Inventors:
Neil Young - San Francisco CA, US
Christopher Yates - Redwood Shores CA, US
Christopher McKibbin - San Francisco CA, US
Assignee:
Electronic Arts Inc. - Redwood City CA
International Classification:
G06F015/16, G06F019/00, G06F017/00, A63F013/00, A63F009/24
Abstract:
Systems, methods, and apparatus that provide an online gaming experience that is attractive to players and which provides an economic benefit to an application manufacturer or other party providing the online gaming system. In one embodiment, tokens are provided to players as currency to be used in the online gaming system of the present invention. The tokens may be issued for free, or they may issued for a fee associated with each token. In a further embodiment, an online currency account is maintained by the online gaming system for the players of the online gaming system. The players then submit a prize amount to be awarded the winner of the game. The prize amount is accompanied by a submission of the tokens necessary to comprise the prize amount. Alternatively, the online currency accounts for the players are debited by the corresponding amount. Each player may provide half of the prize amount, or any other percentage decided upon by the players (other percentages may reflect handicaps, etc.) or predefined by the online gaming system. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the tokens may be used to purchase goods online, either at a site hosted by the manager of the online gaming system or at other sites that have arrangements with the online gaming system manager to accept these tokens.