This month's Monetization & Business Models category includes 5 filed patent applications from 3 companies: Sony (2), M-League (2), and Konami (1).
M-League's applications cover asynchronous tournament matchmaking for skill-based competition at scale and a real-money wagering system where players earn or lose currency through spatial gameplay rather than final outcomes. Sony filed two applications for technology that serves advertisements, trailers, or mini-games during loading screens on PlayStation platforms. Konami's patent describes an action-point system that allows players to begin training games immediately and deduct resource costs during gameplay instead of requiring upfront payment.
M-League filed 2 patent applications that reimagine competitive play structures for skill-based gaming. The first addresses the problem of assembling millions of players for fair tournament competition without requiring everyone to play at the same time, using time-windowed historical score pools and a dual-band matchmaking system that adjusts dynamically based on return-to-player targets. The second describes a persistent spatial map environment where players wager real money and immediately gain or lose currency through collisions and strategic exits rather than waiting for a final score, with server-side collision detection preventing manipulation while allowing participants across different time zones to interact asynchronously on the same map.
Konami received 1 patent for a deferred resource consumption system that removes friction from mobile training games. Instead of requiring players to spend all their stamina or action points before starting a session, the system spreads costs across multiple checkpoints during gameplay and includes an advance processing mechanism that automatically borrows parameter capacity when it detects an imminent level-up event, preventing situations where players lose progress or resources due to poor timing.
Sony filed 2 patent applications focused on extracting value from loading screens and other wait states within PlayStation games. Both describe technology that detects when a game enters a waiting period and dynamically serves alternate content like advertisements, trailers, or mini-games into those moments. The system operates at the platform level rather than requiring individual game developers to implement the feature, treating downtime as a programmable slot that can deliver contextually relevant content timed precisely to match interruptions in gameplay.
All data sourced from USPTO patent filings. Google Patents may take several weeks to index recent publications. If a link is unavailable, search for the patent number at USPTO Patent Public Search.