Cloud-based game slice generation and frictionless social sharing with instant play

• US 8,870,661 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2013
• Issued: 10/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Perry, David, Miura, Victor Octav Suba, Benedetto, Warren
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): YEN, JASON TAHAI
• Application Number:
  US13/797,900
• Publication Number:
  US 20140179426A1
• Time in Patent Office: 595 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/00 Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions gaming systems which provide a financial reward G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/245 specially adapted to a particular type of game, e.g. steering wheels
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• 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 13/497 Partially or entirely replaying previous game actions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/50 Controlling the output signals based on the game progress
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen
• 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 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/554 by saving game or status data
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/572 Communication between players during game play of non game information, e.g. e-mail, chat, file transfer, streaming of audio and streaming of video
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/634 for replaying partially or entirely the game actions since the beginning of the game

Abstract

Methods and system for processing a game slice of a game includes presenting a plurality of games on a display. Each game is associated with a plurality of game slices and each game slice is a pre-selected portion of the game. Passive selection activity is detected proximate to an initial image of a game. In response, a primary video segment of a game slice of the game is rendered. During the rendering of the primary video segment, active selection activity is detected for the primary video segment. The active selection activity causes executable code of the game slice to be loaded to allow playing of an unlocked subset of the game within the game slice. The plays of the unlocked subset of the game within the game slice are recorded to define secondary video segments. The secondary video segments are posted for sharing with users of a social network.

Claims

1. A computer-generated method for processing game slices over a cloud game network, comprising:

presenting a plurality of games on a display, each game being identified by an initial image and being associated with a plurality of game slices, each game slice being a pre-selected portion of the game that is less than an entire part of the game, wherein each game slice is user defined from select one of the plurality of games;

detecting passive selection activity proximate to the initial image of one of the plurality of games, the passive selection causing rendering of a primary video segment for one of the plurality of game slices;

detecting active selection activity for the primary video segment during the rendering of the primary video segment, the active selection activity loading executable code of the game slice at the cloud game network;

rendering the executable code of the game slice to enable instant play of an unlocked subset of the game associated with the game slice;

enabling sharing of selected ones of the game slices with users over a network;

recording one or more plays of the unlocked subset of the game, each recorded play of the unlocked subset defining a secondary video segment, the method being executed by a processor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the unlocked subset includes all or less than all objects of game present in a full version of the game from which the game slice was created, the objects of game relevant for instant play of the game defined within the game slice.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling instant play further includes,

detecting type of device used for providing passive and active selection activities at the cloud game network, each type of device being associated with pre-defined setup parameters;

and

providing information related to the pre-defined setup parameters for rendering on the display based on the type of device detected, the information used for defining controls for instant play of the game defined within the game slice.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of game slices are sharable with one or more users, the one or more users being able to play particular ones of the game slices;

and

storing information regarding the plays of the particular ones of the game slices,

wherein the network for sharing is one or both of a social network or the cloud game network.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising,

generating a suggestion of one or more game slices to play, to users, based on analysis of the stored information, the suggestion defined in part based on social relevance of the one or more game slices to the users.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the plurality of games includes presenting the games in a ranking order of popularity within a social network or the cloud game network, or a combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the game slice selected for loading the executable code in response to active selection activity is one of,

i. a game slice presented based on popularity data received from a social network or the cloud game network, or

ii. a game slice recently posted for sharing;

or

iii. a game slice posted by a friend of the user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of passive selection activity proximate to the initial image is processed on the cloud game network for users of the cloud game network, each user of the cloud game network being provided with the rendering of the primary video segment in response to the detection of the passive selection activity,

wherein the detected passive selection activities by users is used to identify relevance of the selected game slices to other users, and

wherein the other users are in part identified by accessing a social grid of a social network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of active selection activity stops rendering of the primary video segment and loads the executable code of the game slice associated with the primary video segment at the cloud game network for play of the unlocked subset of the game associated with the game slice.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting of active selection activity of the primary video segment is processed on the cloud game network for users of the cloud game network, each user of the cloud game network being provided with an instance of the executable code of the game slice to play the unlocked subset of the game, and for each user recording the play of the unlocked subset to produce the secondary video segment, the secondary video segment capturing the user input of play for the game slice.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein sharing of game slices includes sharing of the game slices with users of a social network of a user, the sharing enables posting of a still image representative of one or both of the primary video segment and the secondary video segment in a feed of the social network.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein for shared game slices on a social network, active selection activity is received through the social network.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein loading executable code includes loading game code having one or more of game characters, graphical overlays, game objects, game object states, attributes and current state data of the game slice of the game, or a combination of one or more thereof.

14. A computer-generated method for processing game slices over a cloud game network, comprising:

presenting a plurality of game slices on a display, each game slice being associated with one of a plurality of games, the game slices associated with each of the plurality of games grouped together, each game slice being identified by an initial image, each game slice being a pre-selected portion of a game that is less than an entire part of the game, wherein each game slice is user defined from selected one of the plurality of games;

detecting a passive selection activity proximate to the initial image of a selected one of the plurality of game slices, the passive selection activity causing rendering of a primary video segment of the game slice;

detecting active selection activity for the primary video segment during the rendering of the primary video segment, the active selection activity causing loading of executable code of the game slice at the cloud game network;

rendering the executable code of the game slice to enable instant play of an unlocked subset of the game associated with the game slice;

enabling sharing of the selected one of the game slices with users over a network; and

recording one or more plays of the unlocked subset of the game, each recorded play of the unlocked subset defining a secondary video segment, the method being executed by a processor.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein presenting the plurality of game slices includes presenting the game slices in a ranking order of popularity within each game based on popularity data received from a social network or the cloud game network, or a combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the detecting of passive selection activity proximate to the initial image of the select one of the game slices is processed on the cloud game network for users of the cloud game network, each user of the cloud game network being provided with the rendering of the primary video segment in response to the detection of the passive selection activity,

wherein the detected passive selection activities by users is used to identify relevance of the selected game slice to other users, and

wherein the other users are in part identified by accessing a social grid of a social network.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein enabling instant play further includes,

detecting type of device used for providing passive and active selection activities at the cloud game network, each type of device being associated with pre-defined setup parameters;

and

providing information related to the pre-defined setup parameters based on the type of device detected, the information used for defining controls for instant play of the game defined within the game slice.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the select one of the game slice is sharable with one or more users of a social network or the cloud game network, the one or more users being able to play the select one of the game slice, information regarding the plays of the select one of the game slice stored for sharing with other users.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the sharing of select one of the game slice enables posting of a still image representative of one or both of the primary video segment and the secondary video segment in a feed of a social network.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the detecting of active selection activity stops rendering of the primary video segment and loads the executable code of the select one of the game slice associated with the primary video segment for play of the unlocked subset of the game defined within the game slice.

21. A system for processing game slices over a cloud game network, comprising:

a game server;

a game processor module executing on the game server, the game processor module includes processing logic to,

identify and return a plurality of games and one or more game slices associated with each of the plurality of games in a graphical user interface (GUI) to a display of a client device for rendering, wherein each game is identified by an initial image, wherein each game slice is a pre-selected portion of a game that is less than an entire part of the game;

identify and map executable code and game components of each of the games and each of the game slices within each of the plurality of games;

detect user activity proximate to an initial image of select one of the plurality of games, determine type of user activity and return a primary video segment for one of the game slices of the game for rendering or load an executable code of the game slice at the cloud game network to allow play of the unlocked subset of the game in response to the detected user activity;

render the executable code identified for the game slice to play an unlocked subset of the game and record one or more plays of the unlocked subset of the game; and

generate secondary video segments from the one or more recorded plays of the unlocked subset of the game; and

post the secondary video segments on the cloud game network for sharing with other users of the cloud game network.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the game processing module is further configured to organize the games and game slices within each game in a pre-defined order.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the game processor module is further configured to,

detect type of the device used for providing passive and active selection activities at the cloud game network, each type of the device having a pre-defined setup parameters associated with it;

and

provide information related to the pre-defined setup parameters for rendering on the display based on the type of device detected, the information used for defining controls for instant play of the game defined within the game slice.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the game processor module is further configured to,

analyze game sequence of plurality of plays for the select one of the game slice;

generate artificial intelligence (AI) graphic overlays for the select one of the game slice based on the analysis; and

return the AI graphic overlays for rendering with the game slice, wherein the generated AI graphic overlays are passive overlays.