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Microsoft Patents Friend-Based DLC Promotion System
by Chris Remo [PC, Console/PC]
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March 15, 2010
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Microsoft hopes upcoming games will encourage your friends to sell you downloadable game content, based on a system described in a recently-granted patent for an integrated DLC distribution system.
If implemented, the elaborately-named ATDDC, for "automated direct transaction and delivery system for digital content," would prompt users to purchase and download a particular piece of downloadable content if a friend sends an invitation to play a game that requires that DLC.
If the invitee chooses to purchase the DLC, he or she can remain in the multiplayer party while the content downloads, after which he or she can fully accept the invitation.
The patent stipulates that such a system could allow players to purchase not only post-release downloadable content for games, but also entire downloadable games, if a player is invited to a play a title he or she does not already own.
Microsoft filed for the patent in August 2008, and was granted United States patent number 20100056268 earlier this month.
The system described in the patent is not explicitly tied to any particular platform, although it makes mention of Xbox 360, Windows PCs, and Xbox Live as examples of potential hosts.
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I like the added feature.
It doesnt "encourage my friends to sell a game to me though. It is free.
Actually, I wish that Xbox would just add a capability that would help me and not charge me each time I use it.
I understand what you are saying. Kind of like a spawn copy of Warcraft 2 or Starcraft. You can install as many spawns as you want but they can only play in multiplayer LAN matches in which the person hosting the game has a legit copy in the disc drive.
It would be nice if more games had such a feature.
I don't really like the idea of playing a few rounds with my friends, and then not being able to continue unless I pay for DLC.
the first thing you say has nothing to do with it, its a different thing, mods its one thing and DLC its a different thing.
Well you cant right now either if your friend bought a DLC with lets say... a map pack and he start playing in those maps you cant play with him, if you want to play with him you have to buy those maps from the store and then go back to the game and play it, with this you dont have to leave the game to buy those maps you can buy them directly without leaving the game.
Patents exist for software designs and have for years. You may want to take a law course to learn about specific cases and the history of how the law has evolved in this area. Software designs are not merely ideas; they have specific structures and design features in much the same way as physical product designs.
That being said, we should not confuse copyright law with patent law. Even the courts have sometimes made this mistake, as well as even notable and outspoken scholars such as Larry Lessig.
Competition actually can be quite sinful, particularly if you are competing by stealing someone else's property. That's why the law is intended to balance out protection with competition. Otherwise, you wind up with people refusing to offer their innovations or creative endeavors to anyone else because there's no reason for them to do so when anyone can simply steal their ideas or properties.