INTERACTIVE EVENTS PLATFORM

• US 20160310843A1
• Filed: 04/27/2016
• Published: 10/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Webb, Jon
• Granted Patent: US 9,895,611 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/48 Starting a game, e.g. activating a game device or waiting for other players to join a multiplayer session
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/493 Resuming a game, e.g. after pausing, malfunction or power failure
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/497 Partially or entirely replaying previous game actions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/67 adaptively or by learning from player actions, e.g. skill level adjustment or by storing successful combat sequences for re-use
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/71 using secure communication between game devices and game servers, e.g. by encrypting game data or authenticating players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/85 Providing additional services to players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players

Abstract

The system is directed towards an interactive events platform. The interactive events platform may discover current in-game events associated with different video games currently available (or active). The platform may further notify a user of the discovered in-game events associated with different video games and facilitate the user joining a particular in-game event. The interactive events platform may also discover and notify the user of future in-game events associated with different video games. In some embodiments, the discovery and notification of any in-game events are based on games currently being played (or registered) with the user.

Claims

1. A system for an interactive events platform, the system comprising:

a plurality of game computing devices, wherein each game computing device hosts their respective in-game event;

a plurality of client computing devices; and

a network computing device that executes instructions stored in memory to;

receive in-game event information from the game computing device, wherein the received in-game event information includes information about the in-game event and instructions for streamlining user access from the user computing device to the in-game event hosted on the game computing device,

generate display instructions for the user computing device that generate customized displays that display in-game event information for the plurality of client computing devices, wherein users associated with the plurality of client computing devices are able to view some or all of the received in-game event information from the game computing devices on their respective client computing device,

receives user input regarding a selected in-game event that the user would like to participate in, and

generates initiation instructions based on the user input selecting an in-game event from the client computing device and the received in-game event information from the game computing device for the user client computing device, wherein the generated initiation instruction initiates the game on the user computing device and connects the client computing device to the game computing device so that in-game event related game environment is generated for the user without further action from the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the network computing device includes a development feature that tests how in-game events interact with the system, wherein the interactions includes customizing how the in-game event information is displayed for users to view on their respective client computing devices.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the network computing device includes a production feature that releases tested in-game events to users.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user input regarding a selected in-game event includes identifying one or more other users that the user would like to participate in the selected in-game event with.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the generated initiation instructions includes group instructions that combine the user and the one or more other users within the same in-game event game environment without further action from the user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the network computing device further transmits information to the user based on the selected in-game event, wherein the transmitted information includes reminders and updates.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the transmitted information is also provided to one or more user computing devices.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the one or more other user computing devices includes smartphones, laptops, desktops, and tablets.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the client computing device includes video game consoles.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is usable to implement features of a tournament, and wherein the features of the tournament comprises:

displaying details of the tournament for the users to view,

registering a plurality of users via a registration interface, wherein the registration stores information of users who intend to participate in the tournament

generating pairings for each match of the tournament, wherein the pairings are based on a pre-determined bracket and the registered user information, and wherein matches between the registered users are set up automatically using the generated initiation instructions,

receiving results of the matches, and

updating the details of the tournament based on the received results.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the received user input includes user registration for an event.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the network computing device further executes instructions stored in memory to evaluate the received user input, wherein the evaluation classifies the user as being eligible or ineligible for the in-game event.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the received user registration is based on the in-game event, a customized registration being provided by the game computing device hosting the in-game event.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the in-game event is a live broadcast.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the live broadcast is a stream of another user current gameplay experience within the game.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the in-game event is a past recording of a live broadcast.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the network computing device includes a user management feature that manages user-based information for the game computing devices.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the network computing device includes a game management feature that manages game-based processes for the game computing devices.