https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patents_under_the_European_Patent_Convention
The European Patent Convention (EPC), Article 52, paragraph 2, excludes from patentability, in particular
…
schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers; [emphasis added]
That excludes video game related patents twice in one line.
You are right about USB, thunderbolt 3+PCI Express on the other hand allows very low level memory access, and in older implementations there’s nothing the operating system can do. But then again even if they force a specific thunderbolt configuration to prevent DMA it will still leave the “normal” PCIe ports as a way to access the memory outside the purview of the OS.
The article explains it well. At least some of them see it as defacing a work of art, which I think it would be fair if games were unique pieces and not mass produced - it would piss me off if someone drew a mustache on the Mona Lisa in the Louvre but if you want to do it on your mass printed Mona Lisa copy, be my guest.
I believe this is what he wants. I even believe he’s doing everything to convince his bosses that Xbox consoles have a future. I also would suggest everyone working on the Xbox hardware team to keep their CV updated, because when your boss starts talking about your team “definitely” having a future there’s at least a 50% chance of layoffs not being far behind.
Their lack of a patent for controller vibration prevented Sony from having vibration on Sixaxis - notice that despite all the BS that it interfered with motion sensing, Dualshock 3 came out just a few months after Sony managed to settle the suite with Immersion.
Since there’s no penalty for making a patent and not using it, it’s probably cheaper for Sony to pre-emptively register everything that comes from brainstorming sessions.
This is the gaming version of XKCD 1172.
They published some interesting mobile ones. And then figure out the crappy slop based on their TV shows actually does better, so they are going all-in on that.