Lasse Penttinen
19 Aug 2004 12:04
Player league tables, voice communications, online gaming host services - Nintendo has been granted an U.S. patent covering all these key online gaming functions. The patents have been filed as early as April 1999.The two patents detail a "home video game system with hard disk drive and Internet access capability", but the second filing adds provision for "substantially real-time" online multi-player gaming, connection via an online gaming service, support for online "player performance data", using the connection to download information and do so securely through an authentication process, and the communication across the Net of "audio input signals".
Source: TheRegister