A multi-platform gaming system for amusing or entertaining one or more game participants playing a game on a gaming platform is described. The multi-platform gaming system can include collectible toys depicting or representing one or more game characters or objects relevant to a game adapted to be played on the gaming platform. The collectible toys can have associated therewith an RFID tag including a corresponding unique tag identification number. The RFID tag can include an antenna, integrated circuitry for wirelessly transmitting and receiving information to and from an associated RFID tag reader, and non-volatile programmable memory for storing game-relevant information describing skills, abilities or attributes associated with one of said game characters or objects.

Methods and apparatus provide for: receiving, at at least one game server, an execution request for execution of a game program from a user terminal over a network and, in response, loading and executing the game program, where the execution request is associated with a play point in a video that shows previously played content of the game program; transmitting the video, by way of at least one of the at least one game server and at least one video server, to the user terminal over the network, where the video is displayed to a user of the user terminal and the execution request is initiated by the user; obtaining, at the at least one game server, certain game situation data that is identified based on the play point associated with the execution request, from a storage unit that stores respective game situation data which indicate respective situations of the game program that are associated with respective play points in the video; starting executing the game program, by the at least one game server, from a situation that is indicated by the certain game situation data obtained; and transmitting game data to the user terminal over the network such that the user may enter into gameplay.

A play data storage section 22 stores a plurality of pieces of play data concerning the play situation of a plurality of pieces of contents. A library screen generating section 44 generates a selection screen which allows a user to select a piece of content to be played, and which includes images indicating the play situations for the plurality of pieces of contents, on the basis of the play data stored in the play data storage section 22. An output section 34 causes the selection screen generated by the library screen generating section 44 to be displayed.

Aspects of the present disclosure involve a system comprising a computer-readable storage medium storing at least one program and a method for providing a platform that facilitates communication between a messaging application and a web-based gaming application. The web-based gaming application is launched, via the platform, from the messaging application. Context of the messaging application from which the web-based gaming application was launched is determined. The context of the messaging application is communicated, via the platform, to the web-based gaming application. A feature of the messaging application is integrated, via the platform, into the web-based gaming application based on the context from which the web-based gaming application was launched.

Systems and methods directed to generating an interactive graphical marker that includes a first region with a first indicator and a second region with a second indicator, the second region being around a circumference of the first region. The systems and methods are also directed to monitoring an animation of the interactive graphical marker to detect when the first indicator and the second indicator are aligned at a predetermined angle of rotation, and in response to detecting that the first indicator and the second indicator are aligned, initiating an interactive game application on a second computing device and a third computing device.

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include (1) provisioning a cloud gaming environment with a plurality of containers that share a single operating system instance, (2) allocating each container within the plurality of containers to a corresponding user, (3) executing, concurrently, within each container within the plurality of containers a corresponding video game instance and (4) streaming, concurrently, from the cloud gaming environment, a video game instance from each container within the plurality of containers to a corresponding client system. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include identifying a video game configured to be available to stream from a server within a cloud gaming environment; pre-loading an instance of the video game on the server before receiving a request by a user to stream the video game to a client system; receiving the request by the user to stream the video game; and allocating the pre-loaded instance of the video game to the user for streaming to the client system in response to receiving the request by the user to stream the video game, thereby reducing a latency between the user submitting the request and the video game being ready for the user to stream. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include identifying a video game configured to be available to stream from within a cloud gaming environment; saving, to a cache, compiled shader information generated from executing an instance of the video game within the cloud gaming environment; receiving a request to load a new instance of the video game within the cloud gaming environment; and loading the new instance of the video game at least in part by reusing the compiled shader information from the cache. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include executing, by a server-side hosted environment, a first application non-native to the server-side hosted environment, the executing comprising virtualizing hardware for the server-side hosted environment that supports the execution of the first application in the server-side hosted environment, receiving, by the server-side hosted environment by way of a network, an input data stream from a second application executing on a computing device, processing, by the server-side hosted environment and by the first application while executing in the virtualized hardware, the input data stream, the processing generating an output data stream, and outputting, by the server-side hosted environment and to the computing device by way of the network, the output data stream for use by the second application. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include identifying a base virtualization environment on a cloud-based software distribution host. The method may also include assigning, based on an addressing scheme, a first internet protocol (IP) address to the base virtualization environment. The method may further include identifying a nested virtualization environment running in the base virtualization environment. The cloud-based software distribution host may serve an application running in the nested virtualization environment. Each of the base and nested virtualization environments may include an isolated application environment that virtualizes at least an operating system. The method may additionally include assigning, based on the addressing scheme, a second IP address to the nested virtualization environment distinct from the first IP address. The addressing scheme correlates the second IP address to the first IP address. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.