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Microsoft was recently awarded a patent for a technology they invented back in 2002. Specifically, the feature provides for seamless drop-in, drop-out switching from single- to co-op play in squad-based shooters. The patent was originally filed with Brute Force artwork back on December 2, 2002 by James York of Austin, TX. Six and a half years later, and the patent issuance to Microsoft reads as follows: “A squad-based shooter video game allows players to dynamically join and leave the game, while that game is in progress, without the players having to save and restart the game. When a new player joins an in-progress game, a new squad member is allocated to the new player and the screen is split to present a viewing panel for the new player that depicts scenes from the perspective of the new squad member. When an existing player leaves the game, the screen is unsplit to remove the viewing panel for the exiting player and that player’s squad member becomes part of the squad being controlled by the remaining player(s).”
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