Co-streaming within a live interactive video game streaming service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10567466-B2
Application number	US-201715628512-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 20, 2017
Priority date	Apr 6, 2017
Publication date	Feb 18, 2020
Grant date	Feb 18, 2020

Abstract

Technologies are described for enabling co-streaming of live video game streams by multiple broadcasters. For example, broadcasters that are eligible to co-stream can be determined. Invitations can be sent to the broadcasters to join a co-stream. After acceptance, a co-stream can be created. The co-stream can be streamed to viewer devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing device comprising:
a processing unit; and
memory;
the processing unit configured to execute computer instructions performing operations for co streaming within a live interactive video game streaming service, the operations comprising:
automatically determining that two or more broadcasters are eligible to co-stream;
automatically sending an invitation to the two or more broadcasters to co-stream their video game streams;
based at least in part on acceptance by the two or more broadcasters, creating a co-stream comprising each of the two or more broadcasters' video game streams; and
streaming the co-stream to a plurality of viewer devices, wherein the plurality of viewer devices provide the co-stream to viewers that were subscribed to, and currently watching, broadcast channels of the two or more broadcasters before the co-stream was created.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein automatically determining that the two or more broadcasters are eligible to co-stream comprises detecting that the two or more broadcasters are playing a same video game in a same multiplayer session.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein automatically determining that the two or more broadcasters are eligible to co-stream comprises determining that the two or more broadcasters are in a same party.

4. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein automatically determining that the two or more broadcasters are eligible to co-stream comprises detecting that the two or more broadcasters are playing in a same video game tournament.

5. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more broadcaster's video game streams are independently included in the co-stream, and wherein each of the two or more broadcaster's video game streams are individually saved by the live interactive video game streaming service and individually accessible by the plurality of viewer devices.

6. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more broadcaster's video game streams are independently included in the co-stream, and wherein each of the two or more broadcaster's video game streams are independently resizable for display at the viewer devices.

7. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein each of the two or more broadcaster's video game streams are independently included in the co-stream, and wherein bitrates with which the broadcaster's video game streams are streamed to the viewer devices are independently variable.

8. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the co-stream is created as a single composited video stream comprising the two or more broadcasters' video game streams.

9. The computing device of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
detecting an in-game event;
based at least in part on detecting the in-game event, automatically creating a virtual camera that presents a stream of the in-game event; and
including the virtual camera stream in the co-stream.

10. The computing device of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
generating combined chat information from the viewers of the first broadcaster and the viewers of the second broadcaster; and
sending the combined chat information to the plurality of viewer devices.

11. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein moderators associated with the first broadcaster before the co-stream was created and moderators associated with the second broadcaster before the co-stream was created are permitted to moderate viewers across both broadcasters of the co-stream while the co-stream is active.

12. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein acceptance by the two or more broadcasters is controlled by user-configurable settings, and wherein the user-configurable settings indicate automatic acceptance of the invitation without broadcaster intervention.

13. A method, implemented by a computing device, for co-streaming within a live interactive video game streaming service, the method comprising:
by the live interactive video game streaming service:
receiving a request from a first broadcaster to invite a second broadcaster to join a co-stream;
based at least in part on receiving the request, sending an invitation to the second broadcaster to join the co-stream with the first broadcaster;
based at least in part on acceptance by the second broadcaster, creating the co-stream of the first broadcaster's video game stream and the second broadcaster's video game stream; and
streaming the co-stream to a plurality of viewer devices, wherein the plurality of viewer devices provide the co-stream to viewers that were subscribed to, and currently watching, broadcast channels of the first broadcaster and the second broadcaster before the co-stream was created.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
generating combined chat information from the viewers of the first broadcaster and the viewers of the second broadcaster; and
sending the combined chat information to the plurality of viewer devices.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the co-stream supports combined interactive controls that are selectable by the viewers of the first and second broadcasters to interact with both the first broadcaster and the second broadcaster.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein each of the first and second broadcaster's video game streams are independently included in the co-stream, and wherein each of the first and second broadcaster's video game streams are individually saved by the live interactive video game streaming service and individually accessible by the plurality of viewer devices.

17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
detecting an in-game event;
based at least in part on detecting the in-game event, automatically creating a virtual camera that presents a stream of the in-game event; and
including the virtual camera stream in the co-stream.

18. A method, implemented by a computing device, for co- streaming within a live video streaming service, the method comprising:
automatically determining that two or more users are eligible to co-stream;
automatically sending an invitation to the two or more users to join a co-stream;
based at least in part on acceptance by the two or more users, creating a co-stream comprising a video game stream from each of the two or more users; and
streaming the co-stream to a plurality of viewer devices, wherein the plurality of viewer devices provide the co-stream to viewers of the viewer devices that were subscribed to, and currently watching, broadcast channels of the two or more users before the co-stream was created.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein automatically determining that the two or more users are eligible to co-stream comprises detecting that the two or more users are playing a same video game in a same multiplayer session.

20. The method of claim 18 , the method further comprising:
automatically sending an invitation to an additional user to join the co-stream as an audio-only stream; and
based at least in part on acceptance by the additional user, adding the audio-only stream to the co-stream.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Smith Gregory M
• Peet Connor
• Yim Nathan
• Blouin Joseph Michael
• Akkurt Mehmet
• Gibson Chad Curtis
• Salsamendi Matthew Stephen

Classifications

• A63F13/86

  Watching games played by other players · CPC title

• A63F13/87

  Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat · CPC title

• A63F13/497

  Partially or entirely replaying previous game actions · CPC title

• A63F13/335

  using Internet · CPC title

• A63F2300/572

  Communication between players during game play of non game information, e.g. e-mail, chat, file transfer, streaming of audio and streaming of video · CPC title