EA Transfers Accessibility Patents Including Apex Legends Ping System

EA is distributing accessibility-related patents used in some of its biggest games, including Apex Legends’ popular Ping system, in the hope that they will be used and developed by other developers to help make them. more inclusive video games.

There are currently five patents covered by EA’s Patent Pledge, which requires EA to make pledged patents available for public use as well as a legally binding promise not to sue those who use patents. patents documented in the pledge.

One of those patents, “Contextual Communication Systems”, is the Ping system used in Apex Legends. Revolutionary when Apex Legends was released, it allows players to communicate better in the game without the need for text or voice communication, making the game more accessible. The ping system has since been emulated by many other shooters since, including Call of Duty: Warzone.

Three other patents involve making games more accessible to players with vision problems by “automatically detecting and modifying colors, brightness and contrast in the game to improve the visibility of objects with similar brightness”. These vision-related patents have been used in games like Madden and FIFA.

A fifth patent relates to technology which EA notes it has not yet developed, but which would be used to “generate personalized music based on a user’s auditory information and stylistic preferences in order to better respond to problems. user’s hearing “.

EA says it plans to add more accessibility-related patents to Engagement in the future while looking to identify other potential technologies that it could make open source.

Chris Bruzzo, executive vice president of positive gaming, business and marketing at EA, said in a press release that EA’s mission is to “inspire the world to play,” but it can only be done if video games are more accessible for all gamers.

“We hope developers get the most out of these patents and encourage those with the resources, innovation and creativity to do like us by making their own commitments that put accessibility first,” said Bruzzo. “We welcome collaboration with others on how we move the industry forward together.

Accessibility options have become increasingly important features to include in games. Games like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart ensured that enabling accessibility options would have no effect on collecting the game’s trophies, and Last of Us Part 2 offered a particularly robust set of tools for the game. accessibility that the player could activate.