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Two new Sony patents appeared today: digital in-game item trading and gameplay resuming across devices via the cloud

Shin

Banned
United States Patent10,238,958 Inagaki March 26, 2019

Tangible tradable collectibles having a digital copy

Abstract
Tradable physical collectible objects are described. In particular, systems and methods for using the tradable physical collectible objects facilitate generation of a digital copy that can be used within a network game. A user can use the digital copy and perform various modifications to the digital copy. A value can be determined for the digital copy based on the various modifications. At a later date, the user (e.g., owner) is free to give away, sell or trade the digital copy to another party in transaction with terms based on, for example, the determined value of the digital copy.

Inventors: Inagaki; Ken (Foster City, CA)Applicant:
SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA LLC
Assignee: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA LLC (San Mateo, CA)
Family ID: 1000003909808Appl. No.: 14/729,274Filed: June 3, 2015

United States Patent10,238,965 Colenbrander March 26, 2019

Cloud gaming device handover

Abstract
Methods and systems to identify options of secondary client devices for a device handover of game play include establishing a session of game play of a game for a primary client device by executing the game on a server for streaming video frames to the primary client device. A request is received to generate a profile of one or more secondary client devices that are identified to be local to the primary client device. The profile is configured to identify device attributes for the secondary client devices. A handover option is provided to the primary client device during game play, identifying one or more of the secondary client devices, based on the profile. A selection of a secondary client device identified by the handover option received from the primary client device causes pausing of the streaming of video frames to the primary client device, saving a game state for the game and providing an option to resume play of the game on the secondary client device. A resume request received from the secondary client device causes the game state for the game to be accessed and game play resumed so as to continue streaming video frames to the secondary client device.

Inventors: Colenbrander; Roelof Roderick (Costa Mesa, CA)Applicant:
Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC
Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (San Mateo, CA)
Family ID: 1000003902621Appl. No.: 15/141,799Filed: April 28, 2016

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Source: USPTO, Google patents
Credit: ResetEra
 
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TacosNSalsa

Member
This would be great...I have some digital games that I will NEVER touch again so if I get even $5 for it at least it's something
 

demigod

Member
Wow, Sony beat MS and Valve to the punch with digital trade ins? I'm guessing Google will have to pay Sony for the cloud patent now.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Nothing about that patent says "digital trade-ins" to me though. It sounds like they're trying to make something like Amiibo - you get a digital copy of a virtual item that coincides with your physical item, and the physical/digital item pair can be traded or sold down the line.

"Collectible Objects" probably doesn't mean "games" in this instance, and even if it did, it just means that Sony is planning on tying every physical game to a digital copy ie the way Xbox One crashed and burned.
 

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Arrogant Sony at it again.

No wonder there have been so many “I’m done with Sony” threads.

They pull this kind of shit.
<sarcasm>
 
MS was introducing digital trade-ins in 2013 before everyone lost their shit.

But this doesn't read like trade-ins for everything but rather allowing certain products to maintain value.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Posted already early hours in the morning, *look on Era*
Yep a bit late on that.
GAF>Internet>Era>GAF
 
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Shin

Banned
Nothing about that patent says "digital trade-ins" to me though.


Trading in a psychical copy of a action figure here for digital one wouldn't make sense...
Tradable physical collectible objects are described. In particular, systems and methods for using the tradable physical collectible objects facilitate generation of a digital copy that can be used within a network game. A user can use the digital copy and perform various modifications to the digital copy. A value can be determined for the digital copy based on the various modifications. At a later date, the user (e.g., owner) is free to give away, sell or trade the digital copy to another party in transaction with terms based on, for example, the determined value of the digital copy.

Posted already early hours in the morning, *look on Era*
Yep a bit late on that.
GAF>Internet>Era>GAF
Link to thread because search DB broke down months ago when the forum software got updated.
This is why even altering a thread title isn't advisable as it results in duplicates, my search came up empty.

EDIT: https://www.neogaf.com/threads/sony...having-a-digital-copy.1474138/#post-253891425
That's only one patent and it seems he posted something but doesn't really know what it's about as I quoted above, it wouldn't make sense to be about dolls...this should remain.
 
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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
I wonder is PSNow will handover the continued gameplay to more than just PCs and laptops. Will they push PSNow to phones and tablets.
 
Digital trade is something I’ve been waiting for, for a long time. If this is implemented fairly I could see myself endorsing digital versions of consoles next gen
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Trading in a psychical copy of a action figure here for digital one wouldn't make sense...

I think this kind of scenario makes sense: let's say you have something like Starlink: Battle for Atlas - where your ship, weapons, and pilot are all physical toys that you can use to interact with the game. Now let's say that these were all unique NFC chips which tied to a unique digital "version" of said weapon / ship / pilot that were tied to you account. As your ship levels up in-game those values are stored on Sony's servers (rather than something like Amiibo, where the level values are wrote back via NFC). Now if you sell that physical ship toy, it has more value ideally, because it's a higher level then the ones you can buy off the shelf.

That's my read on it, anyway.
 

makaveli60

Member
Please someone explain to me "digital trade-ins", because after all these years I still don't get it. If you purchase a game digitally you basically only purchase access to something that doesn't exist physically. Why would Sony (or anyone) give you anything for trading this back? Or do you think publishers will allow to just give this freely to your friend? What's the business in that? It can't even be cheaper than buying it from the publisher directly because it's exactly the same, not in worse condition or anything. Am I missing something?
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Please someone explain to me "digital trade-ins", because after all these years I still don't get it. If you purchase a game digitally you basically only purchase access to something that doesn't exist physically. Why would Sony (or anyone) give you anything for trading this back? Or do you think publishers will allow to just give this freely to your friend? What's the business in that? It can't even be cheaper than buying it from the publisher directly because it's exactly the same, not in worse condition or anything. Am I missing something?
I don't get it either, I think people think they have a right to trade in a digital item because they're use to trading in physical items
But theres no value to it so makes zero sense
Now someone will quote me and explain but it still don't make sense .
 
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NickFire

Member
My guess is that we will be able to gift / trade / trade-in games, while Sony will be reselling the license of any trade-ins to someone else. The last part sounds a bit slimy to me if true as between Sony and publishers, but if Sony gives us reasonable trade-in value I won't be arguing against it at all. I could care less if Sony makes a few extra bucks while giving me greater rights over the licenses.
 

meirl

Banned
Wow, Sony beat MS and Valve to the punch with digital trade ins? I'm guessing Google will have to pay Sony for the cloud patent now.
Lol

It’s a patent. Doesn’t mean it will be implemented. It could be YEARS away or even NEVER be implemented at all.
Keep your weapons at home, warrior.
 

Shin

Banned
It would be freakin' cool for a car game I'd reckon, this kinda reminds me of a auction house type of system in MMORG's where you can buy your gear.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
It would be freakin' cool for a car game I'd reckon, this kinda reminds me of a auction house type of system in MMORG's where you can buy your gear.

I imagine the particular emphasis was given to "physical collectibles" because otherwise you'd have huge amounts of precedent for other companies doing it. Diablo III's "real money auction house" comes to mind.

Something like a racing game would be pretty cool - you could have something like hot wheels cars that would unlock their in-game counterparts, and through this technology their servers would keep track of which races that car had been in / won.
 
There was mumblings a while back about Sony investigating a method for allowing gamers to sell or exchange their digital titles, using blockchain tech.

That would have me buying many more digital games. Right now, I stick with physical copies, in case I end up not enjoying the game as much as I intended to. I can then sell it (RDR2, Strange Brigade) or, if I enjoyed it and want to share it with friends and family, I can give or receive the disc (Detroit: Become Human).

There's no way to do this with digital games, so if I buy something I'm not fond of, I'm stuck with it. Being able to sell, loan, and exchange would be great.
 
I think jshackles sounds about right, my other read is something maybe Dreams related: you can scan physical objects in (how idk yet, maybe PS camera implementation?), and then you could give away or sell or whatever the digital version of the object in the game. So like if you wanted to be a prop tycoon you could create a ton of objects for Dreams and sell them in whatever marketplace they have coming.

Doesn't fit quite right, but seems like something that would be cool regardless.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
"Resuming via the cloud" is not much of a step beyond what you can already do on PS4 with Remote Play + Cloud save storage.

It sounds like they intend to make it far more seamless, though. Could be cool.
 

Iorv3th

Member
The trading sounds more like steam community market. Trade items obtained in game or sell them, or gift games/dlc?
 
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