Spectator participation in esports events

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12330070-B2
Application number	US-202217870021-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 21, 2022
Priority date	Jul 21, 2022
Publication date	Jun 17, 2025
Grant date	Jun 17, 2025

Abstract

The present technology provides solutions for spectator-based interactions in a virtual esports environment. A method can include establishing an interactive session associated with the virtual esports environment, the interactive session including a plurality of user devices, wherein a subset of the user devices is associated with designated players, and another subset of the user devices is associated with designated spectators; receiving data from one of the user devices over a communication network, the data indicating a spectator action performed by a spectator associated with the user device; identifying that the spectator action is associated with one of the players in the virtual esports environment; and modifying the virtual esports environment based on the spectator action and the association with the identified player.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for spectator-based interactions in virtual esports environments, the method comprising:
establishing an interactive session at one or more gaming servers associated with rendering, on a display, a virtual esports environment for a plurality of user devices each connected to the one or more gaming servers via a communication network, wherein a first subset of the user devices is associated with one or more designated players, and a second subset of the user devices is associated with one or more designated spectators associated with respective spectator avatars within the virtual esports environment;
receiving data from one user device of the second subset of the user devices over the communication network, the data indicating input received by the one user device;
identifying a spectator action based at least in part on the data;
identifying the spectator action is associated with an avatar associated with one of the designated players determined to have met a condition in the same interactive session as a spectator avatar of the respective spectator avatars; and
modifying the display of the virtual esports environment based on the spectator action, wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment includes providing a virtual action to the spectator avatar, wherein the virtual action is limited until the modification is made to the virtual esports environment.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment further comprises:
receiving second data from the plurality of the user devices indicative of a plurality of spectator actions associated with the avatar associated with the one of the designated players; and
determining that a threshold number of spectator actions is met by the second data, wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment is further based on the determination that the threshold number is met.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the data further includes an intensity parameter associated with the spectator action.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the data is captured by one or more sensors of the one user device associated with the spectator avatar.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment is further based on an avatar of one of the players in the virtual esports environment meeting a conditional requirement.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment further comprises:
receiving data from a plurality of the user devices indicative of a plurality of spectator actions associated with the avatar associated with the one of the designated players; and
determining an intensity for each of the spectator actions, wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment is based on at least one of the intensities of at least one of the spectator actions.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment further includes generating the virtual action by the one user device associated with the spectator avatar.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment further includes limiting a second virtual action of the spectator avatar.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment further includes generating a visual indicator of the spectator avatar.

10. A system for spectator-based interactions in virtual esports environments, the system comprising:
a communication interface that communicates over a communication network, wherein the communication interface:
establishes a connection to an interactive session at one or more gaming servers associated with rendering, on a display, a virtual esports environment for a plurality of user devices each connected to the one or more gaming servers via the communication network, wherein a first subset of the user devices is associated with one or more designated players, a second subset of the user devices is associated with one or more designated spectators associated with respective spectator avatars within the virtual esports environment; and
receives data from one user device of the second subset of the user devices over the communication network, the data indicating input received by the one user device; and
identifies a spectator action based at least in part on the data;
a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein the processor executes the instructions to:
identify the spectator action is associated with an avatar associated with one of the designated players determined to have met a condition in the same interactive session as a spectator avatar of the respective spectator avatars; and
modify the display of the virtual esports environment based on the spectator action, wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment includes providing a virtual action to the spectator avatar, wherein the virtual action is limited until the modification is made to the virtual esports environment.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor modifies the virtual esports environment by:
receiving second data from the plurality of the user devices indicative of a plurality of spectator actions associated with the avatar associated with the one of the designated players; and
determining that a threshold number of spectator actions is met by the second data, wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment is further based on the determination that the threshold number is met.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the data further includes an intensity parameter associated with the spectator action.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the data is captured by one or more sensors of the one user device associated with the spectator avatar.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor modifies the virtual esports environment further based on an avatar of one of the players in the virtual esports environment meeting a conditional requirement.

15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor further modifies the virtual esports environment by:
receiving data from a plurality of the user devices indicative of a plurality of spectator actions associated with the avatar associated with the one of the designated players; and
determining an intensity for each of the spectator actions, wherein modifying the display of the virtual esports environment is based on at least one of the intensities of at least one of the spectator actions.

16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor further modifies the display of the virtual esports environment by generating the virtual action by the avatar associated with the one user device associated with the spectator avatar.

17. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processor further modifies the virtual esports environment by limiting a second virtual action of the spectator avatar.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions thereon, wherein the instructions are effective to cause a processor to perform a method for spectator-based interactions in virtual esports environments, the method comprising:
establishing an interactive session at one or more gaming servers associated with rendering, on a display, a virtual esports environment for a plurality of user de

Assignees

• Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC
• Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc

Inventors

• Bean Celeste
• Luizello Alessandra
• Luluquisin Genie-Rose
• Patel Benaisha
• Rudi Olga

Classifications

• A63F2300/535

  for monitoring, e.g. of user parameters, terminal parameters, application parameters, network parameters · CPC title

• A63F13/355

  Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client · CPC title

• A63F13/847

  Cooperative playing, e.g. requiring coordinated actions from several players to achieve a common goal · CPC title

• A63F2300/577

  for watching a game played by other players · CPC title

• A63F13/358

  Adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection speeds between clients · CPC title