Systems and methods for facilitating transactions of virtual items between users of an online game

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11521190-B2
Application number	US-202117335168-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 1, 2021
Priority date	Aug 5, 2019
Publication date	Dec 6, 2022
Grant date	Dec 6, 2022

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating transactions of virtual items between users of an online game are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may: receive a sales request that indicates a selling user will be offering for sale a particular virtual item from a seller's inventory through an online sales platform; assign the ownership of the particular virtual item temporarily to a holding account; publish a sales listing of the particular virtual item on the online sales platform; receive sales information from the online sales platform indicating whether the particular virtual item has been purchased; assign the ownership of the particular virtual item to the buyer's account; and transfer at least a portion of a sales amount received from the buying user to the seller's account.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system configured for facilitating refunds from an external online sales platform for refundable transactions of virtual items between users of an online game, wherein the users include a first player and a second player, the system comprising:
a decentralized database configured to store a registry of assets and transactions, wherein the decentralized database represents a blockchain, wherein the assets include a particular virtual item, wherein ownership of the particular virtual item is assigned to a first blockchain account associated with the first player, and wherein assignments of the ownership of the particular virtual item are recorded on the blockchain;
a gaming platform including one or more hardware processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
manage user accounts for the users in the online game, including a first player's account associated with the first player, wherein the first player's account includes a first player's inventory of one or more virtual items that are usable by the first player within the online game;
receive a sales request that indicates the first player will be offering for sale the particular virtual item through the external online sales platform, wherein the external online sales platform is external to the system, the decentralized database, and the gaming platform;
transmit a command to the decentralized database to assign the ownership of the particular virtual item temporarily to a holding account such that the first player is unable to transfer or modify the ownership of the particular virtual item while the ownership of the particular virtual item is assigned to the holding account, wherein the holding account is not under control of the first player;
generate a sales listing of the particular virtual item for publication on the external online sales platform, wherein the sales listing includes pricing information for prospective buying users and descriptive information that describes the particular virtual item;
effectuate, through a first function call of an Application Programming Interface (API) supported by the external online sales platform, the publication of the sales listing of the particular virtual item on the external online sales platform, wherein the publication of the sales listing is effectuated subsequent to a verification that the first player owns the particular virtual item;
responsive to receipt of sales information from the external online sales platform indicating the particular virtual item has been purchased by the second player, identify a second player's account associated with the second player, wherein the second player's account includes a second player's inventory of virtual items that are usable by the second player within the online game; and
transmit a second command to the decentralized database to assign the ownership of the particular virtual item to a second blockchain account associated with the second player;

wherein the decentralized database is further configured to:
receive the second command from the gaming platform and execute the second command such that the ownership of the particular virtual item is assigned from the holding account to the second blockchain account and recorded on the blockchain, such that the particular virtual item is accessible to be used by the second player within the online game; and
receive a first refund command based on a refund request from the second player that indicates the second player is attempting to revert the purchase of the particular virtual item, wherein the first refund command is received through the API, wherein the refund request is received through the external online sales platform on behalf of the second player, wherein the first refund command aims to cause the decentralized database to assign and record the ownership of the particular virtual item temporarily to the holding account such that the second player is unable to transfer or modify the ownership of the particular virtual item while the ownership of the particular virtual item is assigned to the holding account, wherein the holding account is not under control of the second player;

wherein the one or more hardware processors included in the gaming platform are further configured by the machine-readable instructions to:
notify the first player that the second player is attempting to revert the purchase of the particular virtual item;
request a second portion of the sales amount from the first player's account;
receive the second portion of the sales amount from the first player's account;
transfer a second refund command to the decentralized database to assign and record the ownership of the particular virtual itern from the holding account to the first blockchain account, such that the particular virtual item is accessible to be used by the first player within the online game; and
effectuate, through the API, a transfer of at least a third portion of the sales amount to the second player's account to complete reverting the purchase of the particular virtual item as requested by the second player through the refund request.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publication of the sales listing of the particular virtual item on the external online sales platform is active for a limited duration.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the sales information from the external online sales platform that indicates that the particular virtual item has been purchased is received upon expiration of the limited duration.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first blockchain account is different from the first player's account, and wherein the second blockchain account is different from the second player's account.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are further configured by machine-readable instructions to:
effectuate a presentation of the generated sales listing to the first player through a client computing platform that is associated with the first player; and
receive user input from the first player through the client computing platform, wherein the user input confirms the first player consent to the publication of the sales listing;
wherein the publication of the sales listing is effectuated subsequent to receipt of the user input from the first player.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein notifying the first player includes requesting the first player to return at least the second portion of the sales amount.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are further configured by machine-readable instructions to:
perform a second verification whether the refund request is legitimate such that the purchase of the particular virtual item should be reverted;
wherein assigning the ownership of the particular virtual item to the first player's account is performed responsive to the second verification.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein assigning the ownership of the particular virtual item temporarily to the holding account is performed such that the first player is further unable to use the particular virtual item within the online game.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the publication of the sales listing on the external online sales platform effectuates an auction for the particular virtual item.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying the second player's account of the second player includes generating a redemption code for the particular virtual item, and wherein assigning the ownership of the particular virtual item to the second blockchain account is performed responsive to redemption of the redemption code.

11. A method for facilitating refunds from an external online sales plat

Assignees

• Mythical Inc

Inventors

• Cunningham Stephan
• Koch Rudy
• Kao Liwen
• Linden John

Classifications

• A63F13/79

  involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories · CPC title

• A63F13/352

  involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world · CPC title

• G07F17/323

  wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions · CPC title

• A63F2300/575

  for trading virtual items · CPC title

• A63F13/71

  using secure communication between game devices and game servers, e.g. by encrypting game data or authenticating players · CPC title