So 'bout that supposed Wii Music U patent

Glowsquid

Mental midget
Diamond City Leader
As the more dedicated forum dwellers here probably already know, a NeoGaf user discovered a patent filling for an application that sounds like Wii Music U, which got (predictably) ctrl+ced, ctrl+ved by several game news site.

However, after doing some digging, I'm convinced the patent is actually describing one of the toy capsules in Game & Wario and got misreported due to the game's flop, hence why I'm posting this here. Here's why:

1:
The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein the information processing program according to claim 3, wherein the other apparatus is a second display apparatus having a display screen, the information processing program further causing the computer to execute: generating an image representing the at least one selected object, as a second display image; and performing control such that the second display image is displayed on the second display apparatus, wherein in the selection of the second sound, the second sound is selected in accordance with the at least one object displayed as the second display image.

13. An information processing method to be executed by a processor or a cooperation of a plurality of processors, the processor and the plurality of processors contained in a system including at least one information processing apparatus for outputting an image and a sound to a first display apparatus having a first loudspeaker and for outputting at least a sound to another apparatus having a second loudspeaker, the information processing method comprising: generating an image including at least a part of a virtual world as a first display image; generating a first sound created in the virtual world; selecting, in accordance with a user operation, a second sound forming a part of the first sound; performing control such that the first display image is displayed on the first display apparatus; performing control such that the generated first sound is output from the first loudspeaker in synchronization with the first display image displayed on the first display apparatus; and performing control such that the selected second sound is output from the second loudspeaker.

Remove the legalese and the patent filling pretty much describes what the Bugband capsules are. Bugband is a sound test where each "layer" of the song is represented by antropomorhpic bug-persons, which you can interact with or cut from the song via the GamePad screen (ie: "second display image")

2: Goro Abe and Takehiko Hosokawa (respectively director and assistant director on G&W) are listed as the inventors. Furthermore, both are employees of Nintendo SPD while Wii Music was developed by EAD.

3: There's actually a precedent for random things from WarioWare getting patented - one of the multiplayer modes for the GC game was patented in 2009.

So yeah, what does everyone else think? Worthy of an article on Wario Weekly? Lol.
 
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