Blizzard is trying to patent the Overwatch Play of the Game system according to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The patent was filed in December 2016.<\/b>
\nBlizzard makes Play of the Game difficult in their game, Overwatch, and now they are trying to make it difficult to achieve in other games. According to a recently published case at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Blizzard is attempting to patent the Overwatch Play of the Game system. The patent has not been granted but it has been listed as \u201cReady for Examination.\u201d Keep in mind that it could take years to get granted if it even goes through.
Blizzard originally filed the patent (enter the application number, \u201c15\/374523,\u201d in the search bar here) in December 2016 but it was published in June 2018. The abstract of the patent sounds specific but ultimately vague when considering how another system like this would be executed. If some other game were to implement a Play of the Game-like feature, it would most likely aggregate the winner in a similar way.
It outlines how a winner would be selected after a \u201cgame server records events that occur within a match of a video game\u201d then \u201cscores the events according to a plurality of criteria.\u201d It then \u201cselects a play of the game category and determines the top aggregated score for that category\u201d before it then finally \u201csends one or more instructions to the game clients which causes the game clients to display a replay of the events that occurred.\u201d
Essentially, the abstract states that if a game records the match, scores it based on certain actions, aggregates the points, picks a winner, and then shows it to the players, it would be violating the proposed patent. However, actual game mechanics are hard to patent, given that they could be considered \u201cabstract ideas.\u201d Borrowing ideas is not the same as borrowing the game\u2019s code, which is easier to codify as something worthy of protecting.
Bethesda suing Warner Bros. is a different story since they\u2019re alleging that Warner Bros. physically copied code from Fallout Shelter for their Westworld mobile game. Not only do they look alike, but Westworld has similar bugs and animations from Fallout Shelter, which helps bolster their case that actual code was stolen. Developer Behaviour Interactive developed Westworld and co-developed Fallout Shelter, giving more credence to Bethesda\u2019s claims.
The patent also gives light on how Blizzard might be trying to enhance the Overwatch Play of the Game system. The document lists the ability to highlight players, adjust clip speed, apply filters, insert an intro, and add \u201ctextual or graphical overlays to the video clip.\u201d Blizzard has only briefly talked about their plans for Play of the Game 2.0, which vaguely included these listed camera tricks, but hasn\u2019t said much as of late.<\/p>\n

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