Microsoft confirms acquisition of 3DV

By Oli Welsh Published 24 June, 2009

But still won't link camera company to Natal.

Microsoft has finally made its first public, official recognition of its acquisition of Israeli research company 3DV Systems, which owns patents in 3D motion-sensing camera technology.

Israeli business daily Globes reports that Microsoft's Moshe Lichtman mentioned 3DV in a press conference relating to Microsoft's R&D centre in Israel.

"The R&D centre helped Microsoft in buying the intellectual property of 3DV Systems, and in the wake of that dozens of the company's employees were recruited to work at the development centre," Lichtman confirmed. Globes says the Antitrust Authority approved the deal "a few days" ago.

Lichtman refused to comment on any connection between the deal and the Project Natal 3D motion-sensing camera for Xbox 360 that Microsoft revealed at E3. "When there's something to tell, we'll do so," he said.

News of the deal first surfaced when the Wall Stree Journal predicted Natal's unveiling a few weeks before E3.

But Xbox executives Shane Kim and Aaron Greenberg distanced 3DV from Natal in comments during E3 week. "No, we built this in-house," Greenberg told Eurogamer.

"We want to ensure that we have great intellectual property protection," said Kim at the time. "You have to have a strong legal approach, and this is not easy stuff. It has to be all buttoned up, legally."

Some suspect that the company has bought 3DV simply to insure itself against patent infringement lawsuits, which has long been a modus operandi of the Redmond giant.

In recent years, Microsoft and Sony were both involved in a costly patent dispute with haptic technology company Immersion over the use of rumble feedback in their controllers.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (13) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • JediMasterMalik #1 3 years ago

    GET IN MAH COMPANEH!!

    /rubs belly

  • Negotiator #2 3 years ago

    Microsoft are a wonderful company, Natal was created in house, but they had to insure there could be no legal problems with similar tech, so they bought it. That shows real brains right there and puts Microsoft right at the front of 3D camera tech, brilliant.

  • login_name #3 3 years ago

    I think you'll find it just takes money, not brains, to buy up potential competitors.

  • Moonprince #4 3 years ago

    One negative vote per person sometimes just isn't enough...

  • GreyBeard #5 3 years ago

    @Negotiator

    Is your post a work of wonderful satire? I really hope so.

  • penhalion #6 3 years ago

    I agree with the general cynicism here. It does look like Microsoft bought this company in order to remove any chance of a future lawsuit over IP and to ensure that the likes of Nintendo and Sony are at a disadvantage, should they decide to try to create thewir own version of the Natal system.

  • miiiguel #7 3 years ago

    "I think you'll find it just takes money..."

    But, what does it take to have money? (that vile thing, we all despise? - we, who love to be poor and so smart(er)...)
    Edited by 1 at 24/06/09 @ 10:41

  • IneptPercy #8 3 years ago

    As mentioned its just business, sometimes it can be cheaper to buy someone/something out than to have a legal battle with them.

  • GreyBeard #9 3 years ago

    Well strictly speaking MS could just have bought exclusive rights to use 3DV's patented technology, but obviously that wouldn't preclude them from developing it further in the future. This way MS take full control going forward.

  • rhubarbandcustard #10 3 years ago

    With Microsoft's financial backing 3DV will have enough money to invest and move the technology forwards further and faster than they would otherwise.

    So...they win, Microsoft win and we the consumers win too. Result.

  • makeamazing #11 3 years ago

    What i dont get.. is that if MS developed Natal all in House, then we all accept buying 3DV is to protect IP (which I can totally understand), why then give them lots of money to develop other things to do with cameras/motion, when Natal is already apparently the top dog and can do amazing things (and they must have lots of developers already on it).

    So its slightly confusing.

  • makeamazing #12 3 years ago

    It is true that could be possible, especially if they have found something they want in 3DV.

  • smelly #13 3 years ago

    I dont get why it matters if they did use 3dv's tech or not.