U.S. Patent No. 10,610,779: Methods and systems for scheduling game play of a video game
Issued April 7, 2020 to Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC
Priority Date: June 19, 2017
Summary:
U.S. Patent No. 10,610,779 (the ’779 Patent) relates to scheduling a video game session among invited players (whether immediately or in the future) to be accessed from a cloud hosting system from any geo location. The ’779 Patent details a method of sending a notification to invited players, and preloading the game in advance for players who accept the notification. The cloud hosting system determines the geo location of each player, and choses data center(s) for each player after performing latency and quality tests based on their geo location. The current game state for each player is stored at their respective data center(s).
Abstract:
Methods and systems for assigning a data center in a second geo location for migrating data in anticipation of receiving a request from a user account from the second geo location includes receiving an indication of a change in geo location of a user from a first geo location to the second geo location. Save data for the user is identified at the first geo location. The save data is analyzed to determine usage trend of the user for the plurality of games. A portion of the save data is identified, based on the usage trend, and transmitted to a second data center in the second geo location in anticipation of the user’s likely access of the save data at the second geo location. The save data is made available to game logic of one or more games, when executed on a cloud gaming system, so as to provide current state of game play of the respective one or more games for rendering on a client device of the user used to access the game.
Illustrative Claim:
1. A method for game play of a video game available on a cloud gaming system, comprising: detecting a request for game play of the video game, the request originating from a client device of a first player and identifying a scheduled time for game play and other players that are to be invited to join in game play of the video game with the first player, wherein the video game is a multi-player video game played between the first player and the other players to define a current game state; sending a notification to the other players with an invitation to join in game play of the video game at or before the scheduled time, in response to the request; evaluating response to the notification received from one or more of the other players to identify specific ones of the other players that have accepted the invitation for game play of the video game with the first player at the scheduled time; and pre-loading the video game up to a point defined by the current game state from where game play of the video game is to begin, for the first player and specific ones of the other players that have accepted the invitation for game play, the pre-loading performed in advance of the first player and each of the specific ones of the other players connecting to the cloud gaming system to begin game play of the video game from the point defined by the current game state, at or before the scheduled time, wherein the pre-loading includes, identifying a time window defined before the scheduled time for performing the pre-loading of the video game; performing the pre-loading within the time window for each of the first player and the specific ones of the other players, the time window is defined to include time needed for pre-loading the game data and a buffer time for completing pre-loading of the video game, and wherein operations of the method are performed by processors in the cloud gaming system.