A system and method for capturing and sharing console gaming data is described. Embodiments capture gameplay data directly at the gaming console, without the need for external hardware. This allows users to easily capture rich console gaming experiences and share them across a variety of outlets. In one embodiment, the methods described herein can be implemented with a patch or driver on the operating system of the user device, rendering it unnecessary to heavily modify the source code of the game.

A control program causing a computer to execute a competition between two players, based on a correction value obtained by correcting a reference value of at least one player of the two players, the two players respectively belonging to two groups, to store a point which may be determined based on the reference value of at least the one player, in a storage unit in association with a group to which the winning player belongs, and to determine a result of the competition between groups, based on the summation of points which may be stored in the storage unit in association with each group. In a case where a predetermined action is performed on the predetermined game content of the group to which at least the one player belongs, control may be performed to change the correction value of the player and not to change the reference value.

A control program causing a computer to execute a competition between two players, based on a correction value obtained by correcting a reference value of at least one player of the two players, the two players respectively belonging to two groups, to store a point which may be determined based on the reference value of at least the one player, in a storage unit in association with a group to which the winning player belongs, and to determine a result of the competition between groups, based on the summation of points which may be stored in the storage unit in association with each group. In a case where a predetermined action is performed on the predetermined game content of the group to which at least the one player belongs, control may be performed to change the correction value of the player and not to change the reference value.

A method for assisting game play. The method includes monitoring game play of the user playing a gaming application, wherein the user has a defined task to accomplish, wherein the task is associated with a task type. The method includes determining a task type proficiency rule for the task type based on results of a plurality of players taking on a plurality of tasks having the task type. The method includes determining a player proficiency score for accomplishing the task based on the task type proficiency rule. The method includes determining a user predictive rate of success in accomplishing the task based on the player proficiency score, the task type proficiency rule, and the task. The method includes determining a recommendation for the user based on the user predictive rate of success.

A method for assisting game play. The method includes monitoring game play of the user playing a gaming application, wherein the user has a defined task to accomplish, wherein the task is associated with a task type. The method includes determining a task type proficiency rule for the task type based on results of a plurality of players taking on a plurality of tasks having the task type. The method includes determining a player proficiency score for accomplishing the task based on the task type proficiency rule. The method includes determining a user predictive rate of success in accomplishing the task based on the player proficiency score, the task type proficiency rule, and the task. The method includes determining a recommendation for the user based on the user predictive rate of success.

Methods and systems for presenting an image of a user interacting with a video game includes providing images of a virtual reality (VR) scene of the video game for rendering on a display screen of a head mounted display (HMD). The images of the VR scene are generated as part of game play of the video game. An input provided at a user interface on the HMD received during game play is used to initiate a signal to pause the video game and to generate an activation signal to activate an image capturing device. The activation signal causes the image capturing device to capture an image of the user interacting in a physical space. The image of the user captured by the image capturing device during game play is associated with a portion of the video game that corresponds with a time when the image of the user was captured. The association causes the image of the user to be transmitted to the HMD for rendering on the display screen of the HMD.

Methods and systems for presenting an image of a user interacting with a video game includes providing images of a virtual reality (VR) scene of the video game for rendering on a display screen of a head mounted display (HMD). The images of the VR scene are generated as part of game play of the video game. An input provided at a user interface on the HMD received during game play is used to initiate a signal to pause the video game and to generate an activation signal to activate an image capturing device. The activation signal causes the image capturing device to capture an image of the user interacting in a physical space. The image of the user captured by the image capturing device during game play is associated with a portion of the video game that corresponds with a time when the image of the user was captured. The association causes the image of the user to be transmitted to the HMD for rendering on the display screen of the HMD.

The present invention relates to an application that is configured to be operated in a multi-participant environment on a computer network. The application manages participants in an online session of a multi-user application so that if one of the participants exits the session, the session can continue without interruption. The application initiates an online session of the multi-user application, wherein the online session includes two or more participants comprised of network computers that are communicatively linked to a computer network. If the application detects that a first participant has disconnected from the online session, wherein the first participant is responsible for managing certain managerial functionality associated with the running of the multi-user application, then the application broadcasts a notification to existing participants of the online session over the communication network, thereby notifying the existing participants that the first participant has disconnected from the online session. The initiating application then re-assigns the functionality associated with the first participant to an existing participant of the online session. The participants can be communicating in a peer-to-peer arrangement or can be performing server duties in a client-server arrangement.

Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for outputting web content. The apparatus and method can prevent rendering performance from being degraded in some operating systems when web content (web document) is output through a web browser.

A video server is configured to provide streaming video to players of computer games over a computing network. The video server can provided video of different games to different players simultaneously. This is accomplished by rendering several video streams in parallel using a single GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The output of the GPU is provided to graphics processing pipelines that are each associated with a specific client/player and are dynamically allocated as needed. A client qualifier may be used to assure that only clients capable of presenting the streaming video to a player at a minimum level of quality receive the video stream. Video frames provided by the video server optionally include overlays added to the output of the GPU. These overlays can include voice data received from another game player.