Microsoft has recently filed for a new patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, regarding Xbox Live and a new system for downloadable content to be purchased. This new automated system, regarded as “ATDDC” (Automated Transaction and Delivery of Digital Content) by Microsoft, would allow for Xbox Live users to automatically purchase and download new content right from a pop-up message within a certain game. I’ll explain it in better detail:
Basically how it works is if you and your friends are on Xbox Live and in a certain game, say Battlefield Bad Company 2, and one of your friends sends you a game invite to join in the action. However, you cannot join because they are playing on a new map that was released in a map pack as downloadable content, therefore you cannot join in the game, yet. You then get a message pop up that asks you if you would like to purchase and download the map pack, without having to quit the game and go to the marketplace to purchase it. Simply ‘Accept’ the request, and the map pack immediately begins to download and once completed, you can quickly go back to that game invite, and jump right into the action.
Currently, in order to join in a match that has new maps that an Xbox Live user doesn’t have, they first have to quit the game to go back to the dashboard, then locate it within the Xbox Live Marketplace, purchase the content, install the content, then try to re-find the inviting players or create their own game and send out invites to join in. If this patent lives up to what it claims to do, then this will be an added bonus for Xbox Live users as this would save a ton of time doing all that work, for something you can just ‘accept’ in the game and start playing on the new content within minutes, meaning more online gaming time and less time wasted on getting the same content.
You can view the Official Patent filed by Microsoft HERE
