Walking into Immersion Corporation's San Francisco event last week was like entering a laundry mat after hours. The scene was the same (fancy room, free alcohol, "gourmet" food), save for the familiar crowd of journalists that are unable to turn down not only a freelance opportunity, but a free sandwich. The scene was a bit disarming, if not disappointing for a company that I thought was trying to make a name for itself in the videogame industry. But as I spoke to employees and learned about the company's technology it became clear that Immersion not only has its hand in other industries, but actually enjoys living in the shadows.

Immersion isn't necessarily a huge company. Worldwide, it employs roughly 135 people and posted 2005 revenues of $24.3 million, up 2% from 2004; a far cry from the billions reported by videogame giant Nintendo this year. However, Immersion's done the one thing that up till now Nintendo's been unable to do, which is beat Sony at its own game. In fact, it's not enough to say that it defeated the media giant in court because the reality is it kicked its ass. The company sued Sony in 2002, claiming that it had infringed on several of its 600 plus patents, those having to do with rumble technology. Both Sony and Microsoft had elected to create proprietary rumble technology for use in their first party controllers and Immersion cried foul. It was an announcement that at the time boggled me because I had never heard of Immersion and I'm also not ashamed to admit that the story smacked of a company desperate for money. Just who the hell did they think they were and even more importantly, what were their chances of actually beating one of the biggest companies in the world? As I later discovered, their chances were better than good, if not spectacular.

The truth of the matter is Immersion, founded in 1993 by Stanford and MIT engineers, had been built upon rumble technology, the same exact thoughts and ideas that Sony and Microsoft placed into their respective controllers. In fact, the company partnered with CH Products to create the world's first consumer, force-feedback device, dubbed the CH Force FX, a PC joystick that was released in 1996 to critical acclaim. It then went on to license its technology to Microsoft in 1997 for DirectX 5.0 and Logitech in 2001 for the popular Logitech Driving Force steering wheel for the PlayStation 2. Actually, by 1999 Immersion had its technology in over 24 products and helped developers/publishers adapt over 100 games to support it, so when Sony and Microsoft went around parading its controllers to the world, Immersion decided that it couldn't remain silent.

Rather than get tied up in the courts, Microsoft decided to settle with Immersion, license its technology (which is being used in Xbox and Xbox 360 controllers to this day) and purchase some stock. The agreement appears to have been quite amicable, and both parties seemingly enjoy a rather healthy working relationship. Sony, however, refused to work with the company and took the fight to court, where it was found guilty of 16 counts of patent infringement in 2004, and ordered to play Immersion $82.0 million for the period of August 2001 through June 30, 2004. Sony would appeal, but on March 24, 2005, the court not only ordered the $82.0 million to be paid, but also slapped the company with an extra $8.7 million in pre-judgment interest, bringing the grand total to $90.7 million. And to add insult to injury, Sony must pay Immersion a 1.37% licensing fee per quarter for every PS2, DualShock, and a specified selection of PS2 games sold.

In response to the judgment, Sony didn't remove the rumble feature from its PS2 controllers. However, it is mysteriously absent from the official PlayStation 3 game pad which made its official debut at E3 2006. In its place is motion sensing technology which, while not as advanced as what Nintendo's placed into its Wii controller, does allow the user to maneuver objects by tilting the device left and right and moving it up and down.

Rumors quickly spread around the videogame community that Sony had purposely removed rumble because of the Immersion lawsuit. That has never been confirmed, but after contacting Sony last week, a representative issued the following statement:

The PS3 controller doesn't utilize force feedback. Instead it utilizes what the industry calls axis motion sensors. Because of these new motion sensors the controller doesn't require force feedback AKA vibration or rumble. We've been at work on this controller for a long time so the decision to move to motion sensors wasn't based on any pending litigation, it came out of our desire to innovate and create a different kind of controller for the PS3.

Unsurprisingly, Immersion disagrees and feels that controllers require force feedback because it greatly enhances the gameplay experience, and while employees wouldn't directly accuse Sony of purposely removing rumble so that it wouldn't have to deal with Immersion, CEO Victor Viegas mentioned that the company is not only willing to help Sony put force feedback into the PS3's controller, but that Immersion would have absolutely no trouble getting around the motion sensing technology, saying that they can easily bypass the frequency and get everything working in tandem. Of course, whether or not this will actually happen depends on Sony. Immersion has just completed work on its next generation rumble software and devices and is eager to work with both Sony and Microsoft, though to date, eDimensional is the first company to sign a patent license for Immersion's "advanced vibro-tacticle, spinning mass gaming technologies for use along with next-generation, virtual-reality motion-sensing in its gyroscopic game pad for PC or the Sony PlayStation 2." How these products will impact the gaming community and even better, compare to Nintendo's Wii, is still shrouded in mystery.

Continue...