Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

James Fairbairn

Steven Patrick Trombetta

Christopher Thielbar

Adil Ahmed Sherwani

Vipul Hingne

The present disclosure describes methods and systems directed towards providing scaled engagement and views of an e-sports event. Instead of providing the same distribution of live e-sport event data to all remote viewers of a live e-sports event, features associated with e-sports gaming network could be used to customize the distribution of live e-sport event data to promote immersive viewer experience. The enhanced immersion can also be carried out in a virtual reality or augmented reality setting. The features would be capable of providing additional information, different views, and a variety of different commentators for the e-sports event so that the viewer can be more engaged when viewing the particular e-sports event. With the increased engagement from remote viewers, the distribution of live e-sports event data can also be further modified for monetization by incorporating advertisements as well.

Scaled VR engagement and views in an e-sports event

The subject disclosure relates to the creation of channels providing customizable video feeds in an online gaming platform. In some aspects, a process of the disclosed technology can include steps for receiving a first set of event attributes from a first user, the first set of event attributes comprising information identifying a first game title and a first game-play event associated with the first game title, monitoring play of the first game title by a second user to detect occurrence of the game-play event, and in response to a detected occurrence of the first game-play event, automatically providing a video stream of the first game title to the first user. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.

Statistically defined game channels

A plurality of game titles may be hosted on a gaming network platform, and gameplay data in sessions involving the game titles may be tracked in real-time. Each session may be associated with a stream. One or more event criteria may be stored for each of a plurality of predefined events of interest. An event of interest may be identified when the tracked gameplay data for a session meets the stored criteria. A list of available streams identified as including the identified event may be sorted, and a subset of the available streams may be identified as being at a top of the list. A notification may be provided to a spectator device that includes a link to one of the streams in the subset. The criteria for the event of interest may also be updated based on subsequent game data and feedback (e.g., use of the link).

Discovery and detection of events in interactive content

A multi-user platform provides an immersive digital (including virtual reality (VR)) environment to solicit and broadcast commentary related to gameplay. The multi-user platform receives gameplay content, which includes a plurality of media streams that show one or more views. The multi-user platform generates a graphical representation for each media stream in the VR environment, receives commentary content corresponding to one or more media streams in the VR environment, and determines one graphical representation for one media stream is an active representation in the VR environment for a time period. The multi-user platform further synchronizes a portion of the commentary content received in the time period with the one media stream associated with the active representation to create synchronized content and broadcast gameplay channel(s) that includes the synchronized content to one or more subscribers connected to the multi-user platform.

Integrating commentary content and gameplay content over a multi-user platform

A video game has at least one player client with control over an aspect of a shared virtual environment. The video game also has at least one spectator client with limited to no control over the shared virtual environment. For example, the spectator client's control may be limited to the game server generating audience cheers or boos in response to spectator input during gameplay. In response to detection of a trigger event by a game server, the player and spectator may switch roles. The client switching from spectator to player experiences an increase in network transfer quality from the game server to help provide smooth gameplay. The client switching from player to spectator faces a decrease in network transfer properties to compensate.

Player to spectator handoff and other spectator controls

The subject disclosure relates to the de-interleaving of captured game data for the creation of separate video data and statistical metadata repositories. In some aspects, a process of the disclosed technology includes steps for capturing gameplay data based on live gameplay in a game environment, the gameplay data comprising video data and statistical metadata based on player interactions with the game environment, de-interleaving the video data and the statistical metadata, storing the video data to a first database, and storing the statistical metadata to a second database, the first database being different from the second database. Systems and machine-readable media are also provided.

De-interleaving gameplay data

A multi-user system hosts a game session over a communication network. The game session includes a plurality of media streams that show one or more views of live game play for the game session. The multi-user system further assigns a spectator value to each media stream, updates one or more spectator values based on user inputs received during the game session, selects, for one or more time periods of the game session, one media stream to broadcast based on the spectator value assigned to the one media stream for the one or more time periods, and broadcasts the one media stream over the communication network.

User-driven spectator channel for live game play in multi-player games

Systems and methods for discovery and detection of events in interactive digital content are provided. Gameplay data in sessions involving the plurality of game titles may be tracked in real-time. Each session may be associated with a stream. Event criteria may be stored for each of a plurality of predefined events of interest. An event of interest may be identified when the tracked gameplay data for a session meets the stored criteria. A list of available streams identified as including the identified event may be sorted, and a subset of the available streams may be identified as being at a top of the list. A notification may be provided to a spectator device that includes a link to one of the streams in the subset. The criteria for the event of interest may also be updated based on subsequent game data and feedback (e.g., use of the link).

Techniques for incentivizing completive gameplay include measuring metrics for a plurality of players (e.g., ranked players and non-ranked players) that engage in gameplay, and generating ranked profiles for the ranked players and a non-ranked profile for the non-ranked player based on the metrics. The techniques further include mapping the ranked profiles and the non-ranked profile in a vector-space, where one metric corresponds to one dimension in the vector-space, and presenting a notification to the non-ranked player based on a distance in the vector-space between the non-ranked profile and at least one ranked profile. The notification provides an incentive for the non-ranked player to engage in competitive gameplay.

Growing community of inventors

Novato, CA, United States of America

James Fairbairn