Virtual Playstation - real Sony lawsuit

One of the weak points of the Mac has been its deficit of big-name games. One of the all-time best-selling game consoles is the Sony PlayStation. So why not combine the two? Enter Connectix's new product, Virtual Game Station, which emulates a PlayStation on a Macintosh.

But Sony does not seem to think that emulation is the highest form of flattery. Last week, the company filed suit against Connectix in the US District Court of San Francisco, claiming that Virtual Game Station "circumvents the PlayStation's antipiracy protection [which] is designed to inhibit the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit software".

The company is also asking for a preliminary injunction to prevent further sales of the product. Sony spokesman, Ms Molly Smith listed the reasons for the lawsuit, ranging from the rights of software developers to determine how their products are used to protecting Sony's product from consumer confusion. "The consumer has come to expect something from the PlayStation experience," she said, "and Virtual Game Station does not deliver it".

Mr Paul DeGiusti, an intellectual-property expert for the Software and Information Industry Association, is not sure that Sony has a case. While his organisation has a strong anti-piracy stance, "Sony is using `piracy' in a different context than we would".

While this case would be relatively open and shut if Connectix used Sony trademarks or code from the PlayStation, Connectix states on Virtual Game Station's packaging that it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sony. Connectix won't discuss how the product was developed. (A few groups are also working on PlayStation emulators for PCs.)

The odd thing about Sony's lawsuit, as Connectix CEO Mr Roy McDonald sees it, is that "there's much more money to be made on the software side of the console game industry than on the hardware side" - and a product like Virtual Game Station should increase the number of people looking to purchase PlayStation titles. Mr McDonald denies that his company's product lets people use illegal copies of PlayStation games and expresses hope for working with Sony in the future. "I love my PlayStation," he adds.

Not every PlayStation game works with Virtual Game Station, and there is no easy way to tell whether a game will or will not run smoothly. While EA Sports's Madden NFL 99 worked fine on a first-generation iMac, another new EA Sports title, NCAA March Madness 99, stuttered and was unplayable. A list of PlayStation games that work with the current version of VGS is posted at http://www.virtualgamestation.com.

Connectix hopes to enhance the software to allow all PlayStation titles to work with Virtual Game Station; compatibility with Sony's lawyers is another matter.

Virtual Game Station, Connectix; Mac (iMac or G3 desktop/PowerBook), sells for $50 (€44) in the US.