Co-streaming within a live interactive video game streaming service

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11172012-B2
Application number	US-201916425726-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 29, 2019
Priority date	Apr 6, 2017
Publication date	Nov 9, 2021
Grant date	Nov 9, 2021

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;
sending a co-streaming invitation to the two or more broadcasters;
based at least in part on automatic acceptance of the co-streaming invitation 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 for providing to viewers that were currently watching broadcast channels of any of the two or more broadcasters before the co-stream was created.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the co-stream is automatically accepted by the two or more broadcasters without broadcaster intervention.

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

4. 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.

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 , the operations further comprising:
generating combined chat information from each of the viewers of the two or more broadcasters; and
sending the combined chat information to the plurality of viewer devices.

7. The computing device of claim 6 , wherein moderators associated with any of the two or more broadcasters before the co-stream was created are permitted to moderate viewers across all broadcasters of the co-stream while the co-stream is active.

8. 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:
automatically determining that two or more broadcasters are eligible to co-stream;
automatically sending a co-streaming invitation from a first broadcaster to at least a second broadcaster to join in a co-stream with the first broadcaster;
based at least in part on accepting the co-streaming invitation, joining the two or more broadcasters by creating a co-stream comprising each of the two or more broadcasters' video game streams; and
streaming the co-stream, as independently accessible streams, to a plurality of viewer devices to viewers that were currently watching broadcast channels of any of the two or more broadcasters before the co-stream was created.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the co-stream is automatically joined by the two or more broadcasters without broadcaster intervention.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the joining by the two or more broadcasters is controlled by user-configurable settings, and wherein the user-configurable settings indicate automatic joining of the co-stream without broadcaster intervention.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
automatically determining that two or more broadcasters are eligible to co-stream.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the independently accessible streams of the co-stream are independently displayable by the viewers at the plurality of viewer devices.

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

• G06F13/38 Primary

  Information transfer, e.g. on bus (G06F13/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L65/65

  Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP] · CPC title

• H04L69/04

  Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC · CPC title

• H04L65/75

  Media network packet handling · CPC title

• H04L65/613

  for the control of the source by the destination (control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637) · CPC title