Microsoft patents Xbox Live upsell idea

By Robert Purchese Published 15 March, 2010

Detects, offers, sells, installs content.

Microsoft has been spotted patenting an idea to upsell Xbox Live content to Xbox 360 owners.

Snappily titled "Automated Direct Bids to Purchase Entertainment Content upon a Predetermined Event", this "automated direct transaction and delivery system for digital content provides for automated detection of missing digital content or resources required for a player or participant to participate in a multimedia application in either a single player or multiplayer environment is described," explained the patent (spotted by Broke My Controller).

In other words, if a friend invites you to play a racing game and you don't have a certain track installed, Xbox Live detects this and asks whether you'd like the content. From there, without changing screens, the system will take the money required, install the content and start your game. You'll be able to chat with your presumptuous friend all the while.

The patent was filed in 2008, apparently, but was only cleared earlier this month.

Xbox Live expands later this month with Game Room, a new virtual space where arcade cabinets can be bought and stored and Friends invited over to play.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (31) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • TeaFiend #1 2 years ago

    Pretty nifty idea, though not likely to be used much as people tend to discuss things first and have the DLC already.

  • Rirekon #2 2 years ago

    Clever

  • lunnytoon #3 2 years ago

    I can see this getting ugly.

    However, any retailer on the high street or insurance company's, banks all do this. This is just a digital equivelant. Lots of money is made from upselling.
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/10 @ 09:20

  • TeaFiend #4 2 years ago

    Biggest problem though, waiting for a 1.5gb download to quickly play 10min of a game.

  • systems #5 2 years ago

    They'll make a lot from impulse purchases with this. You'll get a few people pressing the wrong button too.

  • bad09 #6 2 years ago

    So now they are gonna hard sell DLC while you play a game? This gen has REALLY gone downhill in recent years. It started so full of wonder and joy to.

  • CaptainQuint #7 2 years ago

    It would be much more useful if you could buy and send (over XBL) MS points to someone else. A digital gift, so to speak.

  • photoboy #8 2 years ago

    Hmmm, surely Quake 3 has prior art on this? It automatically downloaded levels/models/textures/etc on the fly when it detected a player didn't have them. Or is the patent purely for *paid* content you don't have?
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/10 @ 09:23

  • Shikasama #9 2 years ago

    Great.

    I want a 360 pop up blocker

  • Spekingur #10 2 years ago

    I read the title and I thought it was about gamers being able to buy and sell digital content to each other.

    Hope it only deals with "one track" rather than "the full package" due to package storage sizes, as TeaFiend pointed out.

  • icematt12 #11 2 years ago

    Can the user choose not to have this feature though?

  • wizlon #12 2 years ago

    Down with software patents!!

  • teabagger #13 2 years ago

    A patent for this? Really?

  • Skandalle #14 2 years ago

    I have Microsoft Words little paperclip guy in my head "Looks like your trying to play a map you don't have!" ....hopefully there's a function to burn it with fire.

  • Burkey123 #15 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint

    I'm fairly sure the Wii has a gift option for Virtual Console and Wiiware titles. As long as you have enough wii points in your account, you can send any title to a friend(you must have swapped friend codes obviously).

  • callum9999 #16 2 years ago

    Whoever keeps granting patents for stupid things like this needs to be fired.

  • sneetch #17 2 years ago

    Why don't you stop reading them, EarlBassett? You know EG produce these kinds of articles all the time, the title gives a pretty good indication of the type of article and you still complain about every (or damn near every) one, would you spend ages complaining that a leopard has spots and expect him to change them? This is news. Not news you're interested in but still news.

    I dare say they're not the first to do this though, Steam does something similar with full games already.

  • optimusprym8 #18 2 years ago

    I wish they'd work on implementing the ability to purchase points / XBLA games and then gift them to friends

  • Eraser #19 2 years ago

    lol, back in the days of Quake 3 we simply did:
    \cl_allowdownload 1
    and we got all the maps we needed for free!

  • Rubarack #20 2 years ago

    Hmm, I think software patents are generally pretty shabby limiting development by developers "land grabbing" obvious ideas no-one else has gotten round to implementing.

    But if MS are actually restricting this crap with this patent then more power to them!

  • jot027 #21 2 years ago

    They need to be careful. I understand the need to monetise the DLC market and to recover 'lost' second hand sales through premium content, but the consumer can easily vote with their wallets and apathy, but that didn't stop people from buying horse armour did it ?

    The paid for DLC market on consoles is still young and they are risking a backlash with all this heavy handed pushing of paid for content. I don't disagree with payment, but the prices for some things that were traditionally and historically free (on PC) or 'almost' free are getting out of control.

    All it will is a couple of high profile casualties and they risk damaging the users opinion and more importantly their 'spend' (eg. potentially the forthcoming MW2 map pack, $15/£10 for 5 maps, of which 2 are old and already owned by the users of COD4)

  • Gastrian #22 2 years ago

    I personally don't blame MS for patenting this idea, with the amount of patent trolls out there who don't even provide a working product as proof of concept. Of course the patent may specifically refer to an Xbox Live environment or Microsoft may not fully enforce it or even use it to open up technology in a "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" mentality.

  • kangarootoo #23 2 years ago

    This kind of seems like a good idea.

    I want to join a game, but I don't have some required content, so instead of quitting and coming back later I can get the content straight away.... or I can CHOOSE NOT TO (which some seem to be forgetting will always be an option).

    I'm not sure what is bad about that as a feature (I have no opinion on the patent aspect of things really).


    @EarlBassett

    "Because I like this site, I come here for 10 minutes of reading and am upset half the stories on offer are stirring for page-hits. "

    How about spend your ten minutes elsewhere then? I don't spend a quick 10 minutes reading the website of Bride magazine, and then complain to them that I don't like their articles, do I.

  • TitusCrow #24 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint Thats a great idea. And also over PSN too. sending gifts etc is one of the coolest things about steam. A few weeks a go me and an old friend had just linked up on PSN and were gonna play some games - but - we found we didnt have any of the same games.
    I suggested we buy a game so we could play it together but he was rooked and wasn't getting ant finances for 3-4 days so I looked for a way to buy us both cod2 but alas there was no option. So PSN lost out on 2 sales and we had to play the demo version of worms :/

  • GamerG #25 2 years ago

    wow you can patent anything cant you!

  • lukaz #26 2 years ago

    Prior art.
    Software patents aren't allowed in Europe!

  • patch #27 2 years ago

    I've seen a secret Microsoft document for the next step. They've got some complicated algorithms that run and analyze the games you have installed and if they identify one they think you'd like, it downloads in the background and you get a limited trial period for free. If you then want to keep it, you pay for it and just carry on playing.

    /may be bollocks.

  • Les #28 2 years ago

    "I want to join a game, but I don't have some required content, so instead of quitting and coming back later I can get the content straight away.... or I can CHOOSE NOT TO (which some seem to be forgetting will always be an option)."

    +1

    Don't really see why this is perceived negatively, other than that it might spur a publisher mentality of releasing ever more bare-bones standard SKUs and leveraging an infrastructure like this to sell additional content at a premium.
    Edited by 1 at 15/03/10 @ 15:37

  • sinelinden #29 2 years ago

    ADBPECPE - Now that's an acronym !

  • KDR_11k #30 2 years ago

    Wait, they patented an idea? That's against the law!

  • Diabeu #31 2 years ago

    good idea, don't know how it could be abused