Valve is being sued by haptic feedback company Immersion Corporation over its use of rumble in the Steam Deck and Valve Index VR headset.
As highlighted by The Verge, Immersion claims Valve has infringed on its haptic tech patents (of which there are many) with the Steam Deck and Valve Index, which incorporate rumble technology and support titles with haptic feedback features.
Specifically, the company claims Valve has been “capitalizing on Immersion’s innovation and success by selling and otherwise monetizing video game systems, controllers, games, and applications that infringe on Immersions’s patents.”
It also suggests the presence of haptic tech in both the Steam Deck and Valve Index provides users with a “richer and more immersive” experience.
Immersion is seeking damages, royalties, and an injunction that would prevent Valve from “deploying, operating, maintaining, testing, and using the Accused Handheld Instrumentalities and Accused VR Instrumentalities (Steam Index).”
This isn’t the first time Immersion has taken aim a major hardware manufacturer, with the company having prevously sued Sony, Microsoft, Google, and Apple. All four of those companies settled with Immersion.
Although Nintendo hasn’t been sued by the licensor, the Japanese company did sign an agreement with Immersion to bring its tech to the Switch.
It’s still early days for Valve as far as the Steam Deck is concerned–the console only debuted in February 2022–but analysts predict the handheld will have sold over 3.5 million units by the end of 2023.