Xbox360 Sales Banned In Germany

With all the nonsense, rumours, and half-truths floating around the internet, it is difficult to find anything genuinely surprising. Not so, today, however, with the news that Xbox360 sales have been banned across Germany. No, we aren’t kidding. Thanks to an injunction granted to Motorola Mobility, Microsoft will be unable to distribute many of their products in Germany, including Windows 7 OS discs and the Xbox360, not to mention the electronic distribution of Internet Explorer and WMP.

Motorola claims that Microsoft infringed on several of its patents relating to H.264 video coding and playback and has been successful in its pursuit of an injunction, stopping them. Microsoft are, of course, appealing, but until the outcome is decided, the threat of consoles being pulled off store shelves in Deutschland hangs over the company. Thankfully for German gamers, the ruling won’t come into effect until the outcome of the appeal is known, so there is still time for MS to smack Motorola down.

Why don’t MS settle? Well, they reckon it may well cost them a pretty penny, with the belief that acceding to Motorola’s demands will cost them around $4 billion a year. The corporate giant had this to say: “This is one step in a long process, and we are confident that Motorola will eventually be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms for the benefit of consumers who enjoy video on the web.”

We’re used to spats in the gaming world: EA vs Activision, Activision vs Respawn, Activision vs Everybody, but this is a step beyond. A ruling that could, potentially, scupper sales of the Xbox across a whole country is certainly a sobering one. If it isn’t overturned, then MS will either find a way round or settle in our view… if not, we’ll be sending our German pals consoles as well as copies of the latest banned releases.

Source: Develop-Online

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