Platforms & Ecosystems

NetEase received 1 patent for a system that translates foreign games into Chinese at runtime, targeting Unity-based titles in particular. Rather than waiting for an official localized release, the system injects translation logic directly into the game's code while it runs inside a simulator, intercepting UI text and converting it on the fly. This allows players to access games that were never formally adapted for their language, bypassing the need for any cooperation from the original developer.

Konami received 1 patent for a rhythm game system that connects to external music streaming services, allowing players to use songs from platforms like Spotify during gameplay. The architecture separates the music audio from the game's scoring data, storing each on different servers and combining them only when a session begins. This means the game can support any track available through a subscribed streaming service without requiring the developer to negotiate licensing agreements on a song-by-song basis.

Tencent received 1 patent for an anti-cheat system that uses a chain of cryptographically linked nodes to verify the integrity of game data before a server accepts it. Each node in the chain is mathematically derived from the one before it, so any attempt to alter a value retroactively breaks the entire sequence. The system pairs this tamper-detection mechanism with checks on game logic accuracy, running both through a unified verification pipeline at the end of a session.

Niantic received 1 patent for a location data anonymization system designed for augmented reality games, one that preserves privacy without discarding the data's utility for analysis. When a location event is recorded, the system simultaneously stores it across multiple retention tables at different levels of GPS precision rather than degrading a single record over time. A separate module maps between hashed and raw player identifiers in one direction only, adding a layer of privacy protection for internal service communication while still allowing different teams to work with the data at whichever granularity their use case requires.

Roblox received 2 patents, both addressing how persistent virtual environments are managed and moderated. The first covers an automated abuse reporting system that uses ray-casting from avatar bounding boxes to the virtual camera's near-clip plane to determine which avatars are actually visible on screen, then captures a 2D image of the 3D scene and generates selectable overlays over those avatars to simplify the reporting process. The second applies a concept similar to a video timeline scrubber to virtual worlds, letting users move backward or forward through a world's history by replaying stored event sequences to reconstruct what the environment looked like at any given moment.

A smaller entry in this set, Developer J LLC received 1 patent for a physical dice game product that connects to a digital companion through a QR code printed on the packaging. When scanned, the code gives players access to a rule engine that generates customized rulesets and scoresheets based on the number of players and specific game characteristics they enter. The physical product itself, described as stacked cups with a removable band and cover, functions as a complete unit that links directly to this digital layer without requiring a separately purchased rulebook or a standalone app download.

Sony received 1 patent for a system that overlays recordings of past gameplay sessions onto a live game as a visible ghost character, allowing players to race or compete against historical runs. The technology operates at the console or operating system level rather than inside any individual game, using video extraction and compositing to place the ghost on screen. Because it functions as a platform-level capability, it applies to any game regardless of whether that game was designed to support ghost playback natively.

Las Vegas Sands received 1 patent for a server-side validation system that detects cheating and bugs by replaying compressed logs of client actions to reconstruct and compare game states. The server uses the same code that runs on the client to process these action sequences at accelerated speeds, checking whether the resulting game states match what the client reported. Crucially, this replay happens asynchronously, so the validation process runs independently of the live session rather than interrupting it.