Updated: March 12, 2006

Sony has lost its appeal concerning its Dual Shock controller.

Back in 2003 a company by the name Immersion sued Sony as well as Microsoft for patent infringement. The claim was that both of these companies used Immersion's intellectual property in their controllers. Microsoft took the intelligent route in this ruling by buying out the company outside of court, as well as buying shares in it. Sony refused to give in though and decided to fight the lawsuit. To make a long story short, Sony lost and was ordered to stop the selling of all "Playstation consoles, Dualshock controllers," and a few dozen games which include Vice City, Final Fantasy X, as well as Metal Gear Solid 2. Sony has filed an appeal which is continuing to allow them to sell the products.

The Wall Street Journal put out a report today which stated that the federal judge has rejected Sony's appeal and has upheld the earlier decision, which included Sony handing over $90.7 million to Immersion. This could spell serious trouble for Sony with their upcoming PS3 console since if they are forced to change their controller design (boomerang anyone?) and use different force feedback technology, some of the backwards compatible games may not function properly. This could cause Sony a lot of trouble and even more delay.

This only adds onto Sony's troubles as it seems like they are on a streak of bad luck lately with all of the delay rumors and such. For now at least, it seems like the Dual Shock is ancient history moving into the next-gen.