U.S. Patent no. 10,279,260: Cut-scene gameplay

Issued May 7, 2019, to Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC
Priority Date March 6, 2017

Summary:
U.S. Patent No. 10,279,260 (the ‘260 Patent) relates to cut-scene gameplay which incorporates elements of both movies and video games. There has been an effort to increase immersion for each viewer in connection with the currently viewed movie which may in turn influence the satisfaction of the viewer viewing the movie. The ‘260 Patent attempts to provide more interactions between the viewer and the movie in order to increase investment in the movie and thus enjoyment of it. The addition of user interaction can provide a somewhat different experience each time for the viewer and incentivize the viewer to experience the content more than once. The cut-scene events may include gameplay elements that encourage user interaction via user inputs and these cut-scenes may change depending on which cut-scenes were viewed previously by the user. This allows for new and diverse experiences that would not previously be possible in a simple watching of a movie.

Abstract:
The systems and methods are directed towards cut-scene gameplay. Cut-scene gameplay refers to implementation of gameplay within different portions of a movie. The gameplay elements invite viewers to provide input that influences how the movie progresses. The movie may include many different branching storylines. In this way, different viewers are provided different experiences even though they may all be viewing the same general movie. Furthermore, subsequent viewing of the same movie may provide different experiences or at least encourage viewers to view the movie again in order to provide different inputs in hopes of obtaining different branches/or endings of the movie.

Illustrative Claim:
1. An apparatus for implementing cut-scene gameplay, the apparatus comprising: a memory that stores: a plurality of cut-scene pre-recorded videos associated with a same storyline, wherein a subset of the cut-scene pre-recorded videos have been transmitted to a user device, a plurality of gameplay elements associated with the plurality of cut-scene pre-recorded videos, wherein each of the plurality of gameplay elements corresponds to a different set of the cut-scene pre-recorded videos in a sequence within the storyline, and a map that identifies a plurality of branches for the storyline, wherein each branch is associated with a different gameplay element; a communication interface that: transmits one of the cut-scene pre-recorded videos to the user device based on the subset of the cut-scene pre-recorded videos that have already been transmitted, and receives gameplay data from the user device, the received gameplay data identifying an interaction with one or more of the gameplay elements; and a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor: identifies one of the branches within the map that is associated with the gameplay elements identified by the received gameplay data, identifies the set of cut-scene pre-recorded video associated with the identified branch, and identifies a next cut-scene pre-recorded video based on the sequence of the identified set of cut-scene pre-recorded video that is associated with the identified branch wherein the communication interface transmits the identified next cut-scene pre-recorded video to the user device.