Dynamic spectator mode

• US 20070117635A1
• Filed: 11/21/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Spanton, Brian, Babale, Bachir, Coliz, James
• Granted Patent: US 8,025,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/43
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between 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 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/409 Data transfer via television network
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players

Abstract

Methods and systems for broadcasting game sessions to be viewable by spectators are disclosed. After receiving game information from game participant clients, the title server determines whether the broadcast the game session to spectators, analyzes and repackages the received telemetry data, optionally embedding additional data, and rebroadcasts the repackaged telemetry as a spectator feed to non-participant spectator client devices for viewing by users of the spectator client devices. Embedded data may include commentary data, a director'"'"'s cut specifying camera information, instructional data, etc. Each spectator client device can analyze and manipulate the received telemetry data using a copy of the video game executing on the spectator client device, or may simply playback the feed when the feed includes a complete audiovisual file. Spectator clients may submit feedback to the participant clients through the title server.

Claims

1. One or more computer readable media storing computer executable instructions for performing a method to enhance a spectator feed of a first multiplayer game session played over a computer network, prior to broadcast of the spectator feed to one or more spectator clients connected to the computer network, said method comprising steps of:

receiving game telemetry data generated by a plurality of participant clients of the first multiplayer game session;

embedding first data in the spectator feed prior to sending the spectator feed to one or more spectator clients, wherein first data is based on an analysis of the game telemetry data subsequent to the receiving step.

2. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the analysis of the game telemetry data comprises providing a preview of the spectator feed to a commentator, and wherein the embedding step comprises embedding audio commentary provided by the commentator in the spectator feed.

3. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the analysis of the game telemetry data comprises specifying camera data to view events occurring over time in the multiplayer game session, and wherein the embedding step comprises embedding an indication of each specified camera data in the spectator feed.

4. The computer readable media of claim 1, wherein the analysis of the game telemetry data comprises determining a type of the spectator feed from a plurality of predetermined types, and wherein the embedding step comprises embedding the type in the spectator feed.

5. The computer readable media of claim 4, wherein each type corresponds to a channel on which the spectator feed is listed by each spectator client.

6. The computer readable media of claim 4, wherein the type indicates that a first participant player in the first multiplayer game session has a player rank meeting a predetermined minimum player rank.

7. The computer readable media of claim 4, wherein the type indicates that a first group of participant players in the first multiplayer game session has a group rank meeting a predetermined minimum group rank.

8. The computer readable media of claim 4, wherein the type indicates that the first multiplayer game session is part of an online tournament.

9. The computer readable media of claim 4, wherein the type indicates that the first multiplayer game session is specifically targeted for viewing by others to learn one or more game play aspects of a video game title to which the first multiplayer game session corresponds.

10. One or more computer readable media storing computer executable instructions for performing a method to provide feedback to participant players of a multiplayer game session played over a computer network, said method comprising steps of:

broadcasting a spectator feed corresponding to the multiplayer game session to a plurality of spectator clients not a part of the multiplayer game session; and

providing to the participant clients, feedback data corresponding to the spectator clients.

11. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein said feedback data indicates a number of spectator clients receiving the spectator feed.

12. The computer readable media of claim 10, wherein said feedback data comprises an indication of respect from one or more spectator clients.

13. One or more computer readable media storing computer executable instructions for performing a method to determine whether to broadcast over a computer network a spectator feed of a first multiplayer game session played over the computer network, said broadcast transmitted to one or more spectator clients not a part of the multiplayer game session, said method comprising steps of:

selecting the spectator feed of the first multiplayer game session to be broadcast when one or more predetermined conditions are met.

14. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the one or more predetermined conditions comprises analyzing user-setting data corresponding to the first multiplayer game session to confirm a decision by the participant players of the first multiplayer game session to allow the spectator feed to be broadcast.

15. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the one or more predetermined conditions comprises determining that the first multiplayer game session corresponds to an official tournament for a video game title to which the first multiplayer game session corresponds.

16. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the one or more predetermined conditions comprises determining whether any participant players of the first multiplayer game session have a ranking above a predetermined minimum player rank.

17. The computer readable media of claim 16, wherein the predetermined minimum player rank is a selected percentile rank of all players who have played a same game title within a predetermined historical period of time.

18. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the one or more predetermined conditions comprises determining whether any group of participant players of the first multiplayer game session has a group rank above a predetermined minimum group rank.

19. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the one or more predetermined conditions comprises determining whether enough player X spectator bandwidth is available for broadcasting the spectator feed.

20. The computer readable media of claim 13, wherein the one or more predetermined conditions comprises determining that a broadcast guarantee corresponding to the first multiplayer game session has been obtained.