EA Patents To Let Players Play As A Videographer In-Game To Record Gameplay

With the growing competition and content creation in video games, it has become increasingly necessary for a videographer role to participate during game sessions to record gameplay. Currently, the recording is done by users who capture the entire session’s footage and then skim and edit it to create content, making it difficult to achieve organic results. Thus, EA has published a new patent for a videographer mode to deal with the problem.

The patent dubbed “VIDEOGRAPHER MODE IN ONLINE GAMES” discusses a videographer role for users to participate in games to spectate and record footage amid in-game sessions. In other words, alongside players duking it out in an FPS title, videographers could be present in the middle of the round to record the footage. To clarify, it is best to imagine real-life videographers for common scenarios like movie recordings and the like.

[The system] may allow for one or more users to participate in an online game in a videographer mode that is separate from a player mode of players of the online game. For example, a user participating in videographer mode (also referred to hereinafter as a videographer) may capture the gameplay of one or more of the players (e.g., as images or videos).”

The videographer role can have separate and additional features, like a new GUI with features to assist the spectating and recording of the entry. For instance, the cameraman may have more control over the in-game camera to record the gameplay; the user could get to hover during the game session or use input controls to change the relative area of the camera perspective.

All these tools will allow the videographer to capture the footage more effectively than usual means. The videographer by EA can even take advantage of the players by having cameras attached to the characters.

For example, the camera perspective of the videographer may be movable in an orbit around the player using the videographer UI. In addition, or alternatively, the location of the camera perspective may be freely movable, with or without regard to the relative location of players of the online game.”

It is worth noting that the videographer cannot just rampage through the game sessions. The users may personally invite or authorize the new patented cameramen before they can capture the gameplay of the specific player or the whole session. The camera could be glued to a certain player after they have consented to the idea. Likewise, many limits could be added for videographers only to do specific tasks.

The videographers could also be included in the matchmaking process, so alongside both teams, there would be one or more cameramen to spectate and record gameplay. The videographers could even rank up with more points and grow in reputation. The factors include:

Player feedback or ratings, objective measures (e.g., completion of videographer tasks assigned by the game) or official scoring (e.g., scoring in managed competitions hosted by the game system).“

The users could also meet up and decide what to capture while spectating with videographers before the round starts. EA uses the example of its Skate franchise; it could feature a virtual area with players could meet and decide on the specifics before the videographer captures the footage during gameplay.

Currently, two teams usually play against each other, but capturing the content during the game can be a challenging experience. It requires external software by a player and a lot of editing after the title has ended. Hence, utilizing a videographer role for video games will make capturing content and spectating a much easier venture.

We can expect the videographer role to change Electronic Arts‘ multiplayer titles entirely. The videographers could also participate in Esports competitive titles, like Apex Legends, or focus on a player only to make content creation easier. With extra tools, the capturing of videos could be quicker.

EA has patented various enthralling ideas in the past, and it appears to be chasing some innovative goals for its games. For instance, the giant conglomerate recently secured a patent to automate the animation of in-game character models. It is also investigating methods to potentially ban players from partnering up with enemy teams during game sessions. Moreover, it could also add in-game challenges based on real-life situations.