Midway's "Ghost Racer" Patent
Ever wonder about how Midway makes crap games and still survive? Gamasutra might finally have an answer. According to their report, Midway owns a line of patents that makes them owners of just the sheer concept of "ghosts" in racing games.
The patents Midway is licensing derive from the 1989 Atari Games arcade hit Hard Drivin', the first racing game to let players race against a translucent, ghost-like recording of their previous run. In 1993 and 1994, Hard Drivin' Project Manager Rick Moncrief and programmers Max Behensky and Stephanie Mott filed the patents cited above on behalf of Atari Games. The patents were all granted by 1996, just in time for Midway to buy up the remnants of Atari Games, including their patents, from Time Warner.
Midway spun the Atari Games division off into Midway Games West in 2000, and in 2002, the renamed company updated its claim by filing U.S. patent 6,755,654 for a “system and method of vehicle competition with enhanced ghosting features.”
So basically, Need for Speed, Ridge Racer and all those other big name racing games have been paying Midway for the use of their patent all these years. There are some companies that don't do it because they aren't aware the patent exists, but I bet you Midway's going to turn around and sue the pants off them some day.
[Via Kotaku]
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