Microsoft Game Patents: Combo Console/Set-Top Box, Portable, More

After looking through the evidence suggesting that Apple might be creating a portable gaming device, or combination media and game player, I started wondering what Microsoft might be up to. IT turns out that there's evidence in patent applications and granted patents of a potential integrated game console/set-top box as well as hints of mobile gaming, including a portable gaming console.

Let's start with what might be the most predictable: something to more fully compete with the Wii. Patent 20080084385 allows a user to wear on the hand or wrist a device with gyroscopic sensors to convert movement into signals to a computer or gaming device. This patent sounds like it might tie in with Microsoft filing a trademark application for something that will be called the Magic Wand, and that "would allow users to turn on lights, crank up the heat, and possibly even play games with a flick of the wrist" and could incorporate any of a number of devices, including gyroscopes or accelerometers.

And then, patent application 20080227548, covering letting people gaming at consoles and on personal computers interact.

But some filings suggest a more ambitious plan: creating a truly unified game console and television set-top box. Patent 20080167128 is for watching television on a game console, while patent 20080167127 covers switching a gaming console between various media, including television, video, music, and games, and even use the console as a set-top box.

Clearly Microsoft has been interested in controlling the living room, and combining media, gaming, and set-top functions in a single device would make a great deal of sense. And there is that decade-old partnership with Cisco, which happens to be one of the big players in the set-top arena. But let's not stop in the living room. Microsoft goes toe to toe with both Sony and Nintendo, both of which have portable game consoles, and some of the patent snooping indicates a decided interest in, and development of, a portable game entry.

Patent application 20080242406, otherwise known as "Digital Game Distribution for Gaming Devices," would cover "systems and methods of providing digital game content to a portable game system." As the abstract says:

Two hurdles have contributed to the need to carry physical media for portable gaming systems. First, until recently, sufficient technology has been lacking to store and provide digital content to portable game systems. Second, until recently, there was a fairly high perceived risk of providing digital content to such portable game systems.

Perhaps this is just an issue of providing games for the portable consoles of others, as well as for smartphones, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Then there is application 20070191100, Game Builder for Mobile Device-Based Games, which seems more focused on a mobile phone, but still is thoroughly in the business of mobile gaming. It would allow developers to go to a web site, pick rule-based software units, and assemble them to create new titles. The units would be reusable for "the reuse and remixing of game components by the initial game creator, by members of an online community, and/or by any other member of the general public." Do-it-yourself gaming for mobile use. And the phrase "portable gaming console" has been turning up in one Microsoft patent after another as of late.

All this might help put into context the resurgence of rumors of a portable Xbox, though, to be fair, these have been popping up since 2006. But never before with the patent activity. For more details on this round, with speculation on a combination Xbox-Zune combined game and media device, check the TeamXbox site. Makes you wonder what twist the Microsoft-Apple ad wars might take.