Cloud Gaming & Streaming

Sony received 8 patents covering streaming quality, latency reduction, and cloud infrastructure. Multiple patents apply machine learning to encoding decisions, with one training a model on perceptual thresholds to adjust bitrate and framerate only when viewers can't detect the difference, and another reading live game state data to predict visual complexity before it appears on screen. The company also addresses latency through several methods: processing audio and haptic feedback locally on the player's device while visuals stream from servers, prioritizing the encoding and decoding of important screen areas like crosshairs while hiding incomplete background regions with frame reuse or blur, and separating text rendering from scene graphics to keep UI elements readable during low-bandwidth conditions. An additional patent describes a microservices-based game engine that assembles and scales computing resources dynamically per session rather than assigning each player to a fixed virtual console. Sony also patented a system that automatically converts gameplay video recordings into playable mini-game slices with social tagging, creating shareable interactive snippets instead of passive clips.

Adeia received 3 patents focused on dynamic resource allocation and streaming efficiency during active gameplay sessions. All 3 patents enable players to modify their cloud gaming experience mid-session without restarting, with 2 covering service-level-agreement-driven virtual machine upgrades that boost processing power in response to in-game events like boss battles or competitive matches, and one allowing granular upsells of GPU, CPU, or bandwidth tied to specific game moments or time windows that can propagate to teammates. A separate patent switches streaming protocols automatically between low-latency RTP during interactive gameplay and adaptive bitrate HLS during cutscenes or advertisements, reducing bandwidth and GPU load at the network edge by detecting content type and eliminating the waste of encoding non-interactive video with expensive real-time parameters.

Tencent received 2 patents addressing cloud gaming infrastructure efficiency. One keeps the entire graphics rendering pipeline inside the cloud container by associating the frame buffer directly with a physical GPU accessible from within the container, eliminating handoffs to external rendering devices that caused format-switching errors and latency in earlier deployments where only a fraction of games rendered correctly. The other adjusts the server's encoding frame rate dynamically based on feedback from the client about what frame rate it actually needs, optimizing GPU resource utilization across the cloud gaming workload rather than encoding at a fixed rate or one driven solely by network bandwidth.

Backbone Labs received 1 patent for queue management that maintains a player's position in a cloud gaming queue even after they navigate away from the page or app. The system decouples queue state from the user's active attention and sends notifications across device states when their turn arrives, moving beyond browser-tab timers that lose track of position when a tab closes.

Nvidia received 1 patent for a cloud-based shader cache that shares compiled shader programs across all players globally. When one player's device compiles shaders for a game, the results are uploaded to a cloud repository where future users running the same application can retrieve them using state-data hash matching, eliminating redundant compilation work and reducing load times for the entire user base.

NetEase received 1 patent for a marketplace system that lets buyers trial virtual items before purchase by launching an instant cloud game session with the item injected. When a user requests a trial of a tradeable character or prop, the system generates game data and starts a running game program that streams to the buyer's device, turning the item listing into an interactive demo rather than a text or image description.

Netflix received 1 patent for batch-frame rendering that processes multiple game frames simultaneously to reduce the per-frame cost of upscaling and frame generation. The system combines frames from potentially separate game processes into a single image before applying machine learning upscalers like DLSS, then separates them afterward, distributing fixed processing overhead across multiple frames rather than incurring it individually at the low resolutions and frame rates typical of cloud-streamed games.

AT&T received 1 patent for content streaming that downloads only necessary game assets during natural transition periods like loading screens or level changes. The system combines proactive pre-fetching of upcoming content with active deletion of stale assets during the same transition windows, using these periods as bandwidth and processing opportunities while the game executes locally rather than requiring full downloads or pure server-side streaming.

InterDigital CE Patent Holdings, SAS received 1 patent for transform unit partitioning logic in video codecs used for cloud gaming. When a decoder encounters a transform unit size outside the supported range, it automatically infers partitioning decisions, assumes zero residuals, or applies transform-skip mode without waiting for explicit signaling in the bitstream, reducing overhead by using depth and edge information from the coded scene to drive splitting decisions.