Konami Sues RockBand

fuck Konami, they're just pissed because Rock Band 2 is going to annihilate piss-poor Rock Revolution.

Suck it, assholes. Maybe if your music games had music that wasn't terrible, people would buy them instead.
 
I love it when an evil corporation sues an evil corporation for bullshit reasons. Creates alot of stress and hassle for people who deserve to suffer alot of stress and hassle. Only thing that sucks is that the lawyers are going to get richer - at least the assholes are buying this time.
 
[quote name='Jesus_S_Preston']Maybe if your music games had music that wasn't terrible, people would buy them instead.[/quote]
Please keep your errors to another thread.
 
[quote name='Jesus_S_Preston']No, thanks, I'll keep my facts right here.[/quote]
Well, only if you're referring to Rock Revolution, not GuitarFreaks since, you know, Konami's only distributing RR, not developing it.
 
[quote name='Nohbdy']Well, only if you're referring to Rock Revolution, not GuitarFreaks since, you know, Konami's only distributing RR, not developing it.[/quote]

No, both.
 
[quote name='camoor']I love it when an evil corporation sues an evil corporation for bullshit reasons. Creates alot of stress and hassle for people who deserve to suffer alot of stress and hassle. Only thing that sucks is that the lawyers are going to get richer - at least the assholes are buying this time.[/quote]Oh please, how are Konami or Harmonix "evil"? Just because they are "big corporations"? Give me a break with that hippy bullshit.
 
[quote name='camoor']I love it when an evil corporation sues an evil corporation for bullshit reasons. Creates alot of stress and hassle for people who deserve to suffer alot of stress and hassle. Only thing that sucks is that the lawyers are going to get richer - at least the assholes are buying this time.[/quote]



You mean they're going to pay the lawyers? wow, those lawyers are dicks. I can't believe they want to get paid for taking on a case thats probably a huge pain in the ass.
 
Konami should have just released Guitar Freaks in the US back in 1999 or 2000 long before Rock Band got popular (I know they did in arcades but I have seen the US version once since it was released)
 
Damn that's kinda crazy.

I'm not too psyched about Rock Revolution, but I LOVE GuitarFreaks and I'd much rather see new GuitarFreaks games than Rock Band sequels. Hopefully they can reach an agreement so everyone's happy though.
 
Well, that's one less company I'm buying games from. Suck that.

Now, my list of "Companies I refuse to buy games and/or hardware from" is up to 3:
Konami
Rockstar
Sony

BJ
 
RB isn't going anywhere. It also depends on what exactly is patented. Patent laws are very confusing and generally have loopholes. I mean, how many "similar" things have you seen? I dunno, but it will be one to watch to see what happens, but as others have said, if kanomi is "winning", EA/Harmonix will settle for a nice sum that will be made back later that week with DLC.

I mean shit, who owns RB and doesn't have any DLC?
 
um since day one people are saying how Harmonix copied Konami. EA/Harmonix will probably have to pay Konami a lot of money and get a cut in future RB games.
 
[quote name='VanillaGorilla']Oh please, how are Konami or Harmonix "evil"? Just because they are "big corporations"? Give me a break with that hippy bullshit.[/quote]

Viacom is getting sued in this case.

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Upda...gers_Far_Reaching_Privacy_Concerns_19925.html

And I'm tired of patent trolls looking to make more money off of legislation then innovation. You don't see the makers of GTA3 suing all of the companies that created innovative games that were never-the-less spiritual successors of it's design.

So the hell with both parties in this case.
 
Unlike those companies sitting on patent suing Nintendo/MS/Sony for controller design, Konami actually made a bunch of music games.
 
Seriously... there's gotta be at least half a dozen GuitarFreaks, Drummanias, and Karaoke Revolutions... that's not exactly sitting on a patent. And I doubt that GTA's design is patented, or that it even could be patented, so that's irrelevant.
 
[quote name='rockytrh']RB isn't going anywhere. It also depends on what exactly is patented. Patent laws are very confusing and generally have loopholes.[/quote]
...except that the city the case is going to take place in is notorious for being in favor of the prosecuting party a majority of the time.
 
Still scratching my head as to why they haven't sued Activision yet. If they had the patent on the concept for Guitar Freaks back in 2002, wouldn't Guitar Hero be infringing on that patent too?
 
[quote name='BJWanlund']Well, that's one less company I'm buying games from. Suck that.

Now, my list of "Companies I refuse to buy games and/or hardware from" is up to 3:
Konami
Rockstar
Sony

BJ[/quote]Have fun depriving yourself of great games then.
 
[quote name='tangytangerine']Still scratching my head as to why they haven't sued Activision yet. If they had the patent on the concept for Guitar Freaks back in 2002, wouldn't Guitar Hero be infringing on that patent too?[/QUOTE]

Maybe they think waiting for the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series to be at their peak would mean extra cashola?
 
Aren't there laws in place that say that if you make no effort to protect your copyright early on, then you have no right to protect later? That's the rationale given behind free things like Grid Wars and that 3D Chrono Trigger remake being shut down.

Seems like, given that Konami did nothing through all the Guitar Hero games, they don't really have a leg to stand on here...
 
Rock Band is still recent enough, though, which presumably steals from two of their patents that hadn't been stolen from yet.
 
[quote name='tangytangerine']Still scratching my head as to why they haven't sued Activision yet. If they had the patent on the concept for Guitar Freaks back in 2002, wouldn't Guitar Hero be infringing on that patent too?[/quote]

For the umpteenth time, Activision is paying Konami to license the game.
 
[quote name='Chacrana']Rock Band is still recent enough, though, which presumably steals from two of their patents that hadn't been stolen from yet.[/quote]

I agree with that. I think there are laws that require you to protect your patent (as somebody mentioned above), and with how famous Guitar Hero I and II were, i'm assuming that time period is up for the first 2 guitar hero games, but as RB is relatively new (and also is a "new" intellectual property), i would assume that the statute of limitations isn't up.

Anyway, it sucks that it is in a city that is notorious for going with the prosecution. But i'm still wondering what exactly is patented, and what exactly they are claiming infringes on said patents. If it is the instruments themselves, i would expect the settlement to be substantially lower than if it has to do with the tracks themselves (as there are 1 mill + dlc downloads now, plus all the tracks in the game).

It will be interesting to follow this one....
 
Don't these patent lawsuits happen all the time though? Whenever you get a successful new product, someone tries to sue to get a cut of the action. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (but, really thinking, I can't think of the last new useful product that didn't go through a patent suit). I think, usually, you throw a few bucks to the patent holder and say 'go away'.
 
[quote name='62t']Unlike those companies sitting on patent suing Nintendo/MS/Sony for controller design, Konami actually made a bunch of music games.[/quote]

It's not like Harmonix hid the fact that they emulated some of the features of the Guitar Freaks series. Alex Rigopulos, Harmonix CEO, has stated in interviews how Konami rhythm games have influenced him and the companies design philosophy.

However, there is a difference between insperation and outright plagirism. Rock Band is not Guitar Freak/Drum Mania. It's a completely different beast. This is nothing more than Konami cashing in on Rock Band's success.

In fact, after reading this 1up article it makes perfect sense why Activision isn't included in the suit.
 
Maybe Konami tried to strike a deal and Viacom said no. It's a deep web though, since Konami owns Karaoke Revolution, they don't even have to mention the drums; simply the guitar and karaoke portions.
 
[quote name='Gameboy415']I'm not too psyched about Rock Revolution, but I LOVE GuitarFreaks and I'd much rather see new GuitarFreaks games than Rock Band sequels. Hopefully they can reach an agreement so everyone's happy though.[/quote]

I don't know. I played GuitarFreaks about a year ago and felt sorry for the Japanese because we got the better game first.
 
Ignoring song selection, Guitar Hero is definitely the better game, though it could really use accuracy judgment... don't particularly like the multiplier thing, either, but whatever.
 
It's been well known that Guitar Hero was inspired greatly by Guitar freaks. I thought I even read in an article once that a guy at Harmonix said thats why red octane approached them, they saw Guitar Freaks in Japan, and thought bringing it over to America would have great results, and it did. Not their fault they were more business savvy than Konami was.
 
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