Electronic Ticket Virtual Vault for Game State Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile devices and other devices with limited storage capacity face challenges in managing and storing electronic gaming content, including user-generated data, as they cannot store all purchased content due to space constraints, leading to the loss of game state when discarding content, even if the user retains a license.
Innovation Solution
A virtual vault system utilizing an electronic ticket (e-ticket) to associate users with their assets, allowing content to be discarded while retaining the license, enabling later recovery of both content and user-generated state files by translating a title ID into a download protocol, thus providing flexible storage and retrieval services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If content is stored locally on mobile devices, then users can access and play games offline, but device storage capacity is quickly exhausted due to limited space
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides game content into two separate components: the game executable code (which can be streamed) and the save state data (which is stored locally in the e-ticket). This segmentation allows users to access games without storing complete game files, resolving the contradiction between offline access and storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary server that stores complete game content and provides it to users on-demand. The e-ticket acts as an intermediary credential that proves user entitlement without requiring the full game content to be stored locally, enabling offline access through cached essentials while maintaining storage efficiency.
2Quantity of substance
If users discard game content to free up storage space, then more content can be downloaded, but game state and progress are lost even if the user retains a license
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential game state information from the complete game content and stores it separately in the e-ticket. This extracted state data includes save points, progress markers, and achievement information. Users can discard the main game content while retaining this extracted state, allowing storage space recovery without losing game progress.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables users to discard game content with the confidence that game state can be recovered. The e-ticket serves as a recovery mechanism that preserves state information independently, allowing users to re-download or stream game content later and automatically restore their saved progress, thus resolving the fear of information loss.
3Ease of operation
If complete game content is downloaded to enable offline play, then users can play without internet connection, but download time and data usage increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of downloading complete game content, the system downloads only the essential portions needed for offline play: the game executable and the compact e-ticket containing state information. This partial action approach provides offline functionality while minimizing download time and data usage, resolving the contradiction between offline access and download time.
Data Source
AI summary
A game identifier of an encrypted streaming electronic game to be streamed to a playback device may be received. The game identifier may comprise a title of the encrypted streaming electronic game. An electronic ticket for access by the playback device to a secured portion of the encrypted streaming electronic game may be gathered. The electronic ticket may specify a first gameplay state. The electronic ticket may be used to access the secured portion of the encrypted streaming electronic game at the first gameplay state. One or more gameplay actions to transform the encrypted streaming electronic game to a second gameplay state may be received. The second gameplay state may be provided to a state server, where the state server configured to instruct a license server to modify the electronic ticket to specify the second gameplay state for the encrypted streaming electronic game.