USOO8663 O13B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 8,663,013 B2 Egozy et al. (45) Date of Patent: Mar. 4, 2014 (54) SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR (56) References Cited SIMULATING A ROCK BAND EXPERIENCE U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS (75) Inventors: Eran B. Egozy, Brookline, MA (US); D211,666 S 7/1968 MacGillavry Daniel Teasdale, Cambridge, MA (US); 3.430,530 A 3, 1969 Grind et al. Brian Thomas Stephens, Marblehead, D245,038 S 7, 1977 Ebata et al. MA (US); Daniel Schmidt, Somerville, (Continued) MA (US); John R. Eskew, Allston, MA (US); Rafael Baptista, Arlington, MA FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS (US); Kasson Crooker, Arlington, MA AU T41239 B2 11/2001 (US) DE 69726.507 T2 11/2004 (73) Assignee: Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., (Continued) Cambridge, MA (US) OTHER PUBLICATIONS (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this The International Search Report for International Application No. patent is extended or adjusted under 35 PCT/US2009/049943, Date of Mailing Nov. 17, 2009 (5 pages). U.S.C. 154(b) by 771 days. (Continued) (21) Appl. No.: 12/499,620 Primary Examiner — David L. Lewis Assistant Examiner — Robert Mosser (22) Filed: Jul. 8, 2009 (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm — Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP (65) Prior Publication Data (57) ABSTRACT US 201O/OOO9750 A1 Jan. 14, 2010 Described are methods, systems, apparatuses, computer pro gram products embodied in a computer-readable storage medium and means for providing online challenges between Related U.S. Application Data bands in a musical video game. Typically the invention is (60) Provisional application No. 61/079,094, filed on Jul. 8, executed on a game server in signal communication with a 2008. game platform and involves receiving, by the game server, musical game input data representing a musical performance (51) Int. Cl. of a band. Then, the game server calculates a composite score A63F 9/24 (2006.01) from the input databased on a gameplay challenge. 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