Patent ID: 8979647
Filing Date: 2015-03-17
Classification: A63F

Abstract:
1. In a gaming and media system having a user interface including a display and a user interface selection device, a method of allowing a user to find friends gaming and of allowing the user to download, launch and/or join a friend's game, the method comprising the steps of: (a) receiving an indication via a graphical user interface to view a list of friends of the user then currently gaming; (b) loading into local memory information relating to the user's friends then currently gaming and the games the friends are then currently playing; (c) displaying on a single graphical user interface on the display, without user interaction, a list of the user's friends then currently gaming, a list of the games the user's friends are playing and a separate graphical indicator for each of the user's friends in the list, indicating for each friend whether the game the user's friend is playing is joinable; (d) receiving a selection of a game a friend is playing; (e) determining whether the game selected in said step (d) is local to the user's system; (f) downloading the game to the user's system if it is determined in said step (e) that the selected game is not local to the user's system; (g) determining whether the game selected in said step (d) is joinable; (h) launching the selected game; and (i) joining, through interaction with the same graphical user interface displayed in said step (c), the selected game if it is determined in said step (g) that the selected game is joinable.