Patent ID: 7357719

Claim:
A game system comprising a plurality of game devices, any one of said game devices capable of managing a transfer of game data between another one of said devices, wherein the respective game devices comprise: a game data storage device for storing game data usable in a game; a game data process executing mechanism to execute a game process using data stored in the game data storage device; a counter used to indicate elapsed time; a lending/borrowing period information setting mechanism to set lending/borrowing period information that is shared with another game device, said information used to determine a lending/borrowing period for lending/borrowing game data when a transfer of game data for a lending/borrowing operation of game data is initiated between game devices; a period expiration determining mechanism that monitors the counter and determines whether or not a lending/borrowing period is expired, based on lending/borrowing period information set by the lending/borrowing period information setting mechanism; and a game data use controlling mechanism that controls use of transferred game data within a game device, wherein a game data use controlling mechanism of a first game device, which is a game device which lends the game data, temporarily disables use of the game data in the first game device at a time of initiating a lending of the game data to a second game device, which is a game device which borrows the game data, and subsequently enables use of the game data in the first game device when a determination is made by the period expiration determining mechanism of the first game device that a set lending/borrowing period of the game data has expired, and further wherein a game data use controlling mechanism of the second game device temporarily enables use of borrowed game data in the second game device at a time of receiving lent game data from the first game device, and subsequently disables use of the game data in the second game device when a determination is made by the period expiration determining mechanism of the second game device that a set lending/borrowing period of the game data has expired.