Another short episode, because really, summer game news is typically slow. A lot of interesting stuff this week, however.
All this and Listener Feedback.
Apparently Konami just realized Harmonix, MTV Networks and Viacom have made some game called Rock Band and want to take legal action. Konami has created some Japanese games involving karaoke called Karaoke Revolution. Why take legal action now?
Probably because Konami is working towards Rock Revolution, a title which puts together drums, vocals and guitar. How odd, don’t we have a game called Rock Band which has done that for awhile now? It’s much easier to be competitive in the market if you can squeeze your opponent out of the market by telling them you hold a patent on the entire concept…which you let slide for a year.
It seems a bit convenient to force a lawsuit, now, after Rock Band is proven successful and before you launch your own “clone.”
Its suit claims that Rock Band violates a series of US Patents registered in 2002 and 2003 relating to “simulated musical instruments” and “musical rhythm-matching game.” (gamespot)
Although the developers of Rock Band should have gone through some patents on the topic prior to make it (or maybe they did?), it seems a bit out of place to patent such a generic concept. As far as I know, Musical Chairs is also a musical rhythm-matching game but nobody put up any stink when Konami filed a patent for the same concept…
This week on the TD Gaming Podcast we explore four exciting news stories:
This week in gaming history we’ll look back at LJN, a listener’s idea and gaming flashback on the hit title Myst. This week we discuss the concept of using the Nintendo DS as a learning device, as they’re doing in Japan.
It’s the last Gaming Podcast episode of 2018, and it’s three hours long! Well, it’s to make up for the fact we won’t be doing one next week. There are only two news items, but the entire bulk of the episode is our Game Awards for 2017, and we took a different tack than most sites and podcasts by inventing our own Awards Categories!
The news we do discuss include:
We also discussed the game we’re looking forward to the most in 2018 — let us know which one you are interested in!
