Patent to bypass Twitch

I just got a US patent Bypass a game watching platform issued today 1 Feb 2022! The GWP refers mostly to Twitch, the pre-eminent platform for this. While the patent mostly is about gaming, it also applies to the Metaverse. (See the last section of this article.) Figure A shows a gamer Jill and a fan Bob. Jill plays a game, usually on a PC. There is a game server which runs the game. On Jill’s PC, she runs an app made by the GWP. The app copies screenshots of her game and sends these to a platform server. Bob is a fan of the game or of Jill specifically. He watches using his smartphone or a PC or laptop.

Bob is a customer of the GWP. It shows pop up ads to Bob. And it lets him buy a subscription to remove the ads. Jill is also a customer of the GWP. It pays her to keep playing because she brings fans like Bob to it. How much depends. Often this is calculated as a % of the ad revenue from her fans. A mooted figure is she gets 30%.

Fans might be able to make donations to Jill via a digital tip jar provided on the GWP. Typically she keeps all the tips.

Using this method. Twitch grew fat, reaching a valuation of $1 billion when it sold itself to Amazon.

Take a closer look at Figure A. To the game firm, the GWP is the middleman. The firm spends $millions yearly to make new elements in the game and to promote it. It makes money by…