing, Inc. in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Activision’s World of Warcraft and Call of Duty video games have been identified in the complaint as infringing on Worlds’ patents.
Microsoft's Activision subsidiary announced today that it is opening a new game development studio to take advantage of the huge talent pool growing in Poland. It'll be the second Activision studio based in the region, joining Infinity Ward Krakow, although this studio is, in fact, not working on Call of Duty.
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Activision Blizzard ordered to pay $23.4M for patent infringement involving popular games.
I would read the article but the giant pop-ups from the top and bottom of the screen made me close it.
Without reading $23.4 million isn't a deterrent for a company that size.
Boss: Let's fire a few people to recoup on that loss.
Slave: Cortana has decided to get rid of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.
Boss: Let's get those Firing Letters "Copilot Approved" and send them through the power of the cloud.
Slave: Long Live Phil !!!
ALL in the room: LONG LIVE PHIL !!!!
Well another troll company with a patent trying to extort money out of companies. Seems like they’re going to try and sue everyone.
Seriously patents should totally not be part of the picture when it comes to game design.
Do you see people patenting different methods of camera work in cinematography. No because it's utterly ridiculous and would ruin the art of film.
Sadly gaming was birthed into a capitalist world and is getting raped by corporations that are trying to turn it into a money printing machine rather than letting it mature as a great wonderful form of art.
Thankfully they can steal the spotlight away from the beautiful things but they will still grow around the edges. This same thing has happened on and off with movies, they go through big corporately sponsored movie booms then collapse and the independent developers all lead the way until they sell out to the corporations again a few generations down the road.
Seriously, if Worlds Inc, wins this, I presume they will go after every major game publishers who have a game with some online multiplayer component; which is why I hope Activision wins this one.
will be interesting to see how this goes in court. i bet its tossed out. unless activision stole code from worlds inc, which i doubt. activision solved this "issue" themselves in their own way, as every other person designing games for online play now does.
"how do we get many players online in the same space?"
"how bout we limit the number of characters rendered?"
"brilliant! i will file a patent"
there was a similar lawsuit a while ago claiming infringement on "virtual worlds". i cannot find the outcome to that suit so i am guessing it went no where. google "Balthaser Online virtual world patent lawsuit" if you care to read further.
seems to me another case of lawyers going for the big money with bullshit cases.