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Konami claims that Viacom violates several patents issued to the former in Rock Band. These include simulated musical instruments, a music-game system, and a musical-rhythm matching game. Patents for these have been granted to Konami since 2002 and 2003.

The masterminds behind Dance Dance Revolution are seeking financial compensation along with an order to block Harmonix and Viacom from using any of the inventions covered by the patents. This could mean trouble for the breakout MTV music game franchise since that covers most of its lauded features.

Filing suit seems to have become a trend between music video game developers. A few months back, guitar maker Gibson sued Viacom, Guitar Hero publisher Activision, and a group of retailers over the breach of another set of music game patents. The games that these developers are fighting over get a lot of publicity from these disputes. Whether it’s positive publicity or negative doesn’t really matter. In marketing or promotions, publicity is still publicity. People read about the controversy over the game and want to know what the fuss is all about.

Despite the plummeting price of real estate and the skyrocketing cost of gasoline, video game sales seem to be surviving the slump. Even while everyone is trying to make ends meet, it seems that everyone still feels the need to play video games to relax and enjoy life. Why not? If we are going down the drain, why not do it while having fun? Besides, I believe we are able to find solutions to our problems when we are not too uptight about them. Creativity is spurred better when we’re not stressed. Read the rest of this entry »