Loading screens have been the bane of a gamer’s existence for decades. Companies have been working to solve the problem for years and have made great strides. However, Electronic Arts may now be looking to evade the issue entirely.
Founded in 1982, EA has been a player in the gaming industry for years. The company has unfortunately acquired the reputation of being one of the most consumer un-friendly businesses the gaming industry has ever seen. In 2019 the company was at the receiving end of much controversy regarding its micro-transactions. In recent years EA has expanded to become one of the biggest gaming software companies in the world.
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EA has filed a patent, available for view on the US patent and trademarks office website, that was approved on February 16 this year. The patent suggests the company will use streaming technology to eliminate the booting wait time for new games. The patent works like so: A new user attempts to boot up a game they have never installed before, this request is received by an online server. The server then instantly streams the game directly to the user’s device. If the server determines that the resources available to the local device are sufficient to allow the user to simultaneously download a local copy of the streamed game, it will then initiate the download. Once this download is complete, the server then seamlessly transfers the control of the game from the streamed version available on the server, directly to the local device. This would allow for users to boot games instantly, without having to download or install them.
Patents are filed every day and rarely acted upon, so the likelihood that the gaming community will ever see this implemented is low. EA is also no stranger to filing patents. However, the introduction of a system that allows new users to instantly play a game could have an immense positive impact on the industry. Users would no longer have to wait before playing their new games. This reduces the likelihood a new user might lose interest in a larger game while downloading it, before ever playing it. It is easy to see why EA, a company with their hand in several MMOs would file a patent like this. Downloading times for MMORPGs can be especially brutal.
While overall the patent is exciting, its implementation could leave many users behind. The technology to allow this sort of streaming has existed for several years, but the demands of streaming a video game are high. The US and other countries with good internet connections may be in a place where this technology could benefit them. However, locations with poor connection speed like Australia and France, are unlikely to have the infrastructure to support the use of this patent.
Still, the technology is interesting, and it could see positive implementation across several countries.
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Source: USPTO