Konami attempts to destroy Rock Band before their game comes out
Did you guys think Guitar Hero or Rock Band were the first games to bring guitar and drum peripherals to video games? The credit actually goes to Konami, which brought them to video games back in 2000.
Guitar Hero was insanely popular overseas and it became so popular that companies started importing them here to America. Konami was also smart enough to patent their peripherals and technology back in 2002, which is why Harmonix is in a vice grip now.
According to Bloomberg Konami just filed a law suit against Viacom Inc.’s Harmonix studio over patent infringement of musical peripherals in Rock Band. Many of you may be wondering what took them so freaking long.
I was wondering this myself because it’s impossible for them not to realize this possibility when Rock Band first came out. However, a smart business move has always been to see if the patent infringer’s become successful before suing them, because then you can ask for equal compensation for “potential” damages.
It may also be that Konami is too busy with actually making many different games and just never got around to it and took their dandy time figuring out the logistics of the the lawsuit.
Ever hear the term: Two’s a Party, Three’s a Crowd.
That maybe exactly the case here, there is: Guitar Hero by Activision and Rock Band by Harmonix and soon to return to the scene Konami’s new music game Rock Revolution. Believe it or not, according to Gamasutra Activision does indeed have some sort of license agreement with Konami regarding Guitar Hero; apparently it can be seen during the loading screen.
Gamasutra also asked a lawyer S. Gregory Boyd, who specializes in the game industry regarding the patent agreement between Konami and Activision. Here is what he had to say:
“A company only marks its products with patents it owns or has a license/permission to use. Marking a product with someone else’s patents without a license is essentially admitting infringement, and that is never done.”
I believe this is exactly what Harmonix has done. This is what Gamasutra had to say back in 2007 during the time they realized Activision’s agreement with Konami regarding Guitar Hero:
Needless to say, patent disputes and licenses such as this have major ramifications for the future of music games – and one area of particular interest might be how Harmonix/MTV’s Rock Band deals with the same patents
Ah, it looks like Gamasutra called this one last year.
It seems Konami may have used Guitar Hero’s creator Activision as a money horse, and because they are about to release its own music game, Rock Revolution, it’s time to clear any other competitors out of the way.
Bravo Konami, well played.
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8 Responses to “Konami attempts to destroy Rock Band before their game comes out”
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July 11th, 2008
i wish guitar hero wouldnt sell…..that sucks……all you do is stare at a screen for 5 min straight with little colorful buttons…..and gh dont know what good songs are….so every time i play gh, my ears bleed bc i have to listen to that gay music…..rock band is better….it has better songs and more instruments……why buy the cow, when you can get the milk for free….lol
July 11th, 2008
Guitar Hero and Rock Band suck a waste of money only idiots buy those games.
July 11th, 2008
Matt – I won’t disagree with the Rock Band has better songs. However their guitar sucks. Also about them having more instruments, well Gh World Tour is releasing in the fall and that will also have guitar, mic, drums, bass. And Ivan, well there must be alot of idiots out there because they sure are selling!
July 11th, 2008
Ivan – You are absolutely correct! Both of those games are trash. Only garbage people pick up that junk.
July 12th, 2008
Hey only real musicans play in a living room with plastic toys replicating real instraments with buttons on them. I mean how much realer can you get. Kinda like owning a blowup doll too or a 360.
July 13th, 2008
@ mike, ROFLMAO thats the best thing I’ve read all day
July 13th, 2008
lol mike that is well funny. especially the 360 part.
July 13th, 2008
Ivan_PSP – thats probably the only thing i can agree on with you. i fucking hate those two games.