Sony, Blizzard, Activision, NCsoft, Turbine named in patent suit

This companies are going to unite to find the best way to eliminate this menace. You cannot be serious that these guys are going to try to eliminate computer multiplayer on all this games and companies. Shame on them. This companies will eliminate Paltalk like dust, clean their hands with bleach and look over the horizon. You will see...

its because of lame stuf like this that the gaming industry is loosing employees..

you do know once they stop all the games companies from violating the patent they will make them pay unbelievable amounts for the license to use it.

Well I patented air!! I am suing GE, National Grid, and anyone else who uses air! EEF BIRDS TOO! I want TWO THOUSAND TRILLION! And I want it in my new currency known as Sakas, which will be equivalent to $1,000,000 each! MWAAHAAHAHHA!

Paltalk needs to keep to itself. -also who the hell cares about that dumb game runeEscape?

Kind of funny to see RuneScape getting sued...

90 mill lawsuit :O

Wonder who will be next after this round of companies have settled. maybe SE will be on the chopping block

And here is the problem with our over litigious society. I hope a meteor smashes their headquarters and sends them BACK to the pit they crawled out of.

crystall3d the world of buisness is dishonest. if it was activision or any of the others they would do the exact same thing. considering you can only push a lawsuit once if they won back when they did it they would barely get anything now they get alot. dishonest, money grabbing, spiteful etc etc Its all these things but it is also the best buisness route and the best way for them to recoup losses and gain profit from msitakes other companies made. I dont doubt any of the others would do the same thing.

where were they untill now?why did they wait untill some other companies started using their technology?it is dishonest imo

gaming has become an extraordinary profitable bussiness and the eyes of the envious are wide open.

There must be some substance behind the lawsuit microsoft rarely settles out of court unless its likely they will lose face. The patent was not for an idea it was a technology patent which microsoft and the other companies had licenced from them. if its true that the companies used the technology without the licence which they knew they needed since they got it later then they do deserve to be sued. Alot of you say this is wrong but then in there place you would not like your invention being used without your consent. The games such as MW2 wont be delayed by this the company in not trying to get the games stopped only stop them from violating there patent which would require them to have a licence before they use the technology.

This is stupid, anything gets a patent this days...

obviously 90million dollars is not enough for them - and yes i agree that maybe they should have damages MAYBE - but they want the companies to STOP using them? so what, kill SOE, NCsoft, Blizzard, Activision? surely that wont happen!

we all know games don't encourage violence... but reckless lawsuits do... just FYI

so they get to sue any company that uses multiplayer...wtf...can u patent multiplayer???

Why are there so many f**king lawsuits in the gaming industry? Can't everyone live happily together without the need of suing?

...and there goes fun... thank you Paltalk for ruining entertainment.

Haha the comments and assumptions are hilarious here. Bottomline is if MS settled than it was highly likely Paltalk was going to win in court. Go look up their patent online to see exactly how vague it is.

Whoever was the one person or in the group of people that came up with this idea deserve to be tar-n-feathered. This is a prime example of how disgustingly greedy man is. Right now they have more money then they will probably ever need, but no they have to go for the whole pie. Why dont you throw some of that lawsuit money our way? I know it would be nearly impossible but if this SOMEHOW screwed up the launch(or whatever) for MW2 then people will riot =P

This is why the likes of Sony, MS and even Nintendo patent everything they can, no matter how miniscule. Sad i know, but unfortunately there will always be money grabbing ****ers looking to take a slice of fat ca£h from an other companies success, and like has already been said, i very much doubt that Paltalk would even have bothered had these companies not been so successful, therefore indicating that this is purely a 'Money Grab' as opposed to being a 'Principle' issue, as they would have done this a long time ago.

its pretty obvious that they just want the money. if they didn't they woulda sued them a right from the start. i really don't get how companies are able to patent things like ideas and even genes, it only limits advancement in these areas. you should only be able to patent/copyright PRODUCTS, not ideas you might not even act upon.

This is a prime example of milking the cash cow. Fatten up the cow (in our case all the successful mmorpgs etc) and then sue them for a huge amount of money that they're able to pay. They wouldn't have opened their mouths if the MMORPGs weren't successful.

Why wait 5 years later till they alert the authorities of the patent breach? Obviously Paltalk is doing it for money else they defend it publicly right from the beginning.

I wish they were suing for more. As it stands the only company who deserves to be hurt by this - Blizzard - are the only ones whose wallets won't give a crap.

good thing this doesnt apply to single player only games since they dont "...control interactive applications over multiple computers" so any game with multiplayer is violating their patent... god this sounds so redicuilous, its like me putting a patent for "technology that uses electricity" lol i'd have everyone in the world in court.

This paltalk company found a new business model. Dont do anything and sue every company for having the internet claiming that the internet was made by your company. This lunancy must end.

wow, they are going to sue all those companies at once? thats crazy i sense an assassination in the next few days with the words Paltalk in the title of the story.

well think about it, every 15 mill they take off each games company is another game we lose out on? want modern warfare 2-3 to be delayed further or starcraft 2 to go back another year?

Sigh... They can pay, and probably will, but then what? Who's next on their list, and what can be done about this exploitation of the system.

just another company trying to get some money from the big ones.

Its gonna be interesting how this turns up, hope GS gives an update on what happens.

if they got Microsoft to settle, there is something about the patent that WE ALL, even the press, DON"T KNOW ABOUT. Until then, commenting on the validity and merit of the patent is all in vain.

so Paltak is against or with microsoft? or Paltak is against everyone?

Everyone keeps saying "the patent is pointless, it's meaningless, they won't get anything." But if Microsoft already knuckled under, there must be SOMETHING to the issue.

@Wolvern28 Your stupidity astounds me. Nothing will happen here.

Gamespot i've got a news headline for you. "Gamers declare war on paltalk"

paltalk is about to have every nutcase in WOW catch on that they are going to shut the game down, then what. I'll be reading a lot of suicides and shootings mainly of the paltalk company. They really want the whole world of over 10 million gamers to add them to a hit list? Within the next weeks? Is this what happens to greifers who go one step too far?

@verminax The thing is that the very basic idea of the patent is not just seemly simple 'today', pretty much every patent I saw from them was a patent on a existing thing. Instant messaging for example, had already been thought of and done, when they patented that. And, really, how is the concept of we should take this thing on this computer, move it to this computer (that is pretty much the IM patent, not in this case...I don't think). Did they come up with the way to do it? No. Did they even come up with the idea? No, neither did the original holder. Is their entire patent list a massive vague technology exploiting money pit? Yes. Then again, I guess if you think that any of their patents are fair, or any other intellectual property patents that exploit the system are, I guess you'd be fine with paying me the fee for my new patent on method of bipedal mobility and transportation? Bipedal beings traverse using two legs. The method described will allow the movement over short distances. Putting one foot in front of the other, a biped is able to move from point a to point b. I'm also drawing up the papers for the mechanics of the legs, because those are what make it work. I'll expect a $500/yr fee if you have legs, and $275/yr if you don't. Oh, and $2500/yr if you walk. Every basic and simple concept was once a new idea, right? I'll be sure to work on 50+ pages of patent lawyer bull later of course to confuse people and get this approved.

I don't understand this really. If these companies have been in violation of the patent for over 10 years, why sue them now? Why wouldn't they have sued them back in the beginning? It seems obvious they just want money and what better way to get it than take it from others? And the patent itself is complete bs.

I'm going to patent the idea of life so ever one living as to pay me money

First point, Palktalk's name sounds like a spoof. Secondly, I think that Palktalk is very smart by using this patent Thirdly, I think that this will not work at all and that Blizzard won't pay him a dime. like killerwaffles said, this is too much of a broad patent that it isn't as it seems. In fact, I'm sure that it is a bit more specific then that and that Activison and the rest have already prepared thier case and are relaxed. The Microsoft thing was probally like 1-2 million, Gates is smart and probally just saw Palktalk as a silly begger and was feeling generous.

I can't understand how such a broad patent could even be legal. I wonder if there is a patent already filed for a legally binding list and filing system for the purpose of tracking who owns the rights to individual inventions and concepts.

Nicely done Palktalk, that's what this socialist-capitalistic patent system is all about!

I love how all the companys they are suing are major companies right now, there not suing anybody small. They know those companies have the money they want, and are aiming for them. Also, I hate james.

omg!!! milkin it much?

not a bad idea, people made my life crap, I'm going to sue all of you so you better watch out!!!!!

*looks back at article* *realizes the stupidity of humanity AGAIN* *Starts hitting head on desk* This idea is so broad and the fact that the company waited so long to sue is a red flag that they are abusing the system.

this is probably a reason why other countries think we are dumbasses