U.S. Patent No. 10,967,276: Collaborative online gaming system and method
Issued April 6, 2021, to Electronic Arts Inc.
Filed: February 14, 2019 (claiming priority to May 17, 2005)
Overview:
U.S. Patent No. 10,967,276 (the ‘276 patent) relates to a collaborative online gaming program which communicates with several gaming servers. The ‘276 patent details a method for collaborative online gaming which identifies several servers configured to allow connections from players, some of which allow a player to join an ongoing game instance. The program also gathers player data to rate each player and, via two or more players in the same game instance, generates a consolidated rating for those players (like a team rating).
These ratings represent skill levels of players and this data is used for displaying skill levels to players in game matches. The ‘276 patent relates to an element of the EA app, which is currently in beta. Some elements of this project by EA may be on hold considering all the recent lawsuits against closed digital ecosystems, kicked off by the Epic v. Apple lawsuit, because the app includes purchases in its ecosystem.
Abstract:
A system, method, and computer program product for collaborative online gaming, including at least one of providing a central repository master browser system; providing an experience calibrated match-making service; providing a dynamic multiplayer server component auto deployment and aggregation system; providing a lobby centric simultaneous and collaborative client game play launching feature; and providing a video game screen over-layer technology giving users access to a control interface while inside a video game being played.
Illustrative Claim:
- A method for collaborative online gaming, comprising: identifying a plurality of game servers, at least some of which are configured to allow connections from devices operated by players and at least some of which are configured to allow a new player to join an ongoing game instance, wherein a game instance is an instantiation of a game program executed by a game server and is an ongoing game instance if at least one player is playing, or initiating play, in that game instance; gathering data relevant to one or more of the players, wherein the data comprises a player rating for each player for at least one game instance and at least two players currently using that game instance, and a consolidated rating for that game instance based on the player ratings for rated players currently playing that game instance; injecting the gathered data into a database cloud for storing persistent state data for one or more players and game servers; identifying a new player rating of a prospective new player; matching the prospective new player with one or more matched game instances executed by one or more of the plurality of game servers; and displaying a list of the one or more matched game instances separated based on a plurality of skill level categories, wherein each of the plurality of skill level categories is determined based on a comparison of the new player rating and the consolidated ratings of the one or more game instances, wherein each of the matched game instances within the list is displayed with a visual indication indicative of the skill level category associated with the matched game instance.