Game Device

• US 20120329557A1
• Filed: 12/27/2010
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takamura, Seiichi, Watanabe, Hideaki, Ohara, Kazuki
• Granted Patent: US 9,393,489 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• 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 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/632 by branching, e.g. choosing one of several possible story developments at a given point in time

Abstract

Provided is a game device capable of displaying, when presenting a plurality of reproduction data items to a user, a selection screen that allows the user to easily recognize a relationship among the reproduction data items. The game device displays, on a display device, a selection screen that presents a plurality of reproduction data items for reproducing a state of a point in time during execution of a game and allows a user to select one of the reproduction data items, the selection screen presenting a first reproduction data item, which is one of the plurality of reproduction data items, in association with a second reproduction data item, which reproduces a state of a point in time at which the game has progressed from the state reproduced by the first reproduction data item.

Claims

1. A game device, comprising:

a selection screen obtaining section that obtains a selection screen that presents a plurality of reproduction data items for reproducing a state of a point in time during execution of a game and allows a user to select one of the reproduction data items, the selection screen presenting a first reproduction data item, which is one of the plurality of reproduction data items, in association with a second reproduction data item, which reproduces a state of a point in time at which the game has progressed from the state reproduced by the first reproduction data item; and

a display control section that displays the obtained selection screen on a display device.

2. The game device according to claim 1,

wherein the selection screen is a screen that presents each of the plurality of reproduction data items in association with information on a user who has stored the reproduction data item.

3. The game device according to claim 1,

wherein the selection screen represents a relationship between the first reproduction data item and the second reproduction data item in a tree structure.

4. A game system comprising:

a game device; and

a game server that executes game processing,

wherein the game server generates a selection screen that presents a plurality of reproduction data items for reproducing a state of a point in time during execution of a game and allowing a user to select one of the reproduction data items, the selection screen presenting a first reproduction data item, which is one of the plurality of reproduction data items, in association with a second reproduction data item, which reproduces a state of a point in time at which the game has progressed from the state reproduced by the first reproduction data item, and transmits the generated selection screen to the game device, and

wherein the game device receives the transmitted selection screen, and displays the received selection screen on a display device.

5. The game system according to claim 4,

wherein the game server comprises:

a section that stores information that identifies, in a case where the game server receives operation information indicative of an instruction to select one of the plurality of reproduction data items from the game device while the selection screen is displayed on the display device, the selected reproduction data item;

a section that executes, in a case where the game server receives operation information indicative of an instruction to select one of the plurality of reproduction data items from the game device, game processing from a state reproduced by the selected reproduction data item;

a section that stores, in a case where the game server receives operation information indicative of an instruction to store a reproduction data item from the game device during the execution of the game, a reproduction data item for reproducing a state of a point of time when the instruction is received;

a section that stores management information that associates the first reproduction data item with the second reproduction data item, the second reproduction data item being the reproduction data item stored in response to the instruction to store, and the first reproduction data item being the selected reproduction data item identified by the stored information; and

a section that generates, using the management information, a selection screen that associates the first reproduction data item with the second reproduction data item.

6. A method for controlling a game device, comprising:

obtaining a selection screen that presents a plurality of reproduction data items for reproducing a state of a point in time during execution of a game and allowing a user to select one of the reproduction data items, the selection screen presenting a first reproduction data item, which is one of the plurality of reproduction data items, in association with a second reproduction data item, which reproduces a state of a point in time at which the game has progressed from the state reproduced by the first reproduction data item; and

displaying the obtained selection screen on a display device.

7. A computer-readable information storage medium that stores a program for causing a computer to function as:

a selection screen obtaining section that obtains a selection screen that presents a plurality of reproduction data items for reproducing a state of a point in time during execution of a game and allowing a user to select one of the reproduction data items, the selection screen presenting a first reproduction data item, which is one of the plurality of reproduction data items, in association with a second reproduction data item, which reproduces a state of a point in time at which the game has progressed from the state reproduced by the first reproduction data item; and

a display control section that displays the obtained selection screen on a display device.