Microsoft News Tracker

John Markoff and Miguel Helft spin a strange tale at the New York Times:

Last week, Intertainer filed a broad lawsuit asserting that Apple, Google and Napster are infringing on a 2005 patent that covers the commercial distribution of audio and video over the Internet.

Founded by Mr. Taplin and two other Hollywood entertainment executives in 1996, Intertainer developed technology to distribute movies on demand through cable and phone lines for viewing on televisions and personal computers. It gained investors including Intel, Microsoft, Sony, NBC and Comcast.

“Intertainer was the leader of the idea of entertainment on demand over Internet platforms before Google was even thought up,” said Mr. Taplin, now an adjunct professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He and a secretary constitute the entire remaining staff of Intertainer.
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Intertainer’s tale is somewhat different than other intellectual property suits brought by technology licensing firms. By 2002 the company seemed to have a growing business, with 125,000 Internet subscribers for its servers and 35,000 TV subscribers through the Comcast cable system.

But in the fall of 2002, the company shut down its service and filed a lawsuit against some of the backers of Movielink, a competitor backed by five Hollywood studios, including Sony, Universal and Warner Brothers. At the time Mr. Taplin said the studios were using Movielink as a price-fixing vehicle to kill Intertainer.

That suit was settled for an undisclosed sum last March and now Intertainer is merely a “patent licensing business.” There are more interesting details in the full story including questions of obviousness and prior art, but here’s the Microsoft hook:

Despite initial backing from Microsoft and Intel, Mr. Taplin said the two companies were not involved in the decision to bring the Apple, Google and Napster lawsuit. He said that decision was made by Intertainer’s board and that none of his original corporate backers have board seats. Several of the company’s original investors have taken patent licenses, he said, but he would not name the companies.

Nice disclaimer, but what do you think the chances are that Microsoft doesn’t have a license?

Chris and Tim Stamper have left Microsoft’s Rare Ltd. game design studio:

Chris and Tim Stamper, two of Rare Ltd.’s three founders have left the studio. While the news surfaces in the wake of disappointing sales figures for Rare’s excellent Viva Pinata, Microsoft told 1UP that sluggish Pinata sales had “absolutely” nothing to do with their departure.

“Chris and Tim have helped shape Rare into the world-renowned development studio that is it today and their impact on the videogame industry as a whole is well known. They are simply leaving to pursue other opportunities and we wish them luck in their future endeavors.”

Microsoft acquired Rare 4 years ago from Nintendo. While I don’t think much of the TV show and merchandise part of the Viva Pinata goat rodeo, the game itself has been getting good reviews, but apparently failed in its mission to broaden the Xbox 360 demographic to a “family gaming” audience. Simon Carless at GameSetWatch suggest some reasons why sales have been so dismal, one of which has particular pertinence here:

Sorry, Rare, but your reputation among a lot of the hardcore gamers who currently own an Xbox 360 just isn’t that good. Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo were both flawed attempts at X360 launch titles that probably got overrated by the press along the way, further disenchanting people who picked them up at hardware launch. And the Conker update felt pretty underwhelming - so I think that a family-oriented game done by the current Rare team just didn’t appeal to a lot of people.

Game design is like movie production with a lot of duds for every blockbuster and constant shifting of the players in pursuit of the latter, so this isn’t a big surprise. Overall it doesn’t mean much for Microsoft other than once again raising the question of why they’re in this business in the first place.

Update: Todd Bishop reports that the new Studio Director is Mark Betteridge and the new Creative Director is Gregg Mayles.