EA’s Patent Pledge

 

Electronic Arts, a global game company, 

Electronic Arts (EA) is a gaming company founded by Trip Hawkins, former director of marketing and strategy at Apple. It has become one of the top 100 companies on the Nasdaq by succeeding in various sports games, The Sims, and many games such as Apex Legends. EA has made various efforts to make a positive impact through games. This time, they disclosed their patents so that people with disabilities can enjoy the game.

▲ ea.com (electronic arts homepage)

 

 What is a Patent Pledge?

EA declared a patent pledge last month to allow all developers to use its five patents. A patent pledge is to allow others to use the patented technology, but retain its rights. They can claim their rights if it’s used in a different way from what they want. EA has made this pledge to ensure that there are no barriers to playing the game for players with disabilities or medical problems. The patent-related code can be used by anyone in the world through the sharing site GitHub.

 ▲ clipartkorea.co.kr

 

 Five patents published by EA,

The patents disclosed by EA this time are five technologies that help improve accessibility. Among them, the most eye-catching patent is a context-aware communication system in video games (US 11097189). This patent is a system that replaces speech suitable for the situation with a simple operation even in a situation where speech is not possible. In Apex Legends, it is called the ping system, and it has been well received by using this technology to communicate without problems. In addition to this, a total of five patents were disclosed, including a patent for helping people with hearing problems (US 10790919), a patent for helping color blindness (US 10118097, CN 107694092), and a patent for controlling the contrast ratio (US 10878540).

                                                                 ▲ wipsglobal.com

 US patent 11097189,  titled "Contextually aware communications system in video games"

EA's dream that a variety of people should enjoy the game,

EA said that it is essential to meet the needs of a wide variety of people beyond the game, and to this end, it will continue to make a patent pledge. He also hopes that other developers will apply this technology to build a better environment. We look forward to seeing if EA's dream of enjoying games for everyone will come true.