Video game company, Electronic Arts (EA), is working on a technology to eliminate download times from games. According to a new patent, first spotted by GameRant, the company has devised a way for games to be streamed directly from EA’s servers before it is downloaded. The patent describes the creation of a “dynamic video game client” which allows users to start playing games right after they purchase them, instead of waiting for them to download fully on their devices, or reach the point in the download where they can start playing the game. It seems to be an implementation of game streaming platforms created by others, but doesn’t depend fully on streaming.
“Embodiments of the present application provide a phased streaming system and process using a dynamic video game client. The dynamic video game client can utilize a state stream game engine in combination with a game application streaming service to provide users with the ability to begin playing games quickly on a huge range of devices,” reads a description on the patent. It’s unclear what kind of Internet connections the company will need to enable this, but it stands to reason that low latency networks promised via 5G connectivity will make this the norm in the years to come. EA could piggy-back off existing game streaming services too, though that too, isn’t clear right now.
It’s worth noting that EA won’t be able to enable this on just any device. Hardware requirements aren’t clear right now, but there will be some for sure. “The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprises, based on a determination that the hardware computing resources of the user computing system satisfy requirements of third phase streaming, transferring assets to the user computing system to execute a second simulation engine on the user computing system,” the patent description reads.
The games will begin streaming off EA’s servers but eventually transfer full control to the users’ system. It’s likely that EA will enable this on both consoles and gaming PCs, as long as they clear certain hardware requirements. Ideally, consoles like the Xbox One Series S should serve as the basic requirement for features like this.
