Quote:
Originally Posted by GHarris
I initially thought that Wolf_Rider's posts were genuine questions. But by the time I came to write my post on the 10th page I suspected he was just trolling on Naturalpoint's behalf.
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Yup exactly my thoughts.
Anyway. Cutting deals with publishers in order to remove the competition IS illegal. That's what anti-trust laws are for. Just a few years ago Intel ate a 1 billion euro fine from the European Commission for making deals with the likes of HP, Dell and other integrators so that they will not use AMD parts. In the US they just settled with nVidia and will be paying them 1.46 billion USD, after they just payed AMD (in the US, after a Federal Trade Commission settlement) 1.26 billion USD.
More info (chronological):
AMD and Intel Settle Their Differences
Intel Settles With the Federal Trade Commission
Intel Settles With NVIDIA: More Money, Fewer Problems, No x86
So, to sum things up:
- Natural Point has made and is still making deals with publishers in order to not allow any other head tracking devices to work in those respective games;
- while this may sound as legitimate bussiness practice, it is in fact a monopolistic behaviour and illegal in the European Union as well as in the United States, as exemplified above.
As i said in another thread, the reason Natural Point does not have (as yet) any legal problems as a consequence of these issues is the fact that they are activating inside a very young, small, niche market, a market with low visibility and they haven't come (yet!) under scrutiny.