Recommendation engine for electronic game shopping channel[Wii]

• US 8,721,455 B1
• Filed: 10/09/2012
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo of America, Inc. (Nintendo Company Limited)
• Original Assignee: Nintendo of America, Inc. (Nintendo Company Limited)
• Inventors: Smith, Darren
• Primary Examiner(s): McClellan, James S
• Application Number:
  US13/647,584
• Time in Patent Office: 581 Days
• Field of Search: 463/42, 463/43, 705/26.7
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/792 for payment purposes, e.g. monthly subscriptions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5513 involving billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5586 for enforcing rights or rules, e.g. to prevent foul play
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history

Abstract

A recommendation service is provided for recommending computer video game titles to players. The recommendation service offers suggestions for game titles to purchase or rent based on playing usage related parameters for each particular player. A profile is created based on several factors that represents the player'"'"'s affinity to each factor. Communication and use of player usage data may be strictly conditioned on a player'"'"'s knowledge and consent.

Claims

1. A network of display devices comprising:

a server;

a network coupled to said server;

a plurality of display devices communicating with the server over the network, each display device reporting player game playing usage over time to the server after consent by the associated player;

a storage device that stores reported usage data over time and when usage occurred;

said server being coupled to the storage device and executing instructions that control said server to weight reported game playing usage by age of the usage data and recommend at least one further video game based at least in part on player genre affinity and said player game playing usage as weighted by age to thereby ensure that older usage has less influence on recommendations than more recent usage to account for the player'"'"'s changing tastes, including not recommending games that are outside of a parental controls setting.