U.S. Patent No. 10,702,767: Integrated multi environment interactive battle game
Issued July 7, 2020, to Hasbro Inc.
Filed: December 12, 2018 (claiming priority to December 14, 2017)
Overview:
U.S. Patent No. 10,702,767 (the ‘767 patent) relates to a battle arena for spinning battle tops. The ‘767 patent details a battle arena game with two lids and two matching bases, one lid with two launch openings for two players to insert spinning battle tops, and the other with four launch openings for four players.
The lids have slanted slide regions connecting to the launch openings, which the battle tops slide down to enter a battling surface. The base is the battling surface which includes a circular wall around it to prevent tops from reentering the slide area. The ‘767 patent could include one or more electronic sensors which detect and monitor the spinning tops in the arena and communicate the top activity to a personal electronic device of a user, like a cellphone. This could provide users information through a game-specific app.
The ‘767 patent may be familiar as a Beyblade product. Beyblade has continually moved towards app integration with their physical toys. More generally, toy companies seem to be combining physical toys with elements of digital gaming more and more, blurring the lines between physical toys and video games. Some examples of this trend include: LEGO’s recent patent for a game console that detects a physical toy, Skylanders, or Nintendo’s amiibos.
Abstract:
Gaming systems and methods for a battling game which may use two or four physical toy tops and a stadium-shaped toy game board arena for physical game play interactions between game players. The battling 2-in-1 stadium battle dome allows a number of users to play on one side and then flip over to play on the other, encouraging 2 and 4 player battles. The stadium is shaped like a dome, enclosed on both sides, and there are two different sides to play on, overall creating four different play surfaces. The toy has double sided suspended play surfaces for corresponding game play with various surfaces of the different sides.
Illustrative Claim:
- A battle arena game apparatus, comprising: a first lid having two launch openings to enable two players to each insert a spinning battle top through a corresponding launch opening of the first lid; a second lid having four launch openings to enable four players to each insert a spinning battle top through a corresponding launch opening of the second lid; a first base having a battling surface to enable spinning battle tops inserted through the two launch openings of the first lid to engage each other in combat; and a second base for mounting the first and second lids and having a support surface and a battling surface, the support surface for mounting the first base, and the battling surface to enable spinning battle tops inserted through the four launch openings in the second lid to engage each other in combat.