Immersion has been in the news a lot lately as they’ve been tangling with various companies over their patented rumble technology which has set off a chain reaction of lawsuits all over the landscape of the gaming business world. The story first starts around the time of the birth of those two behemoths, the Xbox 360 and the PS3, where Microsoft choose to pay Immersion for the use of their rumble pack in the new Xbox 360 wireless controller where Sony passed on shaking things up and substituted a motion sensing capability into their Sixaxis controller with its “force feedback” technology instead.

This is where the story gets complicated. In 2002 Immersion filled suit against Sony, claiming that Sony had committed patent infringement, which the courts evidently believed as Sony was instructed to pay Immersion a whopping $90.7 million for their trouble which, sadly, wasn’t over yet. As soon as the money had changed hands between Immersion and Sony, there was Microsoft with a scowl on its face and a legal document in hand as it announced that it too was suing Immersion, this time for a breach of contract. At the time this meant that Immersion would have to hand over some of the recently acquired $90 million due to the fact that, as Microsoft itself stated, Immersion had to pay them “based on certain business and IP licensing arrangements."

The legal representative for Microsoft at the time, Associate General Counsel Steve Aeschbacher, said that Microsoft had “entered into a binding licensing agreement with Immersion and are seeking to have that agreement honored” because Microsoft felt this to be their license agreements as unassailable due to the fact, as Aeschbacher said, the company depended “on these agreements to be honored and enforced” and asked that the court, in the interests of corporate fair play, rule that the “binding agreement we(Microsoft) signed with Immersion be honored.” This led to an ugly legal battle which also led to Immersion contesting that Microsoft breached a confidentiality agreement between itself and Immersion.

And today it’s finally over. The news comes from San Jose today, via Kotaku, that Immersion has settled with Microsoft and will pay the company the total of $20.75 million and also gain entry into Microsoft’s Certified Partner Program. We don’t have any more details regarding the other deal terms, as all the other conditions of the settlement are secret, but we do have a statement there from the CEO of Immersion Clent Richardson who said that his firm was “pleased to resolve our outstanding dispute with Microsoft and to put this litigation behind us”.

Now that the troubles are over, Richardson said, Immersion once again has its “full attention and focus devoted to working with innovative companies around the world, including Microsoft” and will continue to work in order to “accelerate and rapidly achieve global adoption of our haptic technology in gaming, consumer electronics, mobility, and medical products."

Yes, fellow gamers, I think we can all breathe easier now.