The Xbox One announcement was all about one thing – TV. It’s clear that Microsoft is positioning its next console as more than just a game machine, but it might be bringing some game elements to television broadcasts.
Gamesindustry.biz reports that Microsoft has recently applied for a patent that would hand out achievements to TV viewers. Similar to how achievements encourage players to complete specific objectives, TV achievements will be used to incentivize viewers to watch more content. Here’s the description:
“Television viewing tends to be a passive experience for a viewer, without many opportunities for the viewer to engage or have interactive experiences with the presented content. To increase interactive viewing and encourage a user to watch one or more particular items of video content, awards and achievements may be tied to those items of video content. Additionally, by tying the awards and achievements to particular items of video or advertising content, viewers may be encouraged to increase their viewership of the content, thus increasing advertising opportunities,”
Speaking of advertising opportunities, the patent application says the Xbox One may use Kinect to get viewers to interact with the program. One of the examples has the viewer holding up a particular object that may coincide with what’s on the screen. The TV show would then reward the viewer with an achievement for being a blind loyal consumer.
The most interesting part of the application is a little section that says TV achievements may not just be points that go towards a Gamerscore. Instead, Microsoft may offer users digital and physical rewards for watching shows and scanning in items.
For now, this is just a patent application. There’s no guarantee that this will show up on the Xbox One. That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it after Microsoft put so much emphasis on television at its unveiling event.