Wii-U: No "system based" voice chat

[Scoobes]

thekitchensink said:

Scoobes said:

thekitchensink said:
Why does everyone seem to forget that Microsoft has a patent on cross-game chat for home consoles? The Vita gets away with it because it's a portable, but Nintendo doesn't really have that as an option for the Wii U. Obviously the company will make use of voice chat, as evidenced by their showing of video chat capabilities, it's just that they wouldn't legally be able to have it go across games.

How does that patent count as not-obvious? Steam, which is a gaming platform, has had the option for years. How is it not obvious to transfer that concept/software to home consoles?

It doesn't matter how obvious a feature it would be.  Steam can use it because, once again, Steam is not a home console.  Microsoft has a patent on using such a service for a home console, hence why it is not an option on either Wii U or PS3.

It does. For a patent to be granted it should be "non-obvious". In reality, this rarely happens (patent trolls are proof of this) but when it comes to defending said patent, Microsoft would have to prove that it's "non-obvious". Considering the PC can be used as a games machine and has had this feature in a gaming based environment (Steam), if I was a patent lawyer for Sony or Nintendo I'd argue the patent should never have been granted in the first place.

The whole point of the patents being "non-obvious" is that they aren't simply an evolution of normal product design and development, which I'd say this is.