RESOURCE ALLOCATION TO GAME TITLES IN A REMOTE GAMING ENVIRONMENT

• US 20140344457A1
• Filed: 05/20/2013
• Published: 11/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: BRUNO, JOHN PETER Jr., MCNAMARA, DONALD JAMES, CHANDRASEKARAN, ASHOK, BOEDIGHEIMER, CHRISTOPHER LANE, ORVENDAL, PER-OLA ANDERS, CUSIMANO, JOSEPH, LONGSTREET, SCOTT Q.
• Granted Patent: US 9,628,332 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• 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 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/401 Secure communication, e.g. using encryption or authentication
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• 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 2300/535 for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5533 using program state or machine event data, e.g. server keeps track of the state of multiple players on in a multiple player game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5566 by matching opponents or finding partners to build a team, e.g. by skill level, geographical area, background, play style
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5022 Workload threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/16 Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/803 Application aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1008 based on parameters of servers, e.g. available memory or workload monitoring of computer activity G06F11/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/148 Migration or transfer of sessions

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention monitor and dynamically allocate computing resources to a game service. A game service provides a remote gaming environments to which users connect over a wide area network, such as the internet. A game session runs a single instance of a game title. The game session runs the video game code responsible for creating the playing experience for the users. In another embodiment, the number of active game sessions is monitored and computing resources are allocated dynamically as the number of sessions increases or decreases.

Claims

1. One or more computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a computing device perform a method of allocating computing resources to a remote game service, the method comprising:

monitoring an amount of game sessions that are running in a game service, a game session executing code for a video game title and being accessed by remote game clients through one or more network connections;

determining that the amount is more than a threshold number of game sessions; and

dynamically allocating an additional computing resource to the game service.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises determining a game title that the additional computing resource is most likely to be actively deployed to host a game session.

3. The media of claim 2, wherein the game title is determined because demand for the game title is increasing faster than demand for other game titles provided by the game service.

4. The media of claim 1, wherein the additional computing resource is a virtual machine.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the threshold number is calculated based on a present resource usage and a rate of change for the present resources usage.

6. The media of claim 1, wherein the additional computing resource is added to a group of standby resources within the game service.

7. The media of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises receiving a request from a client to join the game service and automatically allocating network resources to route control communications from the client into the game service.

8. A method of managing computing resources allocated to a remote game service, the method comprising:

monitoring an amount of game sessions running a specific game title on the game service, wherein multiple game titles are running on the game service;

determining that the amount of game sessions satisfies a threshold for changing computing resources allocated to the game service; and

dynamically allocating an additional computing resource to the game service upon said determining.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises determining that the amount of game sessions has fallen below the threshold, and, in response, dynamically allocating the additional computing resource away from the game service.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the additional computing resource is an additional server.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the threshold is different for different game titles.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the additional computing resource is allocated to a part of the game service responsible for hosting game sessions running the specific game title.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the additional computing resource has a capacity adapted to run one game session running the specific game title.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises receiving, at the game service, a control input from a game client;

changing a game state for the specific game title running in a game session using the control input; and

outputting a rendered game image that reflects the game state to the game client connected to the game session.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises automatically allocating network resources to the game service as the amount of game sessions changes.

16. A method of managing computing resources allocated to a remote game service, the method comprising:

monitoring an amount of game sessions running on a game service, wherein the monitoring is without input from code running in an individual game session;

calculating a dynamic threshold of game sessions based on a demand characteristic for the game service; and

allocating additional computing resources to the game service when the amount exceeds the dynamic threshold of game sessions.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the demand characteristic is historic game usage.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises managing network traffic to and from the individual game session without input from code running in the individual game session.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the additional computing resources comprise full use of an additional central processing unit and associated hardware.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the demand characteristic is a rate of demand change over a threshold time period