Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Matt Bielich

Jonathan Garcia

Robert Mitchell Smith

Joseph T Wyman

Robert Smith

Example methods manage data that relates a user to a player slot and to a game controller. One example method operates in a multi-user computer environment that includes a game console and a game controller. The method may establish a first mapping and a second mapping for a game running on the console. The first mapping relates a generic player position to a user profile and the second mapping relates the user profile with a game controller. The mappings rely on mapping data provided to the game through a user interface available during the game. The method controls the game, as a function of the first mapping and the second mapping, to manage controller pairings to attribute actions performed at a controller with a currently mapped user profile and then to a player slot. Controller pairings may be managed while the game is in progress without interrupting a game experience.

Managing controller pairings

Example apparatus and methods concern controlling context associations while maintaining a user experience. A memory stores information concerning a context associated with a shared launch surface in a multi-user system running on an apparatus. The memory also stores information concerning a second context associated with an application launched from the shared launch surface and running on the apparatus. Example apparatus and methods provide a launch surface context interface and an application context interface. The interfaces present information that facilitates changing launch surface ownership or application context while maintaining a user experience. For example, logic may selectively control a launch surface context association as a function of data provided by the launch surface context interface and may control an application context association as a function of data provided by the application context interface. The context associations can be manipulated without having to navigate to the launch surface.

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Matt Bielich