There have been rumors and various posts about a firmware hack for the Xbox 360, allowing people to play copied Xbox 360 games. A response from Microsoft has been posted on Gamerscoreblog, a blog of MS Xbox and MS Games employees.

Read more here.

"Major U.S. game publisher and developer Atari has released the paperwork surrounding its latest financials, and embedded within the document is significant news on the firm's $300,000 settlement of the American Video Graphics video game patent lawsuit, a suit which all parties have now apparently settled.

"The American Video Graphics suit was originally filed against game software publishers Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Activision, THQ, Vivendi Universal Games, Sega, Square Enix, Tecmo, Lucasarts, and Namco in August 2004, and alleged infringement of US Patent No. 4,734,690: method and apparatus for spherical panning.

"The patent in question was originally filed in 1987 by William G. Waller of company Tektronix, Inc., and covers the situation when "a graphics display terminal performs a pan operation with respect to a view motion center to effectuate spherical panning, thereby providing perspective and non-perspective views", in addition to a zoom feature. Taken in the context of video games, this would seem to mean that any 3D game engine that uses camera movement or zooming of any kind relative to a specific object would be liable, a description that encompasses the vast majority of current video games. ..."

Read article: Gamasutra - Atari, Other Parties Settle Major Game Patent Suit

Not exactly IP news, but interesting nonetheless. Looks like the launch of the PS3 is being delayed...

The Red Cross has begun to take it a little more seriously that game developers' use of the Red Cross emblem has been rampant in years past. The Red Cross recently wrote an open letter to the video game industry, requesting a dialogue to discuss the proper and legal uses of the Red Cross emblem (if any). The letter was addressed to a law firm, but no specific games were mentioned. Rather, the letter mentions that the practice of illegally using the Red Cross emblem has been widespread, and the Red Cross is seeking to curtail such use in the future.

MarketWatch reports that the video game industry grew 6% in 2005, weighing in at $10.5 billion. That's quite a sum of money, given that as reported by Fox, box office receipts for the movie industry were below $9 billion in 2005. Ironically, the market for flagship game consoles and related software shrank, allegedly due in part to the supply shortages of the new Xbox 360.

Other random industry samples for 2005:

• Father's day gifts - $8.23 billion
• Used books - $2 billion
• Aerospace industry - $170 billion
• U.S. beef industry - $78 billion
• Live Auctions - $217.2 billion
• Halloween - $3.3 billion
• Residential water treatment - $2.6 billion
• U.S. sales of generic drugs - $28 billion
• Search engine marketing - $5.75 billion
• Hot tea - $6.8 billion
• Hot Coffee - Well, that's another IP issue entirely.
  

I can't wait for next year...

Following up on a previous post, two Hollywood video game store owners and a third man who were charged in December for allegedly pirating video games and installing them on modified Microsoft Corp. Xbox consoles were indicted on Thursday, according to the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.

Read more here.

Well I have been a little slack about posting over the holidays. Hasn't been much news or developments to keep up with in the past month, anyway. To start off the new year we are beginning development of a new Patent Arcade logo. Look for it soon, errr, eventually. If you have any ideas to suggest, let me know.

-Ross

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged three men with copyright infringement for selling modified Xbox consoles that enabled the original video game machine from Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) to play pirated games.

...

Jones and Bryant demonstrated the modified Xbox game consoles in their Melrose Avenue store. They charged from $225 to more than $500 for the modifications, depending on the extent of the modifications and the number of games preloaded onto the hard drive, according to a statement from prosecutors and the complaint affidavit obtained by Reuters.

Read article here.

Ever want to own a video game? Now's your chance. The bankruptcy trustee for Acclaim is auctioning off their portfolio, around 200 games! Some have bids, but some are just waiting for a bidder. Who knows what the IP includes, so do your due diligence, or else you'll get what you pay for. There are a number of interesting titles in there, and more that its share of duds.

The auction list can be viewed here.

News story here.

Electronic Arts faces a lawsuit in the California Superior Court, San Mateo County, based on the claim that the publisher stole an idea for a game feature that was later incorporated into Madden NFL 06.

Read TeamXbox story here.