Weekly Patent Digest

EA filed 2 patents this week, both aimed at multiplayer systems. The first describes a collusion detection method that scores every pair of opponents by combining social connection data with observed in-game behavior, then flags statistical outliers as suspected cheating pairs. The second patent covers a game-agnostic chat layer that reads live game state from 2 players simultaneously, even when they are on different platforms or playing different titles, and surfaces context-aware quick messages that are automatically translated and tied to active game functions.

Adeia also filed 2 patents, both of which put social graphs to work in unexpected places. The first turns a home console into a single-encoder game server for remote friends, streaming 1 video feed tuned to the worst connection in the group, routing invites through the publisher cloud, and substituting an AI player when someone's bandwidth collapses entirely. The second patent flips the loot drop on its head: rather than a random reward, the system identifies which friend is most likely to engage, scores which items that friend actually wants, and drops one of those items to the original player, creating a designed incentive to trade.

Nintendo's 1 patent this week addresses a persistent frustration in cooperative play. Personal mission progress carries over between co-op sessions and solo play, so a player's advancement is never tied to whether a party is assembled. The system layers bonus missions and paid mission rerolls on top of that progress framework.

Sony's 1 granted patent describes a controller-based authentication method. When a console needs to identify who is playing, the controller pings a nearby phone, receives a signal acknowledgment, retrieves the player's credential, and answers the console directly, removing the need for the player to interact with a login screen.

Riot Games filed 1 patent covering a mobile MOBA interface problem: how to communicate off-screen enemy positions on a small display without cluttering the view. A rule set governs when an icon appears for an enemy outside the visible area, and those icons are assembled from library components that carry identity, hit point, and directional information.

Sega's 1 patent describes a rewarded-ad system that measures how long a player waits before closing an advertisement, then uses that dwell time as a proxy for attention and scales the in-game reward accordingly. The longer the player watches before dismissing the ad, the larger the payout.

Tencent's 1 patent addresses mesh complexity in game scenes. The described method flattens a 3D object's mesh, constructs a bounding box patch model from it, and retopologizes the result to reduce surface counts while preserving detail that standard mesh decimation tends to remove. Trees and similar scene objects are cited as the target use case.

NetEase filed 1 patent covering touch camera controls for mobile top-down games, drawing a clear line between 2 types of input. Fast flings produce a buffered camera glide and trigger a game action, while slow, deliberate drags receive a compensating adjustment to keep the camera movement precise.

Kabam's 1 patent describes a recommendation and pricing system that adapts to the player's device. Touchscreen users receive swipe-based tasks, keyboard users receive chat prompts, and the prices attached to virtual item offers can shift depending on which hardware the player is using.

ArcadeBet's 1 patent covers a wagering system for video game matches that operates without any publisher API access. Players share their screens, OCR and a machine learning model analyze the frames to determine a winner, and a smart-contract escrow holds the funds until a dispute window closes before releasing the payout.

Truist Bank's 1 patent describes a prize pool mechanic built around fractional entries. Players contribute in-game earned resources to accumulate partial entries toward a large prize event, a third-party server supplies the random number that resolves each draw, and a winning partial entry receives a proportional share of the prize rather than the full amount.