Round One to Connectix

Connectix announced on Thursday that it has won a small victory for its fight to bring PlayStation emulation to the Mac. San Francisco Federal District Court rejected Sony's request for a temporary restraining order that would have halted shipments of the Virtual Game Station, its Mac-based PlayStation emulator. But the true fight is far from over, even though Connectix's message today arrived in our mailbox with the subject, "Connectix Wins."

A representative from Sony Computer Entertainment America told us that the company is disappointed by the court's ruling today, but that this would have merely been a provisional remedy, the first step in the case to come. "Part of the reason for this decision is that the court has not had an opportunity to review or consider any evidence, no discovery has been taken, and no material issues in the case have been decided," she told us, adding that Sony will continue to pursue this issue until the court has made a final decision.

Roy McDonald, president and CEO of Connectix, says that the company is leading the way, giving consumers more choice in the way they play games. " gives Macintosh owners more games to choose from and PlayStation owners more choice in where they play their games and we will continue to fight for the customer's right to this choice," McDonald said. "We have offered this type of ability successfully and without controversy for years in the PC emulation market and intend to defend the consumer's right to this functionality in the PlayStation market space as well. Early customer response to the new Version 1.1 has been overwhelmingly positive and we are glad that we are going to be able to continue our shipments to fill our enormous backlog of orders."

The Connectix Virtual Game Station is expected to arrive at retail stores sometime this month.