Immersion and Sony finally reached an agreement for the lawsuit regarding Immersion?s force feedback technology. When Sony introduced force feedback feature in their Dual Shock controllers for PS2, Immersion sued them for patent infringement. Immersion promptly won the lawsuit which forced Sony to pay $91 million in damages. Needless to say, Sony appealed the decision. Now, both companies have made up and are entering into business partnership. According to the settlement, Sony will pay $22.5 million over 3 years and other royalties and fees. Kaz Hirai, president and COO of Sony, said “We are very excited about our new partnership with Immersion and the potential for new and innovative products incorporating their technologies.”

This is very good news if you wanted rumble function for your PS3 games. Some segment of gamers wanted the rumble technology instead of the motion sensing technology. While I think there is more possibility with motion sensing than the rumble technology, adding rumble functionality to existing controller will certainly enhance gaming experience. The big loser in all this is Splitfish. If you recall, they were trying to hammer out deal for Sony to use their force feedback technology. We now know why Sony was mum about the possibility of using Splitfish?s technology. They were busy hammering out deal with Immersion. Regardless, it will be interesting to see what Sony does with rumble technology now.

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