Predictive Instant Play For An Application Over The Cloud

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016256784-A1
Application number	US-201615059270-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 2, 2016
Priority date	Mar 6, 2015
Publication date	Sep 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and systems for predicting instant play includes pre-loading one or more instances of select ones of games on one or more game consoles on a cloud game server. The loading of instances is based on usage history of the games. Users are assigned to select ones of the instances of the games loaded on the one or more game consoles, in response to user interaction detected at the select ones of the games exceeding a pre-defined threshold value. User interactions are monitored at the instances of the select ones of games assigned to the users. Based on the monitored interactions, the number of instances of the games loaded on the one or more game consoles are dynamically adjusted. The dynamic adjustment includes scaling up or scaling down the number of instances of the games loaded on the one or more game consoles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
loading one or more instances of select ones of games on one or more game consoles on a cloud game server, the loading of select ones of games based on usage history available for each of the games on the cloud game server; assigning users to instances of the select ones of the games loaded on the one or more game consoles, when a length of user interactions of the users currently detected at the select ones of the games exceeds a pre-defined threshold value; monitoring user interactions at the respective instances of the select ones of the loaded games assigned to the users; and dynamically adjusting number of instances of the select ones of the games loaded on the one or more game consoles based on the monitored user interaction of the users, the dynamically adjusting includes scaling up or scaling down the number of instances of the games loaded on the one or more game consoles, wherein method operations are performed by a processor of the cloud game server.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when a game loaded on one or more game consoles is a single user game, assigning users includes assigning each instance of the game to a user; and
when the game is a multi-user game, assigning users includes assigning each instance of the game to a plurality of users, wherein the plurality of users may be co-located or remotely located.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein assigning users further includes,
monitoring status of the instances of the select ones of the games assigned to the users to determine presence or absence of user engagement at the respective instances of the select ones of the games assigned to the users; and re-assigning, based on the monitoring, one or more instances of specific ones of the games to one or more other users, when no user engagement is detected at the one or more instances of the specific ones of the games.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein monitoring status further includes,
maintaining an instant play log for the instances of each game available on the cloud game server, the instant play log keeping track of the usage history based on user interactions at each of the instances of each game, information provided in the instant play log used to manage the instances of the games and for assigning the instances of specific ones of the games to different users.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein adjusting further includes,
determining the usage history for a particular game for a pre-defined period of time using information provided in the instant play log; and adjusting number of instances of the particular game downward, when the usage history for the particular game during the pre-defined period of time indicates a demand that is less than the number of instances available for the particular game by a pre-defined threshold value.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein adjusting further includes,
predicting usage demand for a particular game using information provided in the instant play log, wherein the information in the instant play log provides usage history for the particular game and for contextually similar games; and adjusting the number of instances of the particular game based on the usage demand predicted for the particular game.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein loading instances of a game includes loading generic game related data of the game and assigning users includes loading user related data of respective users for the game.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein loading further includes,
determining a pre-defined threshold value for the number of instances of a game that can be instantiated on each game console in the cloud game server; and loading the number of instances of the game in accordance to the pre-defined threshold value and the usage history for the game.

9 . A method, comprising:
detecting user interaction at a game title of a game provided on a cloud gaming site; pre-loading an instance of the game on a game console of a cloud game server available to the cloud gaming site, when a length of the user interaction detected at the game title of the game exceeds a pre-defined threshold time; assigning the pre-loaded instance of the game to the user, in response to the user interaction, the assigning causes a portion of informative content for the game to be provided for rendering on a client device of the user; and monitoring the user interaction at the instance of the game to define usage history for the game, the usage history related to one or more games is used to predict usage demand for each of the one or more games and to manage the instances of the one or more games, wherein the operations are performed by a processor of the cloud game server.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the user interaction at the game title of the game is a passive user interaction.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the pre-loading of the instance of the game includes pre-loading generic game specific data.

12 . The method of claim 9 , further includes,
when a switch to a second game is detected based on the user interaction, pausing the pre-loading of the instance of the game and begin pre-loading an instance of the second game at the cloud game server, the pre-loading of the second game is enabled upon verification that the user interaction at the second game exceeds the pre-defined threshold time.

13 . The method of claim 12 , further includes retaining the pre-loaded instance of the game for a predefined period of time based on usage history of the game.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further includes discarding the pre-loaded instance of the game after expiration of the predefined period of time, when no user interaction is recorded at the pre-loaded instance of the game during the predefined period of time.

15 . The method of claim 12 , further includes using data from the pre-loaded instance of the game as demonstration data for presenting to a second user, in response to detection of user interaction from the second user at the game title.

16 . The method of claim 12 , further includes de-assigning the pre-loaded instance of the game to the user and assigning the pre-loaded instance of the second game to the user, in response to detection of user interaction of the user at the second game, the assigning of the second game based on the completion of the pre-loading and availability of the pre-loaded instance of the second game for user interaction.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the assigning of the pre-loaded instance of the second game causes a portion of informative content for the second game to be provided for rendering on the client device of the user.

18 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the instance of the second game is pre-loaded on to a second game console of the cloud game server that is different from the game console on which the instance of the game is pre-loaded.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the second game console of the cloud game server is selected for pre-loading the instance of the second game based on availability of resources at the game console and the second game console, wherein the resources include bandwidth resources for transmitting data related to the second game to the client device.

20 . The method of claim 12 , wherein the pre-loading of the instance is carried out when the instance of the game is not available on the cloud game server.

21 . A system, comprising:
a cloud gaming site communic

Assignees

• Sony Interactive Entertainment America Llc

Inventors

• Schultz Paul Robert
• Colenbrander Roelof Roderick
• Breed Ryan Hamilton

Classifications

• A63F13/335

  using Internet · CPC title

• A63F13/77

  involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory · CPC title

• A63F13/45

  Controlling the progress of the video game · 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

• A63F13/79 Primary

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