Video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication systems and methods

• US 10,864,443 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2018
• Issued: 12/15/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Eatedali, Josiah, Schonfeld, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Deodhar, Omkar A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Ross A
• Application Number:
  US15/953,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20190192977A1
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/58 by computing conditions of game characters, e.g. stamina, strength, motivation or energy level
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/69 by enabling or updating specific game elements, e.g. unlocking hidden features, items, levels or versions
• 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 2300/575 for trading virtual items

Abstract

The present specification describes a system and method for aggregating user results, rankings and statistical data associated with playing video games across two or more games, normalizing the aggregated data to unified values and presenting the aggregated and unified data via an interface, such that data from one game may be fairly combined and/or compared to data from another game. The present system allows a user to obtain a unified ranking across multiple games, especially when the games are of a similar genre.

Claims

1. A video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication system for aggregating, normalizing, and publishing data acquired by, and stored within, a plurality of distributed video game servers, wherein each of said plurality of distributed video game servers is configured to host and manage a video game of a plurality of programmatically separate video games and wherein each of said plurality of distributed video game servers is in data communication with remotely located client devices configured to execute an instance of a video game of the plurality of programmatically separate video games, the system comprising:

a programmable clock configured to generate a time-based trigger;

one or more game server interface call modules, wherein the one or more game server interface call modules are in data communication with the programmable clock, are configured to generate and transmit interface calls to one or more game servers of the plurality of distributed video game servers based upon said time-based trigger, and are configured to receive game server data from the one or more game servers of the plurality of distributed video game servers based upon said interface calls;

a database in data communication with the one or more game server interface call modules, wherein the database is configured to receive and store the game server data;

a video game content aggregation module in data communication with the database, wherein the video game content aggregation module is configured to acquire game server data from the database, determine a type of game associated with the game server data, determine a normalization process to be applied to the game server data based upon the type of game associated with the game server data and to apply the determined normalization process to a portion of the game server data to generate normalized video game content; and

a publication module in data communication with the video game content aggregation module, wherein the publication module is configured to format and transmit the normalized video game content to a plurality of electronic addresses.

2. The video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication system of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of programmatically separate video games belongs to the same genre.

3. The video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication system of claim 1 wherein the normalization process comprises determining a weighted average of scores generated by players of the plurality of programmatically separate video games.

4. The video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication system of claim 1 wherein the normalized video game content comprises a ranking of players of the plurality of programmatically separate video games.

5. The video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication system of claim 4 further comprising a matchmaker module, wherein the matchmaker module is configured to match a first player and a second player for a future game and wherein the match is based on the normalized video game content comprising the ranking of players.

6. The video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication system of claim 1 further comprising a recommendation module, wherein the recommendation module is configured to recommend a new game to a player based on the normalized video game content and wherein the normalized video game content is indicative of an expertise level of the player.

20. The video game content aggregation, normalization, and publication system of claim 1, further comprising a module configured to acquire game data from data displayed on one or more websites, wherein the database is further configured to receive and store the game data with the game server data and wherein the video game content aggregation module is further configured to acquire game data from the database, to determine a normalization process to be applied to the game data, and to apply the determined normalization process to the game data to generate the normalized video game content.

7. A method for aggregating and normalizing data across a plurality of different video games to achieve uniform data values, wherein each of said plurality of different video games is executed by at least one game server and rendered on a plurality of client devices and configured to played by users of said plurality of client devices and wherein said at least one game server is in communication with a database that stores game data, the method comprising:

accessing said at least one game server to obtain game data for each of said plurality of different video games, wherein the game data comprises information pertaining to gameplay;

determining a type of game associated with the game data,

determining a normalization process to be applied to the game data based upon the type of game associated with the game data;

apply the determined normalization process to normalize the game data across all the plurality of different video games played by a single user; and

generating a unified ranking for said user, wherein said unified ranking is indicative of the single user'"'"'s aggregated performance in gameplay sessions played across all the plurality of different video games.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said method is executed by an aggregation module comprising a plurality of programmatic instructions, wherein the aggregation module is executed by server device comprising a processor and a non-transient memory and wherein said aggregation module accesses the game data stored in a database associated with said at least one game server.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein each of the plurality of different video games belong to the same genre.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein normalizing the game data comprises determining a weighted average of scores generated by users of the plurality of different video games.

11. The method of claim 7 further comprising normalizing the game data across all the plurality of different video games played by all users and generating a unified ranking for all users, wherein said unified ranking is indicative of all users'"'"' aggregated performances in gameplay sessions played across all the plurality of different video games.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising using a matchmaker module, wherein the matchmaker module is configured to match a first player and a second player for a future game and wherein the match is based on the unified ranking for all users.

13. The method of claim 7 further comprising using a recommendation module to recommend a new game to the single user based on the unified ranking.

21. The method for aggregating and normalizing data of claim 7, further comprising accessing website game data from data displayed on one or more websites, determining a normalization process to be applied to the website game data, and applying the determined normalization process to normalize the website game data across all the plurality of different video games played by a single user.

14. A non-transitory computer program product for aggregating, normalizing, and publishing data acquired by, and stored within, a plurality of distributed video game servers, wherein each of said plurality of distributed video game servers is configured to host and manage a video game of a plurality of programmatically separate video games and wherein each of said plurality of distributed video game servers is in data communication with remotely located client devices configured to execute an instance of a video game of the plurality of programmatically separate video games, the product comprising:

a programmable clock configured to generate a time-based trigger;

one or more game server interface call modules, wherein the one or more game server interface call modules are in data communication with the programmable clock, are configured to generate and transmit interface calls to one or more game servers of the plurality of distributed video game servers based upon said time-based trigger, and are configured to receive game server data from the one or more game servers of the plurality of distributed video game servers based upon said interface calls;

a database in data communication with the one or more game server interface call modules, wherein the database is configured to receive and store the game server data;

a video game content aggregation module in data communication with the database, wherein the video game content aggregation module is configured to acquire game server data from the database, determine a type of game associated with the game server data, determine a normalization process to be applied to the game server data based upon the type of game associated with the game server data and to apply the determined normalization process to a portion of the game server data to generate normalized video game content; and

a publication module in data communication with the video game content aggregation module, wherein the publication module is configured to format and transmit the normalized video game content to a plurality of electronic addresses.

15. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 14 wherein each of the plurality of programmatically separate video games belongs to the same genre.

16. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 14 wherein the normalization process comprises determining a weighted average of scores generated by players of the plurality of programmatically separate video games.

17. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 14 wherein the normalized video game content comprises a ranking of players of the plurality of programmatically separate video games.

18. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 17 further comprising a matchmaker module, wherein the matchmaker module is configured to match a first player and a second player for a future game and wherein the match is based on the normalized video game content comprising the ranking of players.

19. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 14 further comprising a recommendation module, wherein the recommendation module is configured to recommend a new game to a player based on the normalized video game content and wherein the normalized video game content is indicative of an expertise level of the player.

22. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 14, further comprising a module configured to acquire game data from data displayed on one or more websites, wherein the database is further configured to receive and store the game data with the game server data and wherein the video game content aggregation module is further configured to acquire game data from the database, to determine a normalization process to be applied to the game data, and to apply the determined normalization process to the game data to generate the normalized video game content.