Topic: A patent expert has called Sony “childish” and “unprofessional"

Since the Activision Blizzard King acquisition started, we have read many statements written by Sony executives about the competition in many legal documents addressed to the different regulators. Now, a patent expert explains how Sony defines the competition in patent documents.

A patent expert has called Sony “childish” and “unprofessional” for referring to rival console manufacturers as “inferior” in its patent applications.

Florian Mueller, who has been working as a patent activist and analyst for more than 20 years, has criticised the PlayStation manufacturer in the latest post on his blog Foss Patents.

Referring to a GameRant article which notes that Sony had recently published a patent application for a universal controller that refers to non-PlayStation products as “inferior”, Mueller states that not only is this “stupid” of Sony, it’s also far from the first time it has done this.

Sony’s patent says the controller could be used on “a personal computer, a home entertainment system (e.g. Sony PlayStation 2 or Sony PlayStation 3 or Sony PlayStation 4), a portable gaming device (e.g. Sony PSP or Sony Vita), or a home entertainment system of a different albeit inferior manufacturer”.

“Hat tip to GameRant, but this is not new,” Mueller says in his blog. “It’s long-standing Sony practice. They’ve been doing this since at least 2011.”

“It’s amazing that no one has discovered this ‘tradition’ before, and that no patent office told them a long time ago to stop doing that once and for all,” he adds. “Patent applications are not meant to be propaganda instruments for console warriors.”

Mueller explains that it’s common and legitimate for some patents to explain why the invention is superior to what’s already available, in order to prove why it should be patented.

“In that context, there is nothing wrong with discussing specific technical drawbacks (such as inferior performance, higher power consumption, greater memory footprint) of particular prior art (earlier inventions),” he explains.

“But calling competitors generally ‘inferior’ is gratuitous, stupid, childish, and unprofessional,” he adds.

“Even if those manufacturers were inferior, it would not mean that whatever invention a given Sony patent purports to describe – here, a ‘universal controller’ – is by definition innovative and deserving of patent protection.”

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/patent-expert-calls-...

wow. you really dislike sony huh

Well, what else would you call it since Jim Ryan started crying and trying to stop the deal from going through? Yet Sony keeps going on about how Spider-man is exclusive to PS and Horizon Zero Dawn and so on and so on. Hell, even during a trailer for the new Spiderverse movie there's a PS 5 add Forced into it saying oh yeah if you want Spider-man games they are on PS5.

Consoles and systems are going to have exclusives it has been that way for years. When Nintendo had Super Mario Bros did Sega go to the FCC and cry saying that's not fair they have a platform game for a mascot character you have to stop them, no they created two mascot platformer games, Alex Kidd and them Sonic. When SNES got Final Fight did Sega cry, no they went and mad Streets of Rage.

That's what Jim Ryan needs to do stop worrying about, and just make games. Instead of crying about MS buying Activision he should have spent all that money in making a FPS exclusive game for the PS to compete with CoD. Sony did that with Killzone when MS had Halo.

So yeah I agree that sums up Jim Ryan's behavior perfectly. Mommie, Jimmy down the street is getting a new bicycle for his birthday that's not fair, why can't I have it. Yep sums it up perfectly.

These statements connect with Jim's crying, indeed. The sentence that I find more shocking is that you can use our PS controller on a home entertainment system of a different albeit inferior manufacturer. This "reasoning" explains perfectly why Sony feels so self-entitled during the Activision Blizzard King acquisition and why their wording is so childish and selfish. Remember the headline Sony Blasts CMA's Xbox Verdict As 'Surprising, Unprecedented And Irrational'. Sony thinks that they have the right to remove things from the competition, such as Call of Duty or Hogwarts Legacy content, not to mention full Square Enix games but they also have the right to claim everything for themselves and prevent the competition from getting additional contents and games.

Before Bethesda was acquired, Sony kept Bethesda's games as exclusive for one year and they keep doing things like keeping Resident Evil games away from Game Pass as revealed in one of the documents, and Square Enix games away from Xbox entirely, with the publishers using poor excuses such as "these games are specifically built for PS5" and then the Windows version of Final Fantasy is revealed. What about the PS5 games that couldn't run on anything else but then a last-gen PS4 version was revealed? The influence of Sony over Japanese companies is important and Sony extrapolated that influence to the whole world so they thought that they could claim everything and not admitting or revealing anything that wouldn't do them any favour.

I wouldn't blame all of Sony for that type of behavior just Jim Ryan. Again as I said all consoles had exclusives and all gaming executives know that, Phil Spencer knows that, Jack Tretton knew that, Andrew House, Reggie, they all knew that. They all knew that you point out what exclusives you have and target your audience with that. Reggie did it with games like Pikman, Smash Bros and a dozen more. Jack Tretton did it with with JRPGS and Phil did it with Halo. But Jim Ryan acts like only he's the one in the gaming business and only he can have exclusives and the moment someone else does, they are committing a federal crime.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner he really does!! 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂😂😂

@Tasuki you’re completely missing the point!! Playstation exclusive are all made by Sony. Nowadays Xbox exclusives are huge third party games that Microsoft simply buy. Sony make great games, Microsoft buy great games. An likewise Nintendo invented Mario, like Sega invented Sonic. Proper exclusives!!

@Tasuki I agree. Also notice that nobody complained about Sony buying studios like Insomniac or Naughty Dog. They didn't have anything in the beginning and now it's like Sony makes games magically and the rest of the world just buys them. Buying games would be what Sony does with Final Fantasy VII and XVI, right?

Jim ryan is ruining playstation and hasnt done anything for the brand since they put this hack in charge. as soon as he became management you could see the decline in the ps4 instantly - removed features from the ps4, stricter ToS and horrible anti-consumer practices, stale exclusives and decline in variety, investing in crap nobody cares about for PR status.

if someone just simply wants to game on a console and not a PC, and doesn't care about sony exclusives, then xbox is definitely the way to go. especially since $ony is putting their games on PC too. the ps5 is by far the worst playstation ever released, people who though the ps3 was bad are insane, aside from the price the ps3 was the best and pricey for a reason. the ps5 is $500 for absolutely nothing.

@nomither6 Because Jim is more worried about harming the competition than creating a great experience for players. Marketing and paying third parties for excluding Xbox is what he's focused on. Marketing isn't working because the reputation of Sony couldn't be worse right now and we'll see how the exclusion deals will work in the long term. At the end of the day, if they release their games on Windows, what's the point of keeping third-party games out of Xbox? They're asking people to play on PC, not to play on PS5 because PC has Microsoft's games and Sony's games. So, is their strategy to try to destroy Xbox?

The arrogance they show in the patent applications is the same as the arrogance shown in the documents addressed to the regulators and I wanted to know what others think because, personally, I find ridiculous that they consider Microsoft an "inferior manufacturer" when Series X is better than PS5.

@Banjo- shouldve used a better word than ''manufacturer'' because when it comes to hardware and software ms usually for the most part had sony beat going back to the first xbox.

from all the news surrounding this clown jim ryan i really hope his days as headhoncho are numbered, you're absolutely right about his focus being harming the competition instead of quality controlling the decline of Playstation. hes a corporate suit and not for gamers & just cares about money.

now thats not to say xbox is some saint, im simply going by whats going on nowadays. xbox should just continue doing what they're doing and watch sony sink themselves because the captain cant take the wheel after the ps4s success , and steer. its for the better of playstation when the activision buyout is fininshed. sony may get a wake up call and go back to their roots.

and before someone says ''its a business, its about making money'' - i couldnt care ***** less even if i tried; im a consumer and im not part of that business. all i care about is how good the experience is , not their pockets. i don't care about them, give me good games and a fun system to use. if that comes at a cost for them, OH WELL.

@jordan1992 Death Stranding was a third-party exclusive made for Sony. So they bought that game. All Insomniac games were third-party up until Sony bought them in 2019. The Crash Bandicoot games were all third-party, with Sony buying Naughty Dog in 2001. They constantly buy exclusive stuff for COD every year. Bungie was also bought there. Saying Sony make their games and Xbox just buy them is such a console warrior statement. Sony have built up their studios over the years. Microsoft are trying to do so as well, just happens to be a massive one they're buying. My advice is have both consoles and be happy.

@nomither6 I'm happy with my PS5. Not a big PC gamer at all and never have been. The PSVR 2 was awsome before it became faulty.

@Nexozi good for you, i know the PS5 can be better because theyve made better consoles before. if you think this mediocre overpriced garbage is good, just try to imagine how it would be if they actually cared like they used to. PS5 still cant hold a candle to PS2,PS3, and if it wasnt for PS4 BC , the PS4 would have it beat too. Im a console player like you, dabbled with PC and now i think you should try it, pc is more accessible than its ever been and only improving; you can use any controller on it and the amount of features and freedom is unmatched. free online is amazing too.

as for PSVR2, im sure its awesome. but its just a gimmick.

@nomither6 If you don't like it that's fine. It's a hell of a lot better than the PS4 Pro. I have a PS3 and with the PS5 I can keep playing through my PS4 games without a jet engine above the TV.

Haven't played anything on my PC in about 4 years since I stopped playing PUBG because of the amount of cheaters. Can't see me getting back into it. The build was fun and was decent enough spec for back then, 1070ti and 16G ram.

@jordan1992 Lets see Spider-man made by Insomniac a third party studio before Sony bought them out, Last of Us done by Naughty Dog a third party studio before Sony bought them out. So yeah MS is doing the same thing Sony did. Yeah they maybe first party now but they weren't originally.

@Nexozi @Tsuki @BAMozzy i do have both and both are great but i do think Playstation make the best games. Every dev Sony have bought Sony have improved them an they’ve made massive AAA GOTY contending an winning games. Naughty Dog for instance, they made games for Apple 2 wen Sony bought them. Since then they’ve produced 5 Uncharted games an 2 The Last of Us games. All GOTY nominees or winners. Insomniac, Sony buy them, they make the Spiderman games, the first one being the biggest selling PS exclusive game ever with over 25 mill sales. Microsoft buy devs an just continue with the same games but make them exclusive. I do however think Sony should sign the 10 year deal, i really don’t think MS would make COD exclusive or release buggy Playstation versions, that would look bad on them an could do more harm than good.

@jordan1992 I don't disagree that most of the best games are on PlayStation. I just don't like this notion that Sony hasn't bought game developers and all their games are in house. Most of them are now but that's due to them having bought and Sony investing in them. Microsoft need exclusives like what Sony are putting out. So they're trying to build up their studios. Them buying cod will stop all the extras that Sony gets and putting it on game pass will sell consoles and get pc gamers signing up. I loved Uncharted and hated that they finished it. God of War, Ratchet and Clank, Spiderman and all are great games. Ghost of Tsushima is the greatest game I've ever played. Stunningly beautiful and a great story.

@Nexozi What PS5 first party AAA current gen games are Sony putting out? They have next to nothing so far and I can only see one first party AAA current gen title this year and it dosen't even have a release date. Xbox has far more First party AAA current gen only titles this year.
Sony are taking the Kinect route and concentrating mostly on the (so far poor selling) VR2 by just releasing VR updates to old games, linear indie titles and Shovelware.