System and method for purchasing physical toys and corresponding virtual toys

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9547871-B2
Application number	US-201313841964-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jan 17, 2017
Grant date	Jan 17, 2017

Abstract

System and methods for physical toy and virtual toy interactions are disclosed. According to aspects of the invention, a system for purchasing a physical toy and a corresponding virtual toy comprises a video game console, a physical toy, and a virtual toy corresponding to the physical toy. The virtual toy corresponding to the physical toy may be made available in a video game played on the video game console. The physical toy may be purchased by a user of the system from an external merchant. The virtual toy corresponding to the physical toy may be separately purchased by the user from a purchasing system within the video game. The physical toy may be registered with the gaming platform. If the user registers the physical toy with the gaming platform and the user previously purchased the virtual toy, the system refunds to the user the purchase price of virtual toy.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method useful in conjunction with a video game having virtual game characters corresponding to physical toys, comprising:
receiving a request to purchase utilizing a purchasing system within the video game, by a purchasing entity, use of a virtual game character for the video game;
transmitting information of the virtual game character by the purchasing system to a first gaming platform, the information sufficient for use of the virtual game character in game play of the video game;
providing, by a processor of the first gaming platform, for game play of the video game using the virtual game character, with the game play of the video game using the virtual game character resulting in updated information of the virtual game character reflecting a change in status of the virtual game character;
receiving information by the purchasing system, indicating a purchase, by the purchasing entity, subsequent to receipt of the request to purchase use of the virtual game character and the transmission of information of the virtual game character to the first gaming platform and the provision for game play of the video game using the virtual game character, of a physical toy corresponding to the virtual game character, the received information including identification data stored on the physical toy and retrieved using radio frequency identification (RFID) interface circuitry of a peripheral device coupled to the first game platform;
writing the updated information of the virtual game character by the peripheral device to a memory of the physical toy; and
commanding by the purchasing system provision of a return value to the purchasing entity.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the return value is a refund of a purchase price of the use of the virtual game character.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the return value is in the form of points in the video game.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the return value is in the form of in video game credits.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information indicating a purchase, by the purchasing entity, of the physical toy comprises registration information for the physical toy submitted with information of a user account.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the information of the user account is a user name.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the registration information includes a unique identifier assigned to the physical toy.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing updated information of the virtual game character, thereby reflecting a change in status of the virtual game character due to game play of the video game.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising transmitting the updated information of the virtual game character to a second gaming platform for the purpose of having the updated information written to memory of the physical toy.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the first gaming platform is the second gaming platform.

11. A system for use in conjunction with a video game, comprising:
at least one computing device, including at least one processor, configured to:
transmit, over a network by a purchasing system within the video game, information of a virtual game character to allow for video game play including the virtual game character, in response to receipt by the purchasing system of an indication of a purchase of use of the virtual game character by a purchasing entity, without receipt of an indication of a purchase of a physical toy corresponding to the virtual game character, and
subsequent to the transmission of information of the virtual game character by the purchasing system to allow for video game play including the virtual game character, transmit by the purchasing system, over the network, an information of value to the purchasing entity, in response to receipt of the indication of purchase of the physical toy by the purchasing system corresponding to the virtual game character by the purchasing entity; and
a game platform coupled to a peripheral device including radio frequency identification (RFID) interface circuitry for communicating with the physical toy, the game platform configured for providing video game play including the virtual game character, transmit the indication of purchase of the physical toy corresponding to the virtual game character by the purchasing system to the peripheral device, and command writing of updated information of the virtual game character to the physical toy via the peripheral device;
wherein the indication of purchase of the physical toy by the purchasing system includes identification data stored in memory of the physical toy read by the peripheral device.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the information of value is a request for provision of at least a partial refund of a purchase price of use of the virtual game character.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the information of value is in the form of in-game credits for the video game.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one computing device includes associated memory, and the at least one processor is configured to store the updated information of the virtual game character in the memory.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the updated information of the virtual game character reflects a change in status of the virtual game character due to game play.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the at least one computing device is configured to transmit, over the network, information to allow the gaming platform to command writing of the updated information of the virtual game character to a memory of the physical toy.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the gaming platform is configured to utilize the information of the virtual game character in providing game play in the absence of a presence of the physical toy about the peripheral device and to utilize information of the memory of the physical toy when the presence of the physical toy is detected by the peripheral device.

Assignees

• Activision Publishing Inc

Inventors

• Bala Karthik
• Oneal Jennifer
• Throop Ben

Classifications

• A63F2300/65

  for computing the condition of a game character · CPC title

• A63F13/825

  Fostering virtual characters · CPC title

• G06Q30/06 Primary

  Buying, selling or leasing transactions · CPC title