Method and system for an integrated platform wide party system within a multiplayer gaming environment

Abstract

A method and system for a platform wide party system that may be deployed in a multiplayer gaming environment. Players may associate themselves with one or more parties, wherein players within a party may choose to automatically exchange messages associated with changes in state of the players in a gaming environment. The party system exposes an API providing a plurality of function calls that may be integrated seamlessly with game play. A first player may indicate desired notification events to be received from a second player associated with the same party as the first player. Upon detection of a desired notification event on the video game console of the second player, an event notification may be communicated to a video game console of the first player causing an action to be performed on the first player's video game console. Actions may include event notifications via text and/or sound, which may be displayed to the first player while engaged in any game session and without requiring the first player to exit the current game session.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method for providing status information in a multiplayer gaming environment, the method comprising:
 receiving information indicative of a party relationship between a first player associated with a first video game console and a second player associated with a second video game console;   receiving event information indicative of an association of the first player and one or more notification events pertaining to a session behavior of the second player; and   in response to detecting that an event has occurred with respect to the second player:   determining whether the event is an event of the one or more notification events and sending a message indicative of the event to the first player while the first player is in a first game session and without cancelling or exiting the first game session and wherein the second player is in a second game session that is different from the first game session; and   wherein an event table is used to identify recipients who have subscribed to notification events, the event table accessed by a party event handler of the second video game console to determine the one or more notification events.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the notification events are requested via an application programming interface (API) configured to provide a plurality of function calls that are integrated with game play of the first and second video game consoles. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the message includes identifiers of the one or more notification events. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein in response to receipt of the message, an associated action is automatically performed on the first video game console. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the action is performed by parsing the message to determine an identifier of the event and calling an API function corresponding to the identifier. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the action corresponds to displaying the notifications on a graphical user interface provided by the first video game console, wherein the graphical user interface includes at least a game play pane and a message pane, wherein the game play pane displays game play information and the message is displayed in the message pane. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more notification events includes logging on of the second player to a game server. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more notification events includes an achievement for a video game. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more notification events includes an achievement of a particular level in a video game. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more notification events includes an installation of video game title. 
     
     
         11 . A system comprising a processor and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
 accessing information indicative of a party relationship between a first player associated with a first video game console and a second player associated with a second video game console;   accessing event information indicative of an association of the first player and one or more notification events pertaining to a session behavior of the second player; and   in response to detecting that an event has occurred with respect to the second player:
 determining whether the event is an event of the one or more notification events and sending a message indicative of the event to the first player while the first player is in a first game session and without interrupting the first game session and wherein the second player is in a second game session that is different from the first game session; 
   and   wherein an event table is used to identify recipients who have subscribed to notification events, the event table accessed by a party event handler of the second video game console to determine the one or more notification events.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the notification events are requested via an application programming interface (API) configured to provide a plurality of function calls that are integrated with game play of the first and second video game consoles. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the message includes identifiers of the one or more notification events. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising automatically performing an action on the first video game console of the associated first player in response to receipt of the message. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising parsing the message to determine the identifier and call an API function corresponding to the identifier. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the action corresponds to displaying a notification on a graphical user interface of the first video game console, wherein the graphical user interface includes at least a game play pane and a message pane, wherein the game play pane displays game play information and the message is displayed in the message pane. 
     
     
         17 . A computer readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
 determining a party relationship between a first player associated with a first video game console and a second player associated with a second video game console;   determining event information indicative of an association of the first player and one or more notification events pertaining to a session behavior of the second player; and   in response to detecting that an event has occurred with respect to the second player:   determining whether the event is an event of the one or more notification events and sending a message indicative of the event to the first player while the first player is in a first game session and wherein the second player is in a second game session that is different from the first game session; and   wherein an event table is used to identify recipients who have subscribed to notification events, the event table accessed by a party event handler of the second video game console to determine the one or more notification events.   
     
     
         18 . The machine readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the video game consoles are coupled to a network. 
     
     
         19 . The machine readable storage medium of  claim 18 , wherein alerting the associated first player of the event further comprises transmitting a message via the network to the first video game console of the associated first player, wherein the message includes an identifier of the desired notification event. 
     
     
         20 . The machine readable storage medium of  claim 19 , wherein an associated action is automatically performed on the first video game console in response to receipt of the message.