Konami

Konami's 2 Monetization patents approach the challenge of player engagement and ad measurement from different angles. The first covers a system that lets players begin a training session without having the full stamina cost available upfront, spreading that cost across checkpoints during the session rather than collecting it all at the start. It also includes a sub-system that detects when a player is close to leveling up and borrows parameter headroom ahead of time to avoid frustrating interruptions at that moment. The second patent tackles Audio advertising quality, describing a method that calculates how likely a player actually heard an ad by weighing together factors like volume level, whether headphones are connected, whether the game was muted, how the ad volume compared to game Audio across specific frequency bands, and whether the player's screen activity suggested visual distraction. The result is a scored audibility metric that can be attached to an ad impression rather than simply recording that the ad played.

The single Game Mechanics patent filed in this period reimagines how adjacency works in a grid-based lottery game. In a standard bingo layout, the top and bottom squares in any given column are separated by every square between them, but this filing treats them as direct neighbors, effectively wrapping each column into a loop. That change in how the game counts connected squares alters the underlying probability of completing a line, giving players more paths to a win without requiring any visible change to the grid itself.