Patent ID: 8641529

Claim:
A method for providing a multiplayer game to a plurality of users, at least a portion of the game executing on a client device coupled to a network, comprising: (a) scheduling at least one multiplayer game event by a processor, the game event having a fixed start time and a fixed end time, said step (a) including the step of displaying a graphical user interface over a display for a user, the graphical user interface including a plurality of channels, and a plurality of time slots for multiplayer games scheduled on the plurality of channels, a friend channel of the plurality of channels displaying multiplayer game events scheduled by one or more friends of the user, the friend channel displaying a first time slot of the plurality of time slots, a first group of one or more friends of the user playing a game in the first time slot and one or more games the first group of friends are playing in the first time slot, and the friend channel displaying a second time slot of the plurality of time slots, a second group of one or more friends of the user playing a game in the second time slot and one or more games the second group of friends are playing in the second time slot, (b) receiving requests from users to participate in the multiplayer game event; (c) determining whether each of the users is eligible to participate in the multiplayer game by the processor based on when the users have selected to participate in the multiplayer game before the fixed start time; (d) providing instructions by the processor to one or more consoles to allow at least a subset of the plurality of users to participate in the game; (e) starting the game by the processor at the fixed start time; and (f) ending the game by the processor at the fixed end time.