Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Daisuke Tsujimura

Daisuke Nakamura

Yosuke Fujino

Kojiro Taguchi

Masashi Seiki

Naoya Hirota

Miki Murakami

Hideaki Tanabe

Sho Onuma

Satoshi Yamato

Nobuhito Koganezawa

Masanobu Suzui

Hirotaka Watanabe

Mitsuru Shinohara

Keiji Hara

Exemplary communication systemincludes game devices, communication terminals, and game support server. Game devicesenable users to perform a multi-play activity. Each of communication terminalsruns an application associated with corresponding game device. Game support serverdivides communication terminalsinto separate communication groups in accordance with a situation of the multi-play activity performed by game devicesso that communication terminalsbelonging to a same communication group can communicate with each other.

Communication system, server and information-processing method

Communication system, server, and information-processing method

Exemplary communication system 1 includes game devices 10, communication terminals 20, and game support server 30. Game devices 10 enable users to perform a multi-play activity. Each of communication terminals 20 runs an application associated with corresponding game device 10. Game support server 30 divides communication terminals 20 into separate communication groups in accordance with a situation of the multi-play activity performed by game devices 10 so that communication terminals 20 belonging to a same communication group can communicate with each other.

When a character is lent from a first game device to a second game device, clocks of those two game devices are synchronized, a shared lending/borrowing expiration time is set, the use of the character is temporarily disabled in the first game device, and the use of the character is temporarily enabled in the second game device. Then, a character return timing is determined, based on a time of the clock and the lending/borrowing expiration time, in the respective game devices. In accordance with the determined timing, the use of the character is enabled in the first game device, and the use of the character is disabled in the second game device. Thus, it is possible to lend/borrow a character as an item in the real world without generating a copy thereof, and the lent character is sure to be returned at the expiration of a predetermined lending/borrowing period.

Game system, game device, and storage medium

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Daisuke Tsujimura