Harrison: We didn't steal Nintendo's idea

[wraggster]

Nintendo's UK boss David Yarnton recently lashed out at Sony's new motion-sensing PS3 controller, saying that - in regards to Nintendo's own unqiue Wii controller - Sony "didn't innovate, they copied."

However in an interview with Spiegel Online (a -shock, horror - German website), Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Phil Harrison today struck back at the claims. Our CVG translation droid was duly warmed up and given a fresh dollop of oil and it reported the Sony boss said: "In a way I understand why people say [we stole Nintendo's idea], but it is a little stupid, if you forgive the remark."

When we brought the PlayStation to the market in 1994, we introduced real time 3-D graphics for the first time," he noted. "When Nintendo launched its N64 in 1996 it also had 3D graphics, did we say, "Nintendo stole our idea!"? Obviously not. Such innovations become possible because of a combination of technology, cost and manufacture capacities."

He continued: "We've been working on [motion-sensing technology] for a long time and Nintendo has certainly likewise already been working on something similar. The difference between our strategy and that of our competition is that our controller is still similar to the Dual Shock, the industry standard controller. I estimate that nearly 400 million Dual Shock controllers have been sold worldwide."

When asked how many PS3 games would use the motion-sensing function in its first year, Harrison said that he thinks "all games will use the function somehow." Harrison continued, "If you play a platform or soccer game now, you move the controller around," he added. "Now for the first time we can use both the primary input, executed by the analog sticks, and at the same time use the movements that the player makes as a secondary input. That is an important advantage, which only the PlayStation controller has."

So there you have it, according to Sony it was all a big coincidence and the conspiracy theories are all a load of rubbish. Now let's wait and see what Microsoft has to say about their online service...

Via CVG (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=140731)

[Darksaviour69]

When we brought the PlayStation to the market in 1994, we introduced real time 3-D graphics for the first time

WTF.. what about the saturn, p.c. arcade, and even 32x

[Cooe14]

WTF.. what about the saturn, p.c. arcade, and even 32x
Exactly Sony is a bunch of lying idiots. Do people really think that if the Wii used a normal controller that the PS3 would have had motion sensors? NO! Sony only put them in as a direct retaliation to the Wii's controller.

[Cap'n 1time]

Nintendo announces this controller, which will seperate it from every other console ever creator... 6 months later sony announces its going to try to pull the same shit with "every game" using it in some way? no they STOLE (in bold) the concept from nintendo.

As for the 3d graphics... its like sony saying they invented the doom engine. Also do note that nintendo's virtual boy offered sudo 3d graphics before the playstation.

[Cooe14]

Nintendo announces this controller, which will seperate it from every other console ever creator... 6 months later sony announces its going to try to pull the same shit with "every game" using it in some way? no they STOLE (in bold) the concept from nintendo.

As for the 3d graphics... its like sony saying they invented the doom engine. Also do note that nintendo's virtual boy offered sudo 3d graphics before the playstation.
Even if he meant in the console world Star Fox for the SNES had 3d graphics before the PlayStation was ever released.

[vettacossx]

well im cool with that i mean its not like sony is doing somthing new by working off nintendos ideas eather i mean the ps1 was GOING to be a ADDON for the snes so i gotta agree with cooe on that...lol...im not at all surprised...but maybe a lil exited .....the more nintendo and microsoft inovate ....the more scea will have to.... and god knows sony would love nothing more than to offer a LITTLE LESS and GET AWAY WITH IT ; )

[Shadowblind]

off topic up there

Sony may be copying, as they have about other matters before.

[bullhead]

Well one things for certain, it wont put me off buying one. I think its good when competitors feed off eachothers ideas and innovations... Makes things interesting! It will be interesting to see which console will incorportate the idea best.

[V3N0M]

I really could care less where they got the idea from. As long as the system is fun and has great games i don't care. Really don't understand why people are getting mad that they stole the idea. If it makes there system more fun, then why not? Now Nintendo can steel something from them now lol.

[Zion]

Howw Do U Make Ur Own threads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????? ???????????????????????????

Look at my guide here : http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26009

[Miria]

Man just because Sony's got most of the sharemarket doesnt mean they own. Check them out saying that the had their own little innovative idea.

Yeah Rite Sony you never make anything yourselves. There were many systems out there that had 3d Graphics than you. So get Real stop telling customers shant and I hope your empire falls. The Wii-volution comes..... Are you ready???

There motion sensor is just a straight rip off from Nintendo. There pricing is whacked and needs a bashing. Now there are saying "You Don't need computers because the PS3 can do many things and more than what a PC can do".

How dare they.

[horacehogarth]

Jeez Nintendo fanboi's really are losers. Who really cares about all this, every company takes ideas from others it's the way things move forward.. Nintendo have looked at Eye Toy and taken it in a different direction, how innovative of them. Oh and Jumping Flash was the first 3d platformer not Super Mario 64.

Though Microsoft tend to just buy other companies ideas then market them as their own.

[Cap'n 1time]

Jeez Nintendo fanboi's really are losers. Who really cares about all this, every company takes ideas from others it's the way things move forward.. Nintendo have looked at Eye Toy and taken it in a different direction, how innovative of them. Oh and Jumping Flash was the first 3d platformer not Super Mario 64.

Though Microsoft tend to just buy other companies ideas then market them as their own.

Nintendo dosnt have "fanboi's" we are just in it for the fun. The only company that really has "fanboi's" would be sony. The majority of nintendo supporters and owners most likely own another console (cheapshot: due to the fact that we can afford it). This is far from the first thing nintendo has came up with to revolutionize the market also. I recall a certain machine using a gamepad rather than a joystick to the dismay of many gamers at the time. The basics of DDR were done with Track and Field. Not sure if the BS device was arround before sega channel, but you get the idea...

As for the eyetoy... it is an innovative device... but it sure as hell is in no way, shape, or form even somewhat closely related to the so called "wii-mote". Also many people are under the impression that the eyetoy really had no support. Personally when i heard about it, I thought it was pretty cool. It seems that most people wont give the eyetoy the time of day.. Some people dont realize what a cool thing they have untill its too late.

Last no one in this thread has claimed Mario 64 was the first 3d platformer... though many people concider it to be the first amazing one.. this is probably why some people concider it to be the first one in existence.

And agreed with the Microsoft comment. What seperates them from Sony is that MS dosnt claim they dont steal ideas.

[Galiano]

It's called jumping on the bandwagon and if NO companies did it we wouldn't have had the x-box or ps1 or many of the consoles we've known and loved. If one particular company has an innovative idea, the others imitate, that's life.

This can only be good for gamers like us as this competion pushes the various companies against each other to innovate more, which is to our benefit.

Look at the DS, Nintendo took what was basically a PDA control system (Touchscreen technology) and applied it to gaming, the result a fantastic and original gaming experience. I say keep on imitating as this will make competitors strive to improve on each others ideas to bring us gamers the best experience of all FUN GAMES and thats ALL that matters !!!!!

[yesenia2952]

Sony copied the Wii..

They say no but yes they did...

[DirtyDevil]

i don't think it matters,i agree that it's good in the end for we gamers,anyways i still belive the pc is the best

[gotmilk0112]

omfg $ony u really blew it this time.... and oh yeah, the eye-toy wasnt sony's idea, it was Intel's. my mom got this Intel webcam way back like 5 years ago and it had some games with it: Shoop, a basketball game where you used your hands with the camera to get the ball in the hoops on either side. and another game where there was bubbles with tools like hammers, wrenches ect. in them and bubbles with nothing in them and whenever you popped a bubble with a tool in it the tool would do somthing (e.g. the hammer would pound on the camera veiw square like it was pounding a nail) and give you a point or 2 but if u hit an empty bubble u lost a point. point is: $ony is a copycat.

$ony is basicly saying in what they said:
we didnt copy nintendo, nintendo copied us. <-- BS :mad:

[Zion]

As long as we get two great console's out of all this, I couldn't care less about who copied who :p

[Produkt]

Every one needs to stop pointing the blame finger at each other.

in my personal opinion. Microsoft is the odd man out, trying to be buddy buddy with nintendo because they cant get any good games out...

Nintendo went to the high road, trying to support, guess who! its customers, the gameplay demos they showed at E3 offered a great presentation of what promises to be a worth wile purchase for a great price.

Sony sitting back thinking because the technology is great they have a good deal. the problem is. when you make a game that can show what used to be cinimatics, into realtime... you create not only a higher hardware cost... but a higher development cost because of the content. And when the team has to make higher quality content for the same price... they tend to cut corners on other things. some of these include, but are not limited to...

gamplay, project planning, game length, bug testing, gameplay testing, ect...

which as some of you have seen in the PSP titles where they have already done some of that, you will begin to wonder...

[stotheamuel]

i dont think they stole it...its very different.. and i think they didnt just sit there on there asses after they lost against immersion corp. w. rumble...

this most likely CAME UP at the very least.. and this is much before nintendo introduced the wii controller

if anything they decided to CARRY through w. it after nintendo launched wii promotions but i bet the idea was still on the top of the list because with no new features.. and a loss of another feature.. the controller would have been lame

[horacehogarth]

It's called jumping on the bandwagon and if NO companies did it we wouldn't have had the x-box or ps1 or many of the consoles we've known and loved. If one particular company has an innovative idea, the others imitate, that's life.

This can only be good for gamers like us as this competion pushes the various companies against each other to innovate more, which is to our benefit.

Look at the DS, Nintendo took what was basically a PDA control system (Touchscreen technology) and applied it to gaming, the result a fantastic and original gaming experience. I say keep on imitating as this will make competitors strive to improve on each others ideas to bring us gamers the best experience of all FUN GAMES and thats ALL that matters !!!!!

Good post.. Ninty fanbois bleat on about how innovative the DS is yet touchscreen tech has been around for a long time. MS took the best bits of other consoles and added the online aspect to come up with the XBox, which in turn now means Sony has to work harder to stay on top.

[horacehogarth]

Nintendo dosnt have "fanboi's" we are just in it for the fun. The only company that really has "fanboi's" would be sony. The majority of nintendo supporters and owners most likely own another console (cheapshot: due to the fact that we can afford it). This is far from the first thing nintendo has came up with to revolutionize the market also. I recall a certain machine using a gamepad rather than a joystick to the dismay of many gamers at the time. The basics of DDR were done with Track and Field. Not sure if the BS device was arround before sega channel, but you get the idea...

As for the eyetoy... it is an innovative device... but it sure as hell is in no way, shape, or form even somewhat closely related to the so called "wii-mote". Also many people are under the impression that the eyetoy really had no support. Personally when i heard about it, I thought it was pretty cool. It seems that most people wont give the eyetoy the time of day.. Some people dont realize what a cool thing they have untill its too late.

Last no one in this thread has claimed Mario 64 was the first 3d platformer... though many people concider it to be the first amazing one.. this is probably why some people concider it to be the first one in existence.

And agreed with the Microsoft comment. What seperates them from Sony is that MS dosnt claim they dont steal ideas.

Oh come on, open your eyes.. Nintendo has the worst fanboi's of all, your post cements that. There is this opinion that Nintendo care about gamers more than any of the others, total bullshit. They care about profit just like any other multi national corporation.. prior to the PSP they milked consumers time and time again with ancient technology and repackaged games. They could have made a much better handheld than the Gameboy a long time ago yet all they did was release new models with minor revisions as they knew they had no competition. Just how many times will they sell us the same games???

The only reason Nintendo have tried something different with the Wii is because they have to, the Gamecube is nowhere near as successful as Ninty would have liked, they know damn well they can't compete head on with Sony and MS anymore so they've gone in a different direction. It's not through choice it's through necessity.

If you look back when the Eyetoy was released Nintendo were annoyed they hadn't come up with the idea themselves.. it's technology that recognizes physical movement and uses that in games, the Eyetoy uses a camera to capture the movement and the Wii uses a controller.. how are they so different? The basic premise is the same.