They might be doing it to protect themselves from all kinds of people registering patents for about everything you can think off and charging big companies tons of money, but you never know.
I don’t think this has anything to do with SplashDamage though, if I remember correctly, software patents are applied only to US developers.
That sounds like it applies to local / splitscreen play only (i.e. being able to join a game at any moment and having the screen split onto two dynamically as that happens).
Anyway, it’s really of no concern to Splash Damage. Only US developers need to ask permission. Even if you sell your game/software in US.
what exactly is patent-worthy in that?
edit: this idiocy makes me ask: who has the patent on first person shooters?
Nothing. Such things are to be expected. A patent system is broken when people can claim patents on natural DNA sequences.
Well, in case you guys didn’t know Microsoft can no longer sell Word in US until it changes some xml processing code inside the program. Apparently some company “invented” that feature and wants to get money from their “research”.
Also, another moron or morons claim they have the patent for MMORPG games, I don’t know what happened with that story, maybe Blizzard, Microsoft and other US based game manufacturers payed the bill and moved on.
So, this should not come as a surprise, Microsoft is tired of loosing money over stupid things and decided to register whatever they can come up with. Not to steal money from others but to protect themselves from jackals in the future.
By the way, did you guys knew that Sony owns the patent for progress bar? :stroggbanana:
oh I have missed your Sarcasm GorkerMorker… =)
been reading up on alot of stuff tonight, and every other post you make makes me smile…
regarding this topic:
I second Aimology in his “Monopoly Professionals” comment…
F*ck Microsoft lol :o
If god has a patent on that I will never be able to make apple pie from scratch again :(.
Another patent is for DRMed torrent transfers.
Although Blizzard does this since ages ago…
they’ve had that taken care of for over a month now. A patch was available a few days ago for all new word owners.
anyway… this thing is really worth patenting. It’s not like Sega’s “arrow that points to next destination” patent. It’s not something that’s generally available eigther, nobody does real time new split screen mid game. Never seen it done before in any game type. Either it’s always a single screen or you have to specify ahead of time.
Too many idiots have patents for obvious so called ‘technologies’. At least in EU registering a patent requires the solution not be obvious. Don’t know why US still allows the registration of all kinds of stupid stuff any high school kid can think off.
Allowing users to join an ongoing game in split screen is hardly a problem and a contribution, but then again, better to have this patent than someone else asking money from you because you ‘stole’ the technology.
[QUOTE=DoubleDigit;206921]Too many idiots have patents for obvious so called ‘technologies’. At least in EU registering a patent requires the solution not be obvious. Don’t know why US still allows the registration of all kinds of stupid stuff any high school kid can think off.
Allowing users to join an ongoing game in split screen is hardly a problem and a contribution, but then again, better to have this patent than someone else asking money from you because you ‘stole’ the technology.[/QUOTE]
You can’t patent software in the EU either 