Electronic Arts pledges free use for five accessibility patents

Recently, Electronic Arts (EA) announced a patent pledge that gives other companies and developers free access to five of its current accessibility-related patents and technology. The company promised not to enforce against any party for infringing any of the listed patents. Instead, EA hopes to encourage “innovation” and build new features that make video games more inclusive on a much larger scale by opening up the patents. 

Electronic Arts (EA) is an American video game company founded in 1982. The company owns many popular and famous games, such as The Sims, SimCity, Apex Legends, Madden NFL and FIFA. Each of the games has more than 30 or 50 million sales volume. Significantly, esports involves FIFA and Apex Legends into the event list. Apex Legends has up to 1 billion players, and it is so popular that it has a Switch version.

Within the freely available patents, one of which grabs everyone’s attention -- Apex Legends’ ping system (patent No. US 11097189). The ping system in Apex Legends, which excellently allows players to make communication and teamwork quick and easy without hearing or speaking, has been praised both as an impressive alternative to voice chat and as a great accessibility feature for players with a variety of disabilities. 

The other patents include the technology widely used in the FIFA and Madden NFL. The innovations can automatically detect and modify colors (patent No. US 10118097 and CN 107694092) and contrast ratios (patent No. US 10878540) to improve gamers’ visibility with colorblindness and low vision. Furthermore, one of the patents relates to personalized sound technology, helping players with hearing issues by modifying or creating music based on their preferences (patent No. US 10790919).

The code of the mentioned technology is published on EA’s GitHub, and it is open to all developers. Thus, the developers can use it or adapt it for their games without spending the costs to research.

It is good that EA shares the patents for free use and aims to create an accessibility-increased gaming environment for players. However, it is not “unconditional” to use the listed patents. In the pledge, EA mentioned that it may terminate the promise for a specific party which files a patent infringement lawsuit or other patent proceedings against EA. We can see parts of EV’s ambition behind the announcement—to build a large game developer league and a community of shared interests.

Reference:

50. https://www.ea.com/commitments/positive-play/accessibility-patent-pledge
50. https://iknow.stpi.narl.org.tw/Post/Read.aspx?PostID=14562
50. https://www.polygon.com/22639469/apex-legends-electronic-arts-patent-pledge-accessibility-developers
50. https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/24/22638535/ea-accessibility-patent-pledge-apex-legends-ping-system
50. https://www.gamesradar.com/ea-secures-a-patent-for-the-apex-legends-ping-system-and-its-giving-it-away-for-free/
50. https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/apex-legends-ping-system-is-now-patent-free-for-accessibility
50. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/08/apex_legends_ping_system_now_patent-free_as_ea_announces_accessibility_pledge

Recently, Electronic Arts (EA) announced a patent pledge that gives other companies and developers free access to five of its current accessibility-related patents and technology. The company promised not to enforce against any party for infringing any of the listed patents. Instead, EA hopes to encourage “innovation” and build new features that make video games more inclusive on a much larger scale by opening up the patents. 

Electronic Arts (EA) is an American video game company founded in 1982. The company owns many popular and famous games, such as The Sims, SimCity, Apex Legends, Madden NFL and FIFA. Each of the games has more than 30 or 50 million sales volume. Significantly, esports involves FIFA and Apex Legends into the event list. Apex Legends has up to 1 billion players, and it is so popular that it has a Switch version.

Within the freely available patents, one of which grabs everyone’s attention -- Apex Legends’ ping system (patent No. US 11097189). The ping system in Apex Legends, which excellently allows players to make communication and teamwork quick and easy without hearing or speaking, has been praised both as an impressive alternative to voice chat and as a great accessibility feature for players with a variety of disabilities. 

The other patents include the technology widely used in the FIFA and Madden NFL. The innovations can automatically detect and modify colors (patent No. US 10118097 and CN 107694092) and contrast ratios (patent No. US 10878540) to improve gamers’ visibility with colorblindness and low vision. Furthermore, one of the patents relates to personalized sound technology, helping players with hearing issues by modifying or creating music based on their preferences (patent No. US 10790919).

The code of the mentioned technology is published on EA’s GitHub, and it is open to all developers. Thus, the developers can use it or adapt it for their games without spending the costs to research.

It is good that EA shares the patents for free use and aims to create an accessibility-increased gaming environment for players. However, it is not “unconditional” to use the listed patents. In the pledge, EA mentioned that it may terminate the promise for a specific party which files a patent infringement lawsuit or other patent proceedings against EA. We can see parts of EV’s ambition behind the announcement—to build a large game developer league and a community of shared interests.

Reference:

50. https://www.ea.com/commitments/positive-play/accessibility-patent-pledge
50. https://iknow.stpi.narl.org.tw/Post/Read.aspx?PostID=14562
50. https://www.polygon.com/22639469/apex-legends-electronic-arts-patent-pledge-accessibility-developers
50. https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/24/22638535/ea-accessibility-patent-pledge-apex-legends-ping-system
50. https://www.gamesradar.com/ea-secures-a-patent-for-the-apex-legends-ping-system-and-its-giving-it-away-for-free/
50. https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/apex-legends-ping-system-is-now-patent-free-for-accessibility
50. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/08/apex_legends_ping_system_now_patent-free_as_ea_announces_accessibility_pledge