Mon, May 18, 2009 | 19:03 BST
Allard signs off on 360 Magic Wand patent
It has recently emerged that Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division head honcho J Allard has co-signed a November 2007 patent application for a “Magic Wand” peripheral for Xbox 360.
According to the patent, the Magic Wand “can utilize one or more sensor from a collection of sensors to determine an orientation or gesture in connection with the wand, and can further issue an instruction to update a state of an environmental component based upon the orientation.”
This information comes less than a week after the Wall Street Journal published an article saying that “360 motion-sensing was on the way.”
This one just won’t go away, will it?
Thanks, Engadget.
11 comments
#1
Esha
18/05/09, 5:44 pm
…
Sometimes, I ask myself what goes on at Microsoft, and I can only imagine a bunch of cynical, suit-encrusted men sitting around a table having a conversation like this (speaking hypothetically, of course)…
“Gee, our games library is boring this year, isn’t it? The PC and the PS3 both have such interesting titles, and we only have ports of what they have and no really fun exclusives except for a bit of DLC. What could we do to drive up sales?”
“Let’s pretend to be a Wii! We’ll keep teasing people about it for a while to drive up sales, then we’ll put out an Arcade with a Magic Wand™ thing for about the price of a Wii. We’ll boast better graphics than the Wii with all the Wii’s bonuses!!! It’ll be magical, we’ll have Avatar Sports, Avatar Cooking, and even Avatar Sex Practice!”
“Okay, a potential problem: Won’t Nintendo try to sue the pants off us?”
“Yeah, but we have the most X-TREEEEEEEM lawyer squad on the planet, these guys eat, breathe, sleep, and screw law, they’ll find loopholes for us to merrily jump through. It’ll be great, we’ll steal Nintendo’s market with a grin, just like we did to you know who back in the day! Score!”
“…really? Really now? I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Pff, pussy!”
Gods, in my opinion this is… this is really kind of sad, and it’ll be amusing to watch how it plays out.
#2
Mike
18/05/09, 5:54 pm
I really would wait until E3 before judging the 360 line-up for this year.
#3
Psychotext
18/05/09, 5:54 pm
“Avatar Sex Practice!”
Sold!
#4
Psychotext
18/05/09, 5:57 pm
One vaguely relevant fact missing from the original story btw. This patent was filed over a year and a half ago.
Shame no-one has a detailed write up on exactly what it’s supposed to do. I’m terrible at reading patent apps.
#5
Mike
18/05/09, 6:41 pm
Yeah, but Allard only signed off on it last month, innit.
#6
Psychotext
18/05/09, 6:45 pm
“Yeah, but Allard only signed off on it last month, innit.”
Where did you see that? It was made public on the 14th, but I don’t see any detail on updated inventors. (It should have been signed as of the filing date)
The info is better on the original story btw… the Engadget link is a bit boiled down: http://www.techflash.com/J_Allard_Microsoft_researchers_seek_patent_on_a_magic_wand.html
#7
Mike
18/05/09, 6:53 pm
Sorry, my bad. The patent was filed in Nov 2007. Allard signed off on it. This became public a few days ago.
When you’re right, you’re right.
#8
Psychotext
18/05/09, 6:57 pm
It’s rare, but I’ll take it! \o/
#9
Mike
18/05/09, 7:02 pm
#10
Mike
18/05/09, 7:04 pm
There. I touched it up, just for you.
#11
wz
18/05/09, 8:06 pm
Retouching the article much? How insincere.