Hey, remember when Konami tried to sue Harmonix and Viacom last July over patents for musical instrument peripherals? Now this is happening -- Bloomberg is reporting that Viacom and Harmonix are suing Konami, saying that their game Rock Revolution violates patents for musical instrument peripherals.
Yeah.
The complaint was filed yesterday in a federal court in Boston, home-base of Harmonix Music Systems. The complaint seeks to stop the sales of Rock Revolution, plus cash compensation. Considering the profits from sales of Rock Revolution would hardly cover the cost of an E.T. the Extraterrestrial videogame-like pit to bury the remaining copies of the game, one can estimate Viacom and Harmonix stand to gain somewhere in the range of $34.79 here.
According to the Bloomberg report, the Viacom patent (filed last December) on the instruments claims that it improved on early videogame music controllers, citing Beatmania as an example of older inventions. Hard to argue there -- have you guys seen those big wooden Guitar Freaks arcade controllers? Yikes.
We'll be watching this one closely, if only because the whole situation is headed in an "LOL funny" direction we wouldn't want to miss.
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Contest:
5:54 PM on 02.12.2009 | 
But still, Konami is the Original Gangsta of music games with unique controllers. Viacom is kinda acting like a douchebag, IMHO.
But... this IS Viacom we're talking about here. :/
Where are they going with this? And why are they kicking Rock Revolution when it's down? They stand to gain nothing by doing this!
What? The Guitar Freaks ASC is a billion times better than any of the home controllers for Rock Band or Guitar Hero. It's the most well-built guitar controller ever made.
Just because it's solid enough that you could use it bludgeon an adult male with it doesn't mean it's a better controller. Construction-wise it might be sturdy, but in terms of gameplay, I'm not sure how you can argue otherwise. But to each his own.
What the fuck happened?
Whether or not you like Guitar Freaks as a game, the construction, buttons and switches used are better as a whole than anything put out by Harmonix or Red Octane. There's a reason Activision has Konami making the arcade version of Guitar Hero.
I enjoy Rock Band a LOT but I have no problem saying the Guitar Freaks arcade version is miles better in function and style than any of the home controllers.
In terms of gameplay, it IS very arguable. I MUCH prefer the tighter timing and more difficult gameplay of Guitar Freaks, as well as the in-studio creations by the Bemani artists. They go over an extremely wide range of styles and are much more interesting than the vast majority of songs in either RB or GH.
You might like playing cover songs in the Bemani song interface, and some of us like playing the real songs with charting that feels more like a real instrument. Guitar Freaks has always had charting that feels no different than pressing buttons on any other controller, whereas Rock Band and Guitar Hero at least feel similar enough to the actual songs that you can pretend you're a rock star.
Have you ever seen/heard anything less fun?
At any rate, I hate RB and GH so I hope Konami triumphs. Go Konami, go! Fight the power!