Game Mechanics & Gameplay

Kabam received 2 patents covering how content and rewards are structured around individual players. The first describes a system that analyzes gameplay behavior to categorize players as collectors, PvP-focused, or PvE-focused, then uses that classification to determine which items, buildings, and units each player can unlock through ordinary in-game actions like exploring, purchasing, or completing achievements, replacing the same unlock pool everyone else sees with one shaped by that player's tendencies. The second addresses a common problem in online tournaments, where most effort clusters at the end of an event, by dividing the event into measured time intervals that each carry their own awards, with interval performance also feeding into final standings so that earlier activity counts toward the overall outcome.

Sony received 1 patent describing a posture monitoring system for game players that uses a camera attached to a console or headset. The system first captures the player's own upright position to establish a personal baseline, then watches for deviations like hunching or leaning, and responds by slowing down or restricting gameplay until the player corrects their posture. Because the detection is relative to each user's own body rather than a fixed standard, the approach accounts for differences in body size and proportion that older feedback systems struggled with.

Nintendo received 2 patents, both focused on how cooperative play sessions are structured. One covers a system that stores each player's mission progress independently from the party they are playing with, so that progress continues through solo sessions and is never lost when a group disbands, with any participant's in-session actions able to advance another player's personal mission without that player losing ownership of it. The other allows players to choose between competitive and non-cooperative modes from within a stage itself, by having characters interact with a shared trigger object during a timed window, so that the stage becomes a race if all players act in time and proceeds without competition if they do not.

Adeia received 1 patent describing a loot drop system that replaces pure randomness with a socially directed selection process. Rather than rolling against fixed or variable drop rates, the system identifies a friend of the receiving player who is likely to engage with the game, scores which items that friend would find useful, and drops one of those items to the player instead. The result is a loot mechanic that turns an otherwise arbitrary drop into a prompt for the 2 players to trade.

Truist Bank received 1 patent covering a prize pool system for games in which players earn resources through play. Instead of requiring a full entry to participate in a prize event, the system allows players to convert partial resources into a proportional entry, with any payout scaled to that fractional stake, and the entry can grow as the player's account balance increases. Randomness for determining outcomes is supplied by a third-party server, keeping the draw independent from the game itself.

Tencent received 1 patent covering a combo execution method for MOBA games. A player draws a single linking gesture across 2 or more skill buttons, and once that gesture completes, the character fires the corresponding skills together as a sequence, rather than requiring the player to tap each skill control separately with precise timing. The system changes the input layer so that executing a multi-skill combination becomes a single fluid action instead of several consecutive individual operations.