Sony buys emulator
Solves the problem of lawsuits by owning the company
Connectix' long-running battle against Sony to market its Virtual Game Station software has finally come to an end, with Sony buying the company. Speculation of the company's future now falls neatly into two columns; one where Sony kills it off and hides the body, and the other where Sony uses it to encourage legal emulation on the PC, something which both Connectix and Bleem have been trying to get the company to allow them to do for quite some time. According to The Register, the release following the move talks about defining "a series of development initiatives in the area of advanced emulation solutions", which could mean Sony wants to use Connectix to its benefit, or it could just mean it wants to hide the corpse behind some fictitious R&D. Ultimately, the fact of the matter is that it was cheaper for Sony to buy the company than pursue the case, so the purchase has nothing to do with a business strategy on Sony's part, other than to protect its assets. Whether VGS is put to use by Sony will be an afterthought. As with the suit against Bleem, whom we interviewed last year, VGS is accused of violating copyright and encouraging piracy through its support of copied PlayStation games. Sony even won a temporary injunction against the company, but that was overturned on appeal. Another suit, this time based on patent infringement was filed, after the Appeal Court said that it would probably have upheld the ban had Sony sued on those grounds originally. VGS will continue to be sold until June 30th, when Sony take over. From then on, it's completely up to them, and what will become of Connectix is largely unknown. Update - "Sony did not buy Connectix", or so says CEO Roy McDonald. "We continue to sell and support CVGS as well as our many other products including our flagship product VitrtualPC. The agreement opens the way for cooperative development of Sony and Conenctix in a wide range of advanced emulations solutions in and out of the gaming industry. For more information about our company see our website at www.connectix.com." Thanks for clearing that up, Roy! Related Feature - The bleem! Team