Broadcast dependent content delivery

• US 10,105,596 B1
• Filed: 06/23/2016
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Twitch Interactive, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Twitch Interactive, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mann, Katherine Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): Liddle, Jay
• Application Number:
  US15/190,852
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/34 using peer-to-peer connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/493 Resuming a game, e.g. after pausing, malfunction or power failure
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/69 by enabling or updating specific game elements, e.g. unlocking hidden features, items, levels or versions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges

Abstract

Providing extended content to a player of a game depending upon whether the player broadcasts the gameplay to viewers is disclosed. A content item server communicates game output to a plurality of user devices operated by participants in an online game. A game participant selects to stream output from the online game to one or more viewers via a broadcast streaming server. The content item server receives an indication from the broadcast streaming server that the game participant is broadcasting output from the online game to one or more viewers. Based at least upon the indication that a game player is broadcasting game output, the content item server determines to provide additional or extended game content to the game participant who is broadcasting the gameplay.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of communicatively coupled computing nodes forming a multi-node network; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having stored thereon instructions that cause the one or more computing nodes to perform operations comprising;

serving game content to a game client executing on a client device, the game client associated with a first game user;

receiving, from a broadcast streaming server, an indication the first game user is broadcasting the game content from the game client to one or more user devices via the broadcast streaming server, wherein the broadcast streaming server maintains data identifying requested streaming sessions, game users that requested the streaming sessions, and numbers of viewers of the streaming sessions;

retrieving, from the broadcast streaming server, data identifying a first number of viewers to which the first game user is broadcasting the game content;

determining the first number of viewers to which the first game user is broadcasting the game content satisfies a threshold;

determining, based at least upon the indication the first game user is broadcasting the game content to one or more user devices and the first number of viewers satisfying the threshold, to provide extended game content to the first game user; and

providing the extended game content to the game client on the client device.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the first game user has stopped broadcasting the game content from the game client to one or more user devices; and

ceasing to provide the extended game content to the game client on the client device.

3. A method, comprising:

serving, by a content server, content to a client device associated with a first content user;

receiving, by the content server, from a broadcast streaming server, an indication the first content user is broadcasting content received from the content server to one or more viewers via the broadcast streaming server, wherein the broadcast streaming server maintains data identifying requested streaming sessions, content users that requested the streaming sessions, and numbers of viewers of the streaming sessions;

determining, by the content server, based at least upon the indication the first content user is broadcasting content to one or more viewers, to provide additional content to the first content user; and

serving, by the content server, the additional content to the client device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

serving content to the client device comprises serving game content.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

determining to provide additional content to the first content user comprises determining to provide additional game content to the first content user; and

serving the additional content to the client device comprises serving the additional game content.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein additional game content comprises one or more of the following:

an additional game character;

an additional game scenario;

an additional game feature;

or an additional game function.

7. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving data identifying a first number of viewers to whom content is being broadcast by the first content user via the broadcast streaming server.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein receiving data identifying a first number of viewers to whom content is being broadcast by the first content user comprises receiving data identifying a first number of viewers from the broadcast streaming server.

9. The method of claim 8,

wherein determining to provide additional content to the first content user comprises determining, based at least upon the indication the first content user is broadcasting content to one or more viewers and the first number of viewers to whom content is being broadcast by the first content user, to provide additional content to the first content user.

10. The method of claim 9,

wherein determining based at least upon the first number of viewers to whom content is being broadcast by the first content user to provide additional content to the first content user comprises determining the first number of viewers to whom content is being broadcast exceeds a threshold.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving, by the content server, data identifying the first content user is engaged in a chat session with at least one of the one or more viewers; and

receiving, by the content server, data identifying a number of chat participants engaged in the chat session;

wherein determining to provide additional content to the first content user comprises determining, based at least upon the data identifying the first content user is engaged in a chat session, the number of chat participants, the indication the first content user is broadcasting content to one or more viewers, and the number of viewers to whom content is being broadcast by the first content user, to provide additional content to the first content user.

12. The method of claim 3,

wherein receiving an indication the first content user is broadcasting content from the content server to one or more viewers comprises receiving the indication from the broadcast streaming server.

13. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, by the content server, data identifying the first content user is engaged in a chat session with at least one of the one or more viewers;

wherein determining to provide additional content to the first content user comprises determining, based at least upon the data identifying the first content user is engaged in a chat session and the indication the first content user is broadcasting content to one or more viewers, to provide additional content to the first content user.

14. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, by the content server, an indication the first content user is no longer broadcasting content received from the content server to one or more viewers via the broadcast streaming server; and

determining, by the content server, based at least upon the indication the first content user is no longer broadcasting content received from the content server to one or more viewers via the broadcast streaming server, to discontinue serving the additional content to the client device.

15. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having stored therein instructions that, upon execution by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

serving, by a content server, content to a client device associated with a first content user;

receiving, by the content server, from a broadcast streaming server, an indication the first content user is broadcasting content received from the content server to one or more viewers via the broadcast streaming server, wherein the broadcast streaming server maintains data identifying requested streaming sessions, content users that requested the streaming sessions, and numbers of viewers of the streaming sessions;

determining, by the content server, based at least upon the indication the first content user is broadcasting content to one or more viewers, to provide additional content to the first content user; and

serving, by the content server, the additional content to the client device.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein:

serving content to the client device comprises serving game content.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein:

determining to provide additional content to the first content user comprises determining to provide additional game content to the first content user; and

serving the additional content to the client device comprises serving the additional game content.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein additional game content comprises one or more of the following:

an additional game character;

an additional game scenario;

an additional game feature;

or an additional game function.