Application Interface for Tracking Player Identity

Abstract

Systems and method for providing a single sign in a gaming console that associates online activity that is out-of-game/cross game, and/or online activity that is in-game, and/or activity that is offline and in-game with that account. While online, a service tracks activity of gamers and provides usage statistics in a profile. While offline, the game console tracks the player's activity via a mechanism to collect detailed information about a specific player's in-game statistics and accomplishments. The offline activity is cached and uploaded when the console connects to the online service. Players can accumulate achievements offline that are credited towards online activities.

1 . Enacted in processor hardware of a multimedia device, a method to make achievements earned during previous offline game play creditable to a new online account, the method comprising:
 tracking a plurality of achievements accumulated during offline game play on the multimedia device by a gamer that does not have an online account;   establishing a network connection between the multimedia device and a remote service; and   transmitting data to the remote service with an effect of signing the player up for an online account in which the plurality of achievements accumulated during offline game play are credited to the online account.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising determining whether a gamer tag associated with the achievements accumulated during offline play is available online. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising, if the gamer tag is not available online, changing the gamer tag associated with the achievements so that the achievements are not lost. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising automatically signing the gamer into the new online account when a game boots on the multimedia device. 
     
     
         5 . Enacted in processor hardware of a server, a method to execute a service that restricts access to data contributed to an online gamer database by a gamer from a multimedia device, the server and service being remote from the multimedia device, the method comprising:
 upon establishing a network connection to the multimedia device, receiving an upload of achievements earned on the device, by a gamer, during offline game play, the achievements cached in local memory of the device when the device is offline;   updating an online profile of the gamer in the database with the achievements to reflect the offline game play; and   restricting access to information in the profile based on a privacy/opt-out setting for the profile.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the privacy/opt-out setting restricts access to gamer-presence information only to friends of the gamer. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the privacy/opt-out setting allows the achievements to be visible to all other gamers. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the online gamer database includes an interactive guide accessible to the multimedia device and to other game consoles, the method further comprising publishing the profile in the online gamer database. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the online gamer database includes profiles of other gamers and their achievements earned during execution of game applications. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the profile includes a gamer card, game achievements, and gamer preferences.