Sega Sues Level 5 for Patent infringement, seeking 900 million yen in damages

GC: Sega has sued Level 5 for infringing on their patents.

[majiebeast]

Sega can burn for all i care what a d!ck move.

[insomnium2]

I don't know what the fuss is all about but I just realized that you are down to 1 bubble too? That's strange since iirc your comments are great all round. You piss someone off? LOL!

[INehalemEXI]

hmm I say settle outa court for bout 5 sumn give or take a few hunned.

[SAE]

Gave you a bubble , i hate this bubble thing ..

[badz149]

Sega is doing the Apple now? WTF Sega??

[FarEastOrient]

From original source:

"Game but a mechanism to manipulate the characters by touching the screen with your finger or pen, the claim in the complaint Sega "two patents acquired by the company has been compromised" and. I have sold more than 300 million has 8 series in the works, and about 900 million yen was supposed to enter as royalties."

Have they been paying attention to the WiiU or Smartphone games. This is already a feature that has been out there for years.

[darthv72]

it relates to the platform but specifically to the game. otherwise (as you say) they could try and sue every company that makes a touch type game.

It is something specific in how the person and the onscreen action are manipulated not just simply the manipulation.

[admiralvic]

Same elements, different situations...

Apple didn't need to sue Samsung, they just did that to remain on top / make the competition look bad.

Sega is doing bad financially, so I wouldn't be shocked if they went with this reach to stay alive for a little longer.

[IAMERROR]

man this sucks, both are great companies.

[HammadTheBeast]

Sega's gone way downhill. Instead of a proper Sonic game, they give us garbage over and over.

[SonyNGP]

I have a feeling that this will backfire and put Sega into some deep s****.

[Smurf1]

I hope so, it's pretty disgusting thing to do by Sega.

[sway_z]

Our beloved games industry is already suffering in some quarters, so this class suit action is particularly saddening.

With all the developer/publishing houses closing over the last few years, this activity doesn't help, but merely serves to erode the industry, and sadly if continues...our gaming industry is in danger of self-consumption.

Remember the big industry crash of the late 80's & early 90's?

Too young? ...Go Google ;0

[zerocrossing]

WTF Sega!?

[SAE]

I want Dark Cloud , i beg you level 5 T_T ...

[OneAboveAll]

First of all, who the hell is Level 5? Second of all, let's get mad as the victim here (Sega) and not these clowns who are infringing.

Good for Sega. Use that money wisely.

[grassyknoll]

Firstly, Level 5 is one of the best/most original Japanese developers in the world. Secondly, the patent is absolutely bullshit.

[caseh]

@grassyknoll

Secondly, you are basing Sega's right to sue based on a 'rough translation' There's no real detail, if this 'original Japanese developer' has infringed on a patent that is a big aspect of their games (never played em so couldn't say) and could be attributed to its success in anyway then Sega have the right to pursue this.

[WildArmed]

"A mechanism to manipulate the characters by touching the screen with your finger or pen"

Idk, could go both ways really. Might just be them trying to get easy money.

But Level-5 are one of my fav. studios, and hope they get out of this. they are a small studio, so this would hurt them really badly if this goes through.

[Lord_Sloth]

You backed Apple in their stupid lawsuit, didn't you...

[Nodoze]

Must be a Call of Duty playing Xbox'r.

You don't know who Level 5 is?

Go play some more CoD.

[ApexHell]

scumbag sega, idk wtf is going on with them.

[dennett316]

So how much are Sega going to pay Nintendo for ripping off their D-pad design? Seriously Sega, you're trying to sue over a touchscreen interface? Wasn't aware you owned the patent on that.

It was the same thing with the ludicrous lawsuits brought by Apple which sought to trademark rounded edges and shapes on buttons....utter crap in the extreme. "Manipulating characters by touching the screen with your finger or pen", it's so vague as to be utterly ridiculous.

I know Sega are desperate for money, but this is just sad.

[darthv72]

yet you may be wrong on the first part. look back at the master system and even the genesis. Neither of which had the d-pad like nintendo. if anything...sony copied the d-pad design. Just look at comparison shots of the nes/snes d-pad and see how they look to the ps1.

also, they arent suing over the touchscreen interface. It is specific to the way the individual and the onscreen action are manipulated. NOT the simple manipulation in general.

it could be like...the particular style of swiping something as opposed to just swiping in general.

edit: i got to thinking that maybe you didnt mean the "d-pad" specifically but the controller in general. The original rectangular controller with the 2 buttons and d-pad...etc. My bad

[cleft5]

So rather than try and make good games, market them, and increase their market share that way Sega goes after Level 5. Seriously Sega.

[Baka-akaB]

Sega is copying the apple silly trend . Screw them , i hope Level5 not only wins but sues them back .

[knifefight]

Sounds like Sega is just jealous that someone else figured out how to make better games than them.

It's like the wrong persons at the wrong place said "Ni no Kuni is the best RPG since Skies of Arcadia." and it escalated from there.

[Baka-akaB]

then again it's not like they were even trying rpg wise ... seriously Shining Wind , tears and Ark ? urgh ...

[Hicken]

You forgot about Valkyria Chronicles, though, which are great games. Tears and Wind are last gen, and why not mention Force NEO?

If they wanted money, they should have localized VC3, which fans have been wanting since it released.

Even more, they could have ported both 2 and 3 to PS3, and people would buy it up quick.

This is a stupid suit.

[Baka-akaB]

I indeed forgot valkyria , my bad .

And i didnt mention all shining F games . Neo is rather awful .

[Mikito11]

Die Sega! Dieeee!! lol

[MartinB105]

Sega - The same company that tried to patent 3D camera angles in games (around the beginning of the Saturn launch IIRC).

Anyway, hopefully this will backfire and will be just be another incident to add to the long list of Sega's spectacular failures.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

Sega havnt been doing to well recently, maybe this is just some lame attempt to grab some cash. Not cool sega...not cool...

[kB0]

I was wondering why ppl didn't jump and defend Sega, because I know there are a lot of Sega fanatics out there lol.

It's because of how much of a fanbase Level-5 games have ahhaah. Man if Sega were sueing Activision or EA I bet everyone would be "Yeah Sega! Go for the gold!"

Anyways, seems like bullying companies is the new trend.

Thanks Apple for exploding the new trend!

Apple Trends:

Iphone, Imac, Isue!

[Prototype]

Nice try

[kB0]

Explain

[Prototype]

"It's because of how much of a fanbase Level-5 games have ahhaah. Man if Sega were sueing Activision or EA I bet everyone would be "Yeah Sega! Go for the gold!"

Not all of us have that mentality

[kB0]

It's not a mentality, it's an unspoken truth.

[rataranian]

Ok. First the youtube thing, and now this? That's it. I'm done SEGA. I hope you burn.

[cero55]

Sega if this isn't justified you have lost a customer. i love both companies but cmon man both dont make much income as it is.why not shake hands make a cross over game instead.(yeah i want my darkcloud 3)

[LAWSON72]

Go shove all those terrible sonic titles up your butt, sega. Better yet go make a shitty phone game and shove that up there to.

[3-4-5]

So Sega is going to try and ruin literally one of the only companies bringing us GOOD QUALITY JRPG's to the US ?

Thanks Sega...we really appreciate having no RPG's to play you worthless douches.

[MegaLagann]

Okay, now is a good of time as any to rant on Sega.

*Clears throat*

I have a Master System, Genesis, CD, 32X, Saturn, Dreamcast, Game Gear & Nomad. Sonic is my favorite video game series, Shenmue & Panzer Dragoon Saga are some of my favorite games of all time and the Saturn & Dreamcast are some of my favorite consoles of all time, very underrated with a lot of great import games. So as you can see, i'm somewhat qualified to talk about Sega. Hell you may even call me a Sega fanboy...of the old Sega and that's the thing, to me there is no "new" Sega, because Sega is dead to me.

Sega was really on borrowed time after the Dreamcast, yes the still made/published some amazing games like Yakuza, Bayonetta & Valkyria Chronicles, but at the beginning of this year where Sega had that major shakeup, I knew that was it for Sega. They are content with only making Sonic, Total War, Aliens & Footbal Manager while occasionally re-releasing their old games because that's all they're good for now and also make Yakuza, Shining, Miku & Valkyria games that will never be released outside of Japan. And then they pull the absolute dick move by taking down YouTube videos of old Shining Force games because they want people looking up videos for their new Shining game which honestly looks like shit and then they start taking videos down featuring other Sega games. So this is how you repay your loyal fans, the ones that want to celebrate your legacy by going onto YouTube and talking about how great a certain game was? That's how you repay the people who continue to buy your shit and were pretty much the reason why you're still in business? And then you sue Level 5, one of my favorite companies going today so that's strike one, strike two is you're suing them for absurd reasons. What happens if Sega losses this case, they have to pay Level 5 11 million dollars plus more. Sega doesn't have that kind of money, this could financially kill them. I know some people may disagree with this next statement, but I really hope a company like Nintendo buys out Sega, because at least then I would feel safe knowing the franchises I love are in competent hands.

[Prototype]

Mega, I'm also a die-hard Sega fan.....from the 90's. If you asked me back in the early and mid 90's I voted Sega and Sonic way over Mario (Even after Mario 3 came out), and also owned one of each Sega system.

Now, Sega can go to hell for all I care; recent lawsuits, telling fans not to release fanbase games, crappy 3rd party games, selling out their entire fanbase just to get a quick $, and the list goes on.

The only saving grace now if Sega decides to either be bought out, or have enough $ to reinvent the Dreamcast with updated specs.

[MegaLagann]

There's never going to be another Dreamcast, that dream is dead (pun intended). Like I said before, I wish/hope a company like Nintendo buys them out. Not just to see my five year old self shit his pants at the mere thought of Sega and Nintendo being one in the same, though it would be cool, but also to make sure the franchises I love are in competent hands. Because there's one thing Sega has that Nintendont is incompetency.

[will313]

Well, first off a lot of you guys sound ridiculous. This is one of many law suits that happen all the time between big corporations. All this SEGA hate is really stupid considering the fact that they don't even make a console anymore and you literally don't have to deal with their products if you don't want to. And at the end of the day if Level 5 stole something they should be held accountable for it, if they didnt then hey Sega will eat crow about it...but honest why so many of you take this personally is beyond me. You more than likely don't work their and if you know anything about Level 5 you know that this suit no matter which way it goes won't really dent them financially (Professor Layton Money) not to mention all their other hits. Aside from terribly supported systems a lot, and I do mean A LOT of the stuff you guys like would not be around had the company you so easily ridicule not done it first. Even SONY admits this.. http://www.google.com/url?s...

You guys need to get your facts straight before you shit on these companies. ALL OF THEM SCREW UP AND ALL OF THEM HAVE DONE SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT. This is NOT about defending Sega so much as it is me telling you that there is a much bigger picture here than what you willing to see.

[GhostofHorizon]

“A mechanism to manipulate the characters by touching the screen with your finger or pen.”

Isn't that like almost every game on touch screens? Heck, even Angry Birds manipulates the character with touching. What about Zelda?

This patent is ridiculous. Article is really vague though so maybe there's more to it.

[Ben_Grimm]

So ... no Rogue Galaxy 2?

[PurpHerbison]

Dirty

[ghostrider32]

Sega ain't been s*** since the Dreamcast.

[lizard81288]

Level 5 is the only hope of seeing Professor Layton vs the Ace Attorney come to America. Sega on the other hand is making a Doodle Jump Sonic game... I'm surprised they aren't suing them either, since Sega made Doodle Jump way back in 2006, while Doodle Jump came out in 2009

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Deku-Johnny]

"A mechanism to manipulate the characters by touching the screen with your finger or pen" How the hell can they sue over that? In fact how can they patent that? If that line describes what Sega patented then Sega shouldn't get any money. There are a lot of DS games where characters can be manipulated by touching the screen with your finger or pen. Have they never played Animal Crossing Wild World?