JP2015225628A - Information processor, program and information processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processor which executes processing for making a user play a game.SOLUTION: An information processor comprises: first download means 110 which downloads a first application via a network before distribution of a game; first installation means 120 which performs processing of installing the first application; icon display means 130 which displays a first icon for executing the first application including information on the game on a display screen that can display a plurality of icons; reception means 140 which receives an instruction on the first icon; and execution means 150 which executes processing for making a user play the game when the reception means receives the instruction on the first icon displayed on the display screen after distribution of the game.

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for controlling distribution of a game provided via a network.

Currently, companies that provide online games such as social games (that is, game operators) may take the following methods to acquire users who play the game after the game is distributed before the game is distributed. .
First, the game operator obtains user contact information (for example, e-mail address, SNS account, etc.) via a specific registration site. Next, the game operator sends information related to the game (for example, advertisement) before the game distribution to the contact information of the user who has obtained the notification, and the user plays the game after the game distribution. Information necessary for starting (for example, a URL for distributing a game, a URL for uploading a game application, etc.) is transmitted.
Such a method is sometimes referred to as pre-registration (or advance reservation). There exists patent document 1 as an example of the technique relevant to a prior registration.

JP 2014-48832 A

However, in the above method, the user may not notice that the game is distributed after the game is distributed, or may forget to start playing the game. For example, users who regularly send and receive many emails and messages may overlook emails and messages from game operators, not knowing that the game has been delivered, and not playing the game. There is. For example, a user who has once seen an email or message and then started playing the game may forget that he / she has seen the email or message and may not start playing the game. .
An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems, and to provide a mechanism that allows a user who is interested in the game before distributing the game to play the game without forgetting it after distributing the game.

One embodiment of the present invention provides:
A first download means for downloading a first application via a network before distributing the game;
First installation means for performing processing for installing the first application in an information processing device in order to make the first application downloaded by the first download means executable;
Icon display for displaying on the display screen capable of displaying a plurality of icons an icon for executing the first application installed by the first installation means and including information relating to the game Means,
An accepting means for accepting an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means, and an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the accepting means after distribution of the game An execution means for executing processing for causing the user to play the game;
Is an information processing apparatus.

  In the information processing apparatus, the icon display means updates the first icon to a second icon after the process for causing the user to play the game is executed by the execution means and displays the icon on the display screen. It may be displayed.

In the information processing apparatus, the receiving unit receives an instruction for the second icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display unit,
The execution unit may execute the process related to the game when receiving an instruction for the second icon displayed on the display screen by the reception unit.

In the information processing apparatus, the execution unit causes the first application to execute processing for specifying information on an upload destination of a second application capable of executing the game in order to cause the user to play the game. Is,
Second download means for downloading the second application based on the upload destination information specified by the execution means;
A second installation unit that performs a process of installing the second application in an information processing device in order to make the second application downloaded by the second download unit executable;
The second installation means makes the second application executable by a process of updating the first application to the second application,
The icon display means updates the second icon for executing the second application installed by the second installation means from the first icon and displays it on the display screen,
The accepting means accepts an instruction for the second icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means,
The execution unit may cause the second application to execute a process related to the game when the reception unit receives an instruction for the second icon.

The information processing apparatus includes:
Second acquisition means for acquiring information relating to the delivery time of the game;
The information processing apparatus may further include distribution time display means for displaying information indicating the distribution time of the game using the information related to the distribution time of the game acquired by the second acquisition means.

  In the information processing apparatus, the distribution time display means uses the information related to the game distribution time acquired by the second acquisition means to indicate information indicating that the game distribution time has been changed. It may be displayed.

  In the information processing apparatus, the distribution time display means displays information indicating that the distribution of the game has started using information on the distribution time of the game acquired by the second acquisition means. Also good.

  In the information processing apparatus, the distribution time display unit may display information to be displayed by including the information in the first object.

  In the information processing apparatus, the information displayed by the distribution time display unit may be any of text, color, pattern, or mark.

The figure which shows the basic composition of the information processing system of 1st Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the structure of the user terminal of 1st Embodiment. The block diagram which shows the structure of the registration server of 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows the structural example of the user registration data table of 1st Embodiment. The top view of the user terminal containing an example of the display screen of a user terminal. The figure explaining the flow of the user registration before the delivery of a game in the information processing system of 1st Embodiment. The figure explaining the example of execution of a user registration application in the information processing system of a 1st embodiment. The figure explaining an example of the flow until it will be in the state which can execute a game application after the delivery of a game in the information processing system of 1st Embodiment. The figure which shows the example of a display of a user terminal when a game application is performed after the delivery of a game in the information processing system of 1st Embodiment. The functional block diagram of the user terminal of embodiment. The sequence chart which shows an example of the user registration process of 1st Embodiment. The sequence chart which shows an example of the user registration process of 1st Embodiment. The sequence chart which shows a process when the user registration application of 1st Embodiment is performed. The sequence chart which shows an example of the process which makes a game executable state after delivery of a game in 1st Embodiment. The sequence chart which shows an example of the process which makes a game executable state after delivery of a game in 1st Embodiment. The sequence chart which shows an example of a process when starting a game application after delivery of a game in 1st Embodiment. The sequence chart which shows an example of a process when starting a game application after delivery of a game in 1st Embodiment. The figure explaining the modification of the flow until it will be in the state which can run a game application after the delivery of a game in the information processing system of 1st Embodiment. The figure explaining another modification of the flow until it will be in the state which can execute a game application after the delivery of a game in the information processing system of 1st Embodiment. The figure explaining another modification of the flow until it will be in the state which can execute a game application after the delivery of a game in the information processing system of 1st Embodiment. The sequence chart which shows the modification of a process when the user registration application of 1st Embodiment is performed. The figure explaining an example of the display change of the icon of the user registration application before the delivery of a game in the information processing system of 2nd Embodiment. The figure explaining an example of the change of the display of the icon of the user registration application before and after the delivery of a game in the information processing system of the second embodiment. In the information processing system of 2nd Embodiment, the sequence chart which shows an example of the update process of the display of the icon of a user registration application before delivery of a game. The figure which shows an example of the display change of the icon of a user registration application by the user performing the user registration application in the modification of 2nd Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the display change of the icon of a user registration application by the user performing the user registration application in the modification of 2nd Embodiment. The figure which shows an example of the image displayed when the user registration application is performed in the modification of 2nd Embodiment.

The “game” referred to in the present invention is intended for a game that can be played by the user after the start of distribution, and is, so to speak, an official game or a main game. Such a “game” (hereinafter referred to as “official game”). ")" Is assumed to have various forms described below.
The official version game may be a variety of games (for example, a puzzle game, an RPG game, an action game, a shooting game, etc.) composed of a single rule.
The official version game may include a plurality of subgames each having different rules. Examples of sub games include “quest”, “battle”, “lottery”, “composition of objects such as cards”, and the like. In the field of social games, it is widely known that these sub-games are combined and provided as one official version game. For example, by “lottery”, a game character (an object such as a card) used in a game can be obtained using a game point. Further, for example, by “combining objects such as cards”, it is possible to cultivate one game character by combining a plurality of obtained game characters using game points. Raising the game character's parameters such as attack power and defense power increases. Also, for example, the game character of another user is played against the game character of another user by “battle”, and the game point is obtained. Also, for example, the game character and the CPU character are matched against each other by “Quest” to obtain game points. Each subgame has elements related to each other, and the entire game can be advanced by performing each subgame. However, which subgame is to be played is user's preference. For example, the user can play “quest”, “lottery”, “composition of objects such as cards” but not “battle”. . In the field of social games, a company that provides a game distributes a game including a plurality of subgames as a single work as an official game, and a user plays a favorite subgame from each subgame. Such is generally done.
-The official version game includes games that are played in a limited manner within a specific game (for example, event-style games held for a limited time, games that can be played when a predetermined condition is met, etc.) May be. Examples of games that can be played when a predetermined condition is satisfied include games such as stages and parts that can be played when a certain level is reached in the game (in this case, the official version game is included in one game) And a game that becomes playable when a team is formed with another user (for example, a guild battle game, a raid boss battle that plays against a common boss, etc.).
The official version game may be an online game, an offline game, or a game in which online and offline are mixed.
The official version game may be a game played by one user, or may be a game (multiplayer game) performed between a plurality of users.

On the other hand, before the distribution of the official version game starts, there is a case where the user can have an opportunity to play the game from a registration server, for example. A game that can be executed before the start of distribution of the official version game (hereinafter referred to as “pre-distribution game”) may differ from the official version game in any of the following points.
-The pre-delivery game may be a game that follows different rules from the official game. In that case, when a plurality of rules are provided in the official version game, the pre-distribution game may be a game that complies with all of the plurality of rules or at least a part of the rules.
-The pre-distribution game may be a game that follows the same rules as the official version game, or may be a game that is restricted in advancing the game with respect to the official version game. For example, the pre-delivery game may be restricted so that it can be played only up to the first stage of the official version. When the official version game includes multiple subgames (puzzles, quests, battles, lotteries, etc.) each consisting of different rules, the pre-delivery game cannot execute at least one of the subgames You may be restricted.
-A pre-distribution game is a game in which data relating to the execution result or execution history of a user's game is not recorded in an information processing device such as a user terminal or a server even if the game follows the same rules as the official game Also good.

In the “before game distribution” referred to in the present invention, the “game” is the above-mentioned official version game, and the period before the game distribution is appropriately defined according to the form of the official version game. For example, if the “official game” is a limited-time event-style game that is performed in a specific game, “before game delivery” means “before event-style game delivery”. means.
“Before game distribution” is assumed to be in various forms described in (A) to (C) below.

(A) “Before game distribution” may be “before information processing related to the game can be performed by the server”. For example, this is the case of either (Ai) or (A-ii) below.
(Ai) Before an application for running the official game is uploaded to the network
(A-ii) Before the server starts sending data related to the official game to the user terminal
(A-iii) Before the server records user data about the official game

(B) “Before game distribution” may be “before the game can be advanced based on the user's operation”. For example, this is the case of (Bi) below.
(Bi) For example, when an official game application is uploaded on the network but the game cannot progress (for example, the application is configured so that the game cannot progress), Before it can proceed

(C) “Before game distribution” may be “before the game can be executed without restriction based on the user's operation”. For example, this is the case of either (Ci) or (C-ii) below.
(Ci) When the official version game includes a plurality of sub-games each having different rules, before the sub-games of all the sub-games become executable, or within the plurality of sub-games, a specific sub-game Before the game can be executed In this case, the “specific subgame” is a subgame using data associated with another user (for example, a battle with another user, a cooperative battle with another user, Alternatively, it may be exchange of items with other users).
(C-ii) Before the billing service becomes available to the user when the billing service (or sub-game) for which the official version game is used for a fee and the no-charge service for free use are included In this case, examples of the “billing service” include acquisition of a “lottery” opportunity by charging and acquisition of paid game points.

  In the following embodiments, a case where the “game” referred to in the present invention (that is, the official version game described above) is a game K will be described as an example. In the drawing notation, “application” may be abbreviated as “application” as appropriate. An icon for executing an application is referred to as an “application icon”. The “icon” is an image that allows the user to identify the application, and is configured by an illustration, a character string, or the like indicating the type, content, function, and the like of the application. Further, the “icon” also serves as an instruction target for the user to execute the application.

(1) First Embodiment (1-1) Configuration of Information Processing System Hereinafter, as an embodiment of an information processing system, a system related to a game played in a native application format will be described as an example. A game in the native application format can be executed when a user terminal downloads a game application from a server and the game application is installed in the user terminal.
In the present embodiment, a game K is considered as an example of a game for which distribution is newly started. In the information processing system of the present embodiment, user registration is performed before the game K distribution time (hereinafter referred to as “distribution start time”). In the present embodiment, “user registration” refers to recording a user account in a registration server described later. In the following, a case where a user ID is recorded in the registration server 30 as an example of a user account will be described.

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration example of an information processing system 1 according to the embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing system 1 includes user terminals 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,..., A registration server 30, and an application server 50. Each server can be accessed from each user terminal 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,... Through a communication network N such as the Internet, a LAN, or a dedicated line.
Each of the user terminals 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,... Is a terminal operated by an individual user, for example, a communication terminal such as a smartphone, a tablet-type terminal, or a portable game machine with a communication function. . Each of the user terminals 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,... Is an example of an information processing apparatus, and can access the registration server 30 and the application server 50. In the user terminal 10, each application is executed on the operating system (hereinafter referred to as OS) running on the user terminal 10 based on a user operation.
In the following description, when referring to the user terminals 10-1, 10-2, 10-3,. When referring to the registration server 30 and the application server 50 in common, they are simply expressed as a server.

The registration server 30 is a server managed by a game operator such as a company that distributes games, and performs user registration as a game application user of the game K before distribution of the game K. The registration server 30 is also set with a game K distribution start time.
A registration guidance site is operated by the registration server 30. When there is an access request from the user terminal 10 to the registration guidance site, URL information (hereinafter simply referred to as “URL”) for downloading a user registration application described later is provided to the user terminal 10. The user terminal 10 can download the user registration application based on the URL.
The registration server 30 also performs user registration processing in response to a user registration request from a user registration application installed in the user terminal 10. The user registration process is a process for recording a user ID as a user account. The registration server 30 performs a login process and a process of transmitting information related to the game K distribution start time to the user terminal 10 in response to a login request from the user registration application.
The registration server 30 is implemented with a program (hereinafter referred to as “server program”) for performing HTTP communication with the user terminal 10 and executing each process in response to a request from the user terminal 10. Note that the function of providing the user terminal 10 with a URL for downloading the user registration application may not be included in the function realized by the server program. The user terminal 10 can acquire the URL from a site other than the registration guidance site operated by the registration server 30.
The registration server 30 may function as a game server for the game K after the game K distribution start time.

  In the application server 50, an application distribution site is operated, and various registered applications are stored. For example, the game application is registered (that is, uploaded) at the application distribution site in response to a request from the game operator, and can be distributed to the user terminal 10 of the user. That is, based on the download request from the user terminal 10 that has specified any application among the applications registered in the application distribution site, the application server 50 sends the specified application to the requesting user terminal 10. Send. As a result, the designated application is downloaded to the user terminal 10.

In the application server 50, the user registration application and the game application of the game K are applications (hereinafter referred to as “application ID”) associated with the same identification information (information for identifying the application; hereinafter referred to as “application ID”). Registered as “game K application”). That is, each application is a game K application application having different version information.
Below, the case where the version information of each application is as follows is demonstrated as an example.
“User registration application” is an application of version information “ver.1” of “game K application”.
“Game application of game K” is an application of version information “ver.2” of “application for game K”. In the following description, “game application of game K” may be simply abbreviated as “game application”.

  If the game application for game K is registered in the application distribution site after the user registration application has been registered in the application distribution site, the user registration application may be deleted from the application distribution site or may be left behind. Good.

  An example of the user terminal 10 of the present embodiment is a smartphone or a tablet-type terminal, and there are various types of OSs installed in these terminals. Currently, “iOS (registered) provided by US Apple Inc. Trademark) ”and“ Android (registered trademark) ”provided by Google Inc. in the United States are widely known. The application distribution site for “iOS” is widely known as “App store”, and the application distribution site for “Android” is widely known as “Google Play”. These sites are examples of application distribution sites operated by the application server 50 of the present embodiment.

(1-2) Configuration of user terminal
The user terminal 10 will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the user terminal 10 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, an operation input unit 15, a display unit 16, a communication interface unit 17, and a storage 18, and receives control signals or data signals between the units. A bus 19 for transmission is provided.

The CPU 11 reads out programs and data stored in the ROM 12 and controls the overall operation in the user terminal 10 such as control signals for each part of the user terminal 10 and timing processing of data signals. The RAM 13 is a main storage device of the CPU 11.
The storage 18 is a storage device configured by, for example, a flash memory or a hard disk, and stores programs and data such as an OS, a web browser, and an application. The data stored in the storage 18 includes data necessary for execution of each application (for example, user account data such as a user ID required for login).
When the user terminal 10 is powered on, the CPU 11 expands the OS in the RAM 13 and starts up. A web browser, an application, etc. operate | move on OS according to the execution instruction based on a user's operation, for example.

  The web browser performs HTTP communication with the registration server 30 and the application server 50. When a URL on a web page or an object (for example, a software button (hereinafter simply referred to as “button”) or the like) is designated by the operation of the operation input unit 15 by the user, the web browser updates the web page. Therefore, an HTTP request including the designation result is transmitted to the registration server 30. The web browser acquires and interprets the HTML document from the registration server 30 as an HTTP response, and displays the web page on the display unit 16.

The display unit 16 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display. For example, the display unit 16 displays a web page based on an HTML document received from a server, or displays an image based on image data generated by executing an application.
The operation input unit 15 includes a touch panel input method that receives a touch panel type input by touching the display screen of the display unit 16 with a fingertip or a pen.

(1-3) Configuration of Each Server The configuration of the registration server 30 will be described with reference to FIG. Although not shown, the configuration of the application server 50 can be the same as that shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the hardware configuration of each server can be the same as that of a general-purpose network server.
As shown in FIG. 3, the registration server 30 includes a CPU 31, a ROM 32, a RAM 33, a communication interface unit 34, and a storage 35, and a bus 36 is provided for transmitting control signals or data signals between the units. ing.

The CPU 31 reads out programs and data stored in the ROM 32, and controls overall operations in the server such as control signals and data signal timing processing with each unit of the server.
The storage 35 is a storage device composed of, for example, a flash memory or a hard disk, and stores a server program. The CPU 31 expands the server program stored in the storage 35 on the RAM 33 and executes the server program. By executing the server program, a user registration process, a login process, a process of transmitting information related to the game K distribution start time to the user terminal 10 and the like are performed.

  In addition to the server program, the storage 35 stores a user registration data table TBL 351 (described later) for managing user registration for the game K before distribution of the game K. When receiving the user registration request from the user registration application of the user terminal 10, the CPU 31 of the registration server 30 issues a user ID (an example of a user account) for identifying the requesting user, and the user ID is stored in the user registration data table. Record in TBL351.

The RAM 33 is a main storage device of the CPU 31. In the RAM 33, information on the distribution start time of the game K is recorded. Information about the distribution start time of the game K is configured to be appropriately rewritten by input information from the game operator. Therefore, the distribution start time of the game K may be earlier or later than the scheduled date and time depending on the convenience of the game operator of the game K. For example, as a result of delay in preparation for starting the service of the game K, when it is necessary to delay the delivery start time from the originally scheduled date and time, the information on the delivery start time in the RAM 33 is rewritten by input information from the game operator.
The information on the distribution start time may include time / minute information in the date information such as “May 8, 2014 2:23”, or “May 8, 2014”. It is not necessary to include time / minute information only with date information.

FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the user registration data table TBL351.
In the user registration data table TBL351 illustrated in FIG. 4, for example, a nickname is associated with each user ID and recorded. The user information included in the user registration request from the user terminal 10 may be recorded in the user registration data table TBL351 in association with the user ID. The nickname illustrated in FIG. 4 is an example of user information. When including a nickname in the user registration request, when the user registration application is started for the first time on the user terminal 10, the user's nickname data is acquired by causing the user to input a nickname. Note that it is not essential to record user information such as a nickname in the user registration data table TBL351.

Upon receiving a user registration request from the user terminal 10, the registration server 30 issues and issues a user ID as a user account (information composed of characters, numbers, symbols, etc. for identifying a plurality of users). The user ID is recorded in the user registration data table, and the issued user ID is transmitted to the user terminal 10. The user registration application of the user terminal 10 records the received user ID in the storage 18. That is, the user ID is shared between the registration server 30 and the user terminal 10.
The user ID is only an example of a user account. Any information may be used as a user account as long as each user can be identified from a plurality of users. For example, as an example of a user account that is not information issued by the registration server 30, terminal identification information uniquely assigned to the user terminal 10 and a user's e-mail address can be cited. This is because the user can be identified by the terminal identification information and the e-mail address. In that case, the registration server 30 acquires the terminal identification information of the user terminal 10 based on the permission of the user of the user terminal 10 and causes the user to input an e-mail address.

  A plurality of registered applications are recorded in the storage of the application server 50. The application server 50 executes a download service program for providing an application to the user terminal 10 in accordance with HTTP. By executing this service program, when the application server 50 receives a download request specifying an application from the user terminal 10, the application server 50 extracts the specified application from the storage of the application server 50 and sends the extracted application to the request source. To the user terminal 10.

(1-4) Home Screen of User Terminal In this embodiment, the user registration application is downloaded based on the user's operation before the game K is distributed and installed in the user terminal 10. When installed, an icon of the user registration application is displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10. In addition, after the game is distributed, the game application is downloaded based on a user operation and installed in the user terminal 10. When installed, an icon of the game application is displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10.
The “home screen” (an example of a display screen) described in the present embodiment is the basics of the user terminal 10 configured so that the user can select an instruction target icon to execute any of a plurality of applications. This is a typical operation screen and is displayed by the function of the OS. The “home screen” is a screen that is always viewed when the user operates the user terminal 10. The term “home screen” is also used in terminals equipped with an OS such as “iOS” or “Android”.

FIG. 5 illustrates a plan view of the user terminal 10 including an example of the home screen of the user terminal 10. In the example shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of icons Q91 to Q97 are arranged and arranged on the home screen G of the user terminal 10. An application corresponding to each of the plurality of icons Q91 to Q97 is installed in the user terminal 10. Each icon is displayed so as to include information related to the application corresponding to each icon. The information about the application may be information that allows the user to identify the application corresponding to each icon, and is, for example, the name or abbreviation of the application, or a mark, symbol, illustration, etc. that reminds the application. Information about the application may be displayed in a different display mode for each version information. In the example of the present embodiment, an icon (for example, Q101 in FIG. 6) of a user registration application (version information: ver.1 game K application) and a game application of game K (version information: ver.2 game K). The use application icon (for example, Q201 in FIG. 8) is common in that the symbol “K” is displayed as information about the game K, but the design of the frame surrounding “K” is different. Therefore, the user can recognize that the icon of the user registration application and the icon of the game application of the game K are both applications related to the game K, but are different applications for the game K. The information regarding the game K may be, for example, the name of the game K, an illustration of a game character appearing in the game K, an illustration reminiscent of the game K, and the like.
In the present embodiment, the user registration application icon is displayed on the home screen so as to include information about the game K before distribution of the game K, thereby making the user aware of the game K and not forgetting the game K. Can do.

In principle, the icon display on the home screen is performed when the OS installs an application, and usually the user does not selectively determine whether or not to display the icon. The icons on the home screen are not automatically hidden by the OS unless the user performs a non-display instruction operation.
A corresponding application is executed in response to a user operation (for example, a tap operation with a fingertip on each icon) that instructs each icon on the home screen. That is, the home screen G of the user terminal 10 is a basic operation screen when the user uses the user terminal 10, and can be said to be a screen that the user always sees when operating the user terminal 10.
More specifically, since the icon of the user registration application is displayed on the home screen, when the user tries to execute an icon of an application different from the user registration application displayed on the same home screen, the user registration application icon is displayed. The icon will naturally enter the user's view. This is because a display unit such as a smartphone has a relatively small size, and a plurality of icons are densely arranged on the home screen. Therefore, each time the user operates the user terminal, the user can visually recognize the icon of the user registration application so that the user can be aware of the game K and can not forget the game K.
The method of displaying an icon on the home screen has a very high effect of making the user not forget the game K rather than notifying information about the game K by e-mail or the like. In the case of e-mail or the like, in order for the user to check game K information, the user needs to search for e-mail. However, in the method of displaying icons on the home screen, the user can This is because it is possible to make the user aware of the game K even when the user terminal is not related to the game K without searching.

(1-5) Flow from User Registration before Game Distribution to Execution of Game Next, referring to FIGS. 6 to 9, in the information processing system according to the first embodiment, before the game K is distributed. The flow from user registration until the game K can be executed will be described. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the flow of user registration before game distribution in the information processing system 1 according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an execution example of the user registration application in the information processing system 1 according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow until the game is executable after the game is distributed in the information processing system 1 according to the first embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a display example of the user terminal 10 when the game application is executed after the game is distributed in the information processing system 1 according to the first embodiment.
6-8, in addition to the change in the display content of the home screen of the user terminal 10, the main information exchange between the user terminal 10 and the server and the processing content of the user terminal 10 and the server are shown.

(1-5-1) Flow of user registration before game distribution (FIG. 6)
Hereinafter, description will be made in the order of (i) to (viii) in FIG.
(i), (ii) When the home screen G10 of the user terminal 10 is displayed before distribution of the game, the user terminal 10 downloads the user registration application from the application server 50 based on the download request.
(iii) The user terminal 10 installs the downloaded user registration application so that the user registration application can be executed.
(iv) When the user registration application is installed in the user terminal 10, the user registration application icon Q101 is displayed on the home screen G11 of the user terminal 10.
(v) The user registration application is activated when the user performs an operation (for example, a tap operation using the finger F) to instruct the icon Q101 displayed on the home screen G11.
(vi) When the user registration application is activated, an image requesting input of user information may be displayed (not shown). The user information is, for example, a user's nickname. The user registration application transmits a user registration request including the input user information to the registration server 30.
(vii) Upon receiving a user registration request from the user registration application, the registration server 30 issues a user ID, and records the user ID and the received user information in association with each other in the user registration data table TBL351. Register (that is, record a user account).
(viii) After the user registration, the registration server 30 transmits a user registration completion notification including the issued user ID to the user terminal 10, and the user terminal 10 records the user ID included in the notification. Thereby, the user ID is shared between the user terminal 10 and the registration server 30.

(1-5-2) Execution example of user registration application (FIG. 7)
Hereinafter, in the order of (i) to (iii) in FIG. 7, an execution example of the user registration application when the user registration application is started before the distribution start time after the user registration is completed will be described.
(i) The user registration application is activated by performing an operation (for example, a tap operation using the finger F with respect to the icon Q101) indicating the icon Q101 of the user registration application displayed on the home screen G20 in FIG.
(ii) When the user registration application is activated, the user registration application transmits a login request including a user ID to the registration server 30.
(iii) In response to the login request, the user registration application receives information related to the game K distribution start time from the registration server 30.

  When the user registration application receives information related to the distribution start time of the game K, the user registration application displays an image G21 including information indicating the distribution start time (for example, text such as “8 more days”) on the user terminal 10. Thereby, the user can recognize the distribution start time of the game K. Since the displayed information indicating the distribution start time is updated every time the user registration application is activated, the user can obtain the latest information about the distribution start time of the game K every time the user registration application is executed. Note that the user ID and nickname of the user may be displayed on the image G21.

(1-5-3) Flow until the game becomes executable after the game is distributed (FIG. 8)
Hereinafter, description will be made in the order of (i) to (xi) in FIG.
(i) Performing an operation (for example, a tap operation using the finger F on the icon Q101) for instructing the icon Q101 of the user registration application on the home screen G30 of the user terminal 10 after the game K distribution start time has elapsed. The user registration application starts.
(ii) to (v) When the user registration application is activated, the user registration application transmits a login request including a user ID to the registration server 30 in the same manner as in FIG. That is, the registration server 30 that has received the login request transmits the URL for acquiring the game application of the game K to the user registration application of the user terminal 10 because the distribution start time of the game K has elapsed. The web browser of the user terminal 10 requests the application server 50 to access the application distribution site by designating the URL, and obtains download image data (HTML document). Thereby, the image G31 is displayed on the user terminal 10.
(vi), (vii) In the image G31, a button P210 ("update") for executing the update process is displayed together with a notification indicating that the user registration application can be updated (updated) to the game application of the game K. . A download request is transmitted to the application server 50 by performing an operation (for example, a tap operation using the finger F for the button P210) designating the button P210 (“update”).
(viii) The user terminal 10 downloads the game application of the game K from the application server 50.
(ix) The downloaded game application is installed in the user terminal 10.
(x) Further, a game application icon Q201 is displayed on the home screen G32. In the example of FIG. 8, as can be seen from the home screens G30 and G32, the icon Q101 of the user registration application is updated to the icon Q201 of the game application and displayed. Thereby, the user can recognize that the game application of the game K has been installed without any problem.
(xi) When the game application of the game K is installed in the user terminal 10, a process of taking over the user account and user information from the user registration application to the game application is performed.
When the above processing is completed, the user can start playing the distributed game K.

(1-5-4) Flow until the user can process the game after the game is distributed (FIG. 9)
The home screen G35 of FIG. 9 includes a game application icon Q201 of the game K installed on the user terminal 10 as in G32 of FIG. When an operation for instructing the icon Q201 is performed on the home screen G35 (for example, a tap operation using the finger F on the icon Q201), the game K application is activated.
Here, when the user's nickname of the user terminal 10 is recorded in the user registration data table TBL351 in the user registration before the distribution of the game K, and the nickname is taken over by the game server, the user is activated by starting the game application. An image G37 for playing the game K is displayed. On the other hand, when the user of the user terminal 10 is a user who has not performed user registration before distribution of the game K, user registration is performed. In user registration after distribution, an image for inputting the user's nickname is displayed as shown in an image G36. The image G36 is also displayed for a user who has performed user registration before distribution but has not entered a nickname. The image G36 has a display area G36a including a box bx361 for inputting a nickname text, and a display area G36b including a software keyboard for inputting the text. After the image G36 is displayed, by inputting a nickname into the box bx361 and designating a button (not shown), the registration server 30 performs a process of recording in association with the input nickname and the user ID, and thereafter the image G37. Is displayed.

The image G37 is an example of the top screen of the game K. In this example, the image G37 includes a display area G37a including a user's nickname (for example, LISA), and buttons P371 (“Quest”), P372 (“Battle”), and P373 (“Battle”) for playing a plurality of subgames. Lottery ") and display area G37b including P374 (" composite "). As illustrated in the display area G37a, when the user has a right to obtain a predetermined privilege, text notifying that the privilege is obtained may be included. Such a privilege can be set based on the execution result or execution history of the user registration application before the distribution of the game K by the user.
By performing an operation of designating the button P371 in the display area G37b, the user can play, for example, a sub game (“quest”) for searching for an area. By performing an operation of designating the button P372, the user can play, for example, a sub game ("battle") that battles NPC. By performing an operation of designating the button P373, the user can play, for example, a sub game (“lottery”) for lottery of items. By performing an operation of designating the button P374, the user can play, for example, a sub game (“synthesis”) in which items owned by the user are synthesized.

(1-6) Overview of Functions Provided by User Terminal as Information Processing Device Next, functions provided by the above-described user terminal 10 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram including functions that play major roles in the user terminal 10 of the present embodiment. Note that not all the means included in the functional block diagram shown in FIG. 10 are indispensable elements for the present invention. The functional block diagram of FIG. 10 includes means referred to in the modified example of the present embodiment or other embodiments. In the present embodiment, at least the first download unit 110, the first installation unit 120, the icon display unit 130, the reception unit 140, and the execution unit 150 may be included.

The first download unit 110 has a function of downloading a user registration application (an example of a first application) via the network before the game K is distributed.
The function of the first download unit 110 is realized as follows, for example. The web browser of the user terminal 10 acquires information (for example, an HTML document) including the URL of the application distribution site operated by the application server 50 from the registration server 30, specifies the URL, and is operated by the application server 50. Access the application distribution site. The acquisition destination of the URL of the application distribution site is not limited to the registration server 30 and may be another server. Next, the web browser of the user terminal 10 transmits a download request specifying the user registration application to the application distribution site, and downloads the user registration application from the application distribution site based on the request.

The first installation unit 120 performs a process of installing the user registration application on the user terminal 10 so that the user registration application (an example of the first application) downloaded by the first download unit 110 can be executed. It has the function to perform.
In order to realize the function of the first installation unit 120, the OS operating on the user terminal 10 performs installation processing of the downloaded user registration application so that the user registration application can be executed.

The icon display unit 130 is an icon for executing the user registration application (an example of the first application) installed by the first installation unit 120 and includes information relating to the game K (an example of the first icon). ) On a home screen (an example of a display screen) that can display a plurality of icons. Here, the home screen is a basic operation screen of the user terminal 10 as illustrated in FIG.
In order to realize the function of the icon display means 130, the OS operating on the user terminal 10 starts the user registration application by an instruction operation on the icon based on the icon image provided by the installed user registration application. In this way, processing for displaying the icon on the home screen is performed. Here, the icon image of the user registration application is configured to include information on the game K.

The accepting unit 140 has a function of accepting an instruction for an icon (an example of a first icon) of a user registration application displayed on the home screen (an example of a display screen) by the icon display unit 130. The accepting unit 140 may have a function of accepting an instruction for the game application icon (an example of the second icon) of the game K displayed on the home screen by the icon display unit 130. An example of an operation for instructing an icon is a tap operation with a finger on the icon.
In order to realize the function of the accepting unit 140, the OS operating on the user terminal 10 accepts the instruction when any of the plurality of icons displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10 is given. The icon for which the instruction has been accepted is specified, and the application to be executed is determined. That is, the OS manages each icon displayed on the home screen in association with the execution target application, and when any of the icons is specified, the execution target is determined based on the specified icon. Determine the application.

Based on the URL acquired by the execution unit 150 (that is, the URL that is the upload destination information of the game application of the game K), the second download unit 160 is a game application of the game K (an example of the second application). The function to download.
The function of the second download unit 160 is realized as follows in the example of the present embodiment. The web browser of the user terminal 10 transmits an HTTP request designating the delivered URL to the application server 50, receives an HTML document (download image data) from the application server 50 accordingly, and displays a download image. . The web browser transmits a download request designating the game K application application to the application server 50 based on a predetermined button instruction on the download image. In response to the download request, the application server 50 extracts a game application for the game K (that is, a game K application having the latest version information) from the storage, and transmits the application to the user terminal 10. That is, the game application of the game K is downloaded to the user terminal 10.

  The download image data may be acquired as follows. That is, when a login request is transmitted from the user terminal 10 to the registration server 30 after the distribution start time, the registration server 30 sends a URL to the user terminal 10 in which the game application of the game K is designated on the application distribution site. An HTML document for displaying is transmitted. At this time, a link is set for the URL, and when the user performs an operation for designating the URL, the web browser of the user terminal 10 is accessed from the application distribution site (application server 50) in the same manner as described above. The download image data is acquired.

The second installation unit 170 installs the game application in the user terminal 10 to make the game application (an example of the second application) of the game K downloaded by the second download unit 160 executable. A function for processing is provided.
In order to realize the function of the second installation unit 170, the OS operating on the user terminal 10 performs a process of installing the downloaded game application of the game K so that the game application can be executed. At this time, the OS may record information (user ID as a user account and user information such as a nickname) recorded in the storage 18 in association with the user registration application in association with the game application of the game K. preferable. Thereby, user information such as a user ID and a nickname is handed over to the game application of the game K. When the game application of the game K is activated by the OS, the game application of the game K reads out the user information such as the succeeded user ID and nickname from the storage 18 and performs processing related to the game K (for example, for a game server described later). Login request processing).

When installing the game application of the game K, the user registration application may be updated to the game application of the game K as illustrated in FIG.
That is, the second installation unit 170 makes the game application executable by performing a process of updating the user registration application (an example of the first application) to a game application (an example of the second application) of the game K. May be.
In this case, the OS operating on the user terminal 10 performs a process for installing the downloaded game application of the game K, and sets the game application in an executable state. At this time, the OS has the version information of the downloaded game application of the game K (game K application application ver. 2) more than the user registration application (game K application application ver. 1) already installed in the user terminal 10. It is determined that the game application of the game K is executable by the process in which the user registration application is updated to the game application of the game K. Then, the OS records information (user ID as a user account and user information such as a nickname) recorded in the storage 18 in association with the user registration application in association with the game application of the game K. Thereafter, the OS may delete the user registration application and information (user ID, user information, icon image data, and the like) associated with the user registration application from the storage 18.

The execution means 150 is a process for causing the user to play the game K when the instruction for the user registration application icon (an example of the first icon) displayed on the home screen is received by the reception means 140 after the distribution of the game K. The function to execute is provided.
In an example of the present embodiment, the “process for causing the user to play the game K” is a process for specifying information on the upload destination of the game application for the game K, for example, uploading the game application for the game K This is a process of acquiring the URL that is the previous information. In this case, the execution means 150 uploads the game application of the game K that can execute the game K (that is, the version information: game K application of ver. 2) to the user registration application so that the user can play the game K. A process of receiving a destination URL (that is, a URL specifying the upload destination of the game K application on the application distribution site) is executed.

In this embodiment, the function of the execution means 150 is implement | achieved as follows, for example.
When the user registration application is activated based on the icon instruction after the game K distribution start time, first, the user registration application transmits a login request to the registration server 30. The login request includes the user ID and the version information of the game K application application (ver. 1 in the example of the present embodiment). When the login request is transmitted after the distribution start time has elapsed, the registration server 30 acquires the latest version information of the game K application application from the application server 50. The registration server 30 further includes the version information (ver. 1) of the game K-use application included in the login request received from the user terminal 10 and the latest version information (ver. 2) of the game K-use application acquired from the application server 50. As a result, it is recognized that the version information of the game K application application of the user terminal 10 is not the latest. Next, the registration server 30 transmits data including a URL for obtaining the game K application with the latest version information from the application distribution site to the user registration application of the user terminal 10. As a result, the user registration application of the user terminal 10 receives from the registration server 30 the URL that is the upload destination of the game K application application (that is, the game application of game K) with the latest version information (ver. 2).

After the processing for causing the user to play the game K is executed by the execution unit 150, the icon display unit 130 displays the icon of the user registration application (an example of the first icon) as the icon of the game application of the game K (the first icon). It may be updated to an example of icon 2 and displayed on the home screen.
In the present embodiment, as described above, the user registration application of the user terminal 10 uploads the game K application application (that is, the game application of the game K) with the latest version information (ver. 2) from the registration server 30. After receiving the previous URL (an example of processing for causing the user to play the game K), the URL is delivered to the web browser. The web browser specifies the delivered URL, accesses the application server 50, and downloads the game application of the game K from the application server 50.
The OS of the user terminal 10 performs processing for updating the installed user registration application to the game application of the downloaded game K. Specifically, the OS of the user terminal 10 performs a process for installing the downloaded game application of the game K so that the game application can be executed. Subsequently, the OS of the user terminal 10 replaces the icon of the user registration application on the home screen of the user terminal 10 at the position where the icon is arranged (for example, the home screen of FIG. 8). Display processing for displaying (that is, updating and displaying the icon Q201 of G32) is performed.
When the icon is updated and displayed, when viewed from the user, it seems that the icon of the user registration application has changed to an icon having a different display mode. Therefore, the user can clearly recognize that the application K has been updated and the game K can be executed.

In the present embodiment, the reception unit 140 receives an instruction for the game application icon (an example of the second icon) of the game K displayed on the home screen by the icon display unit 130, and the execution unit 150 receives the instruction from the reception unit 140. When an instruction for the game application icon of the game K displayed on the home screen is received, processing related to the game K is executed. With this configuration, the user can play a game by performing an operation of instructing an icon of a game application displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10. Therefore, the operability when the user starts playing after distribution of the game K is excellent.
The functions of the receiving unit 140 and the execution unit 150 are realized as follows. In the description of this embodiment, the registration server 30 functions as a game server after the distribution of the game K, extracts data (user ID, nickname) from the user registration data table TBL351, and displays a user data table (not shown) for the game K. )) Is newly generated. That is, it is assumed that the user ID and nickname data recorded in the user registration data table TBL351 have been written in the user data table. The user data table is a data table for recording data related to the game K in addition to the nickname in association with the user ID.

When the instruction of the game application icon of the game K on the home screen of the user terminal 10 is received, the OS of the user terminal 10 activates the game application and transmits a login request to the game server. At this time, the game application of the game K reads the user ID data handed over from the user registration application from the storage 18 and includes it in the login request.
The game server executes login processing including user ID verification and the like based on the user ID included in the login request. When the login is successful, the game server transmits game data, which is data for executing the game, to the game application of the game K of the user terminal 10. The game data includes, for example, data such as a background image when the game K is advanced, an image of a character appearing in the game K, and parameters. When the game application of game K receives the received game data, it generates and displays a top screen of game K. The top screen of the game K is configured to include a plurality of buttons, for example, and the user can start playing the game K by designating any one of the plurality of buttons.

In the present embodiment, the execution unit 150 performs a user registration process for causing the registration server 30 to record a user account in response to receiving an instruction for the user registration application icon (an example of a first icon) by the reception unit 140. It also has functions to be executed by the application.
The function of the execution means 150 is realizable as follows. When the OS operating on the user terminal 10 receives an instruction for an icon of the user registration application, the OS starts the user registration application. The user registration process is a process performed when the user registration application is started for the first time. First, the user registration application transmits a user registration request to the registration server 30. The user registration request is a request for executing user registration processing with respect to the registration server 30. As described above, the user information such as the user's nickname may be input by the user, and the user information may be included in the user registration request.
Upon receiving the user registration request, the registration server 30 issues a user ID as a user account and records the user ID in a new row (record) of the user registration data table. When user information is included in the user registration request, the issued user ID and user information (nickname in the example shown in FIG. 4) may be recorded in association with each other. Next, the registration server 30 transmits a user registration completion notification including the issued user ID to the user registration application of the user terminal 10. The user registration application records the received user ID in the storage 18 in association with the user registration application. As a result, the user account (user ID in the example of the present embodiment) for recognizing the user of the user terminal 10 is shared between the user terminal 10 and the registration server 30.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, when the user registration application is executed, information indicating the game K distribution start time may be displayed as an execution result of the user registration application. This is realized by the second acquisition unit 190 and the delivery time display unit 210 of FIG.
The second acquisition unit 190 has a function of acquiring information related to the game K distribution start time (an example of game distribution time). The distribution time display unit 210 has a function of displaying information indicating the distribution start time of the game K using information regarding the distribution start time of the game K acquired by the second acquisition unit 190. These functions are realized as follows.
After the user registration is completed, if the user registration application is activated based on the icon instruction before the game K distribution start time, the user registration application transmits a login request including the user ID to the registration server 30. . By executing the server program, the registration server 30 executes log-in processing including user ID verification based on the log-in request, and then reads out information about the game K distribution start time from the RAM 33. The registration server 30 generates an HTML document including information related to the distribution start time of the game K and transmits it to the user terminal 10. The user terminal 10 receives the HTML document transmitted from the registration server 30 to acquire information related to the game K distribution start time.
The web browser of the user terminal 10 interprets the HTML document received from the registration server 30 and displays an image including information indicating the game K distribution start time. Since the information indicating the game K distribution start time is displayed, the user can recognize the game K distribution start time every time the user registration application is executed. The user becomes aware of the K distribution start time.
It is not essential to display information indicating the game K distribution start time when the user registration application is executed. As long as the icon of the user registration application is displayed on the home screen, the effect of making it difficult for the user to forget the game K before distribution is exhibited.

The information indicating the distribution start time of the game K may be information indicating the distribution start time of the game K itself (for example, information indicating the date and time such as “3rd August, 2014”). The distribution start time may be information that can be recognized by the user (for example, information indicating the remaining period until the game distribution start time, such as “8 days left”). Information indicating the distribution start time of the game K displayed in the image G21 in FIG. 7 is the latter example.
Information indicating the distribution start time of the game K is not limited to information indicating the time or period, and may be information represented by a symbol, a mark, or the like corresponding to the time or period. For example, the information in the gauge format corresponding to the remaining period (for example, the longer the gauge, the longer the period until distribution starts), the color, pattern, or mark corresponding to the remaining period. There may be. By adopting such a display form, the user can recognize the remaining period of time. For example, when the remaining period is 5 days or more, it is displayed in blue, and when the remaining period is within 4 days, it is displayed in red.

(1-7) Process Flow from Game User Registration to Game Distribution Start Next, referring to FIG. 11A, FIG. 11B, FIG. 12, FIG. 13A, FIG. 13B, FIG. A processing flow from user registration before distribution of K until it becomes possible to start playing the game K will be described.
11A and 11B are sequence charts illustrating an example of user registration processing according to the first embodiment. FIG. 12 is a sequence chart showing processing when the user registration application according to the first embodiment is executed. FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B are sequence charts showing an example of processing for making the game K executable after the game K is distributed in the first embodiment. 14A and 14B are sequence charts illustrating an example of processing when a game application is activated after distribution of the game K in the first embodiment. Note that the processing of the registration server 30 in each sequence chart is processing performed by the CPU 31 of the registration server 30 executing a server program.

(1-7-1) Process Flow to Game K User Registration Process (FIGS. 11A and 11B)
Referring to FIG. 11A, it is assumed that the user accesses a registration guidance site operated by the registration server 30. The web browser of the user terminal 10 transmits an access request to the registration server 30 (S100), and the registration server 30 receives the access request (S300). For example, in response to the access request, the registration server 30 returns information (for example, an HTML document) including a URL for downloading the user registration application (S302), and the user terminal 10 receives the information (S102). . The URL is a URL in which a user registration application registered in an application distribution site operated by the application server 50 is designated. Based on the information, the web browser of the user terminal 10 displays an image including the URL of the application distribution site on the display unit 16 (S104). Next, in response to the user's URL specifying operation, the web browser of the user terminal 10 transmits a request specifying the URL of the application distribution site to the application server 50 (S106), and the application server 50 receives the request. (S500).
In response to the request received in S500, the application server 50 generates download image data (for example, an HTML document) of the user registration application (S502), transmits the data (S504), and the user terminal 10 receives the data. Is received (S108). The web browser of the user terminal 10 displays an image for downloading the user registration application on the display unit 16 based on the data received in S108 (S110). The web browser of the user terminal 10 transmits a user registration application download request to the application server 50 based on a user operation (S112), and the application server 50 receives the download request (S506).
In response to the download request received in S504, the application server 50 extracts the user registration application from the storage (S508), and transmits the application to the user terminal 10 (S510). Then, the user terminal 10 receives, that is, downloads the user registration application (S114).

  Referring to FIG. 11B, when the user terminal 10 downloads the user registration application, the OS operating on the user terminal 10 installs the downloaded user registration application (S116), and the user registration application can be executed. To do. Next, based on the icon image provided by the installed user registration application, the OS of the user terminal 10 displays the icon on the home screen so that the user registration application is activated by an instruction operation on the icon. (S118). This process corresponds to the process of displaying the icon Q101 on the home screen G11 of the user terminal 10 in FIG. The icon displayed in S118 includes information regarding the game K.

When the OS of the user terminal 10 receives an operation for instructing an icon of the user registration application (for example, the icon Q101 in FIG. 6) (S120: YES), the OS of the user terminal 10 is activated (S122). When the user registration application is activated for the first time after being installed in the user terminal 10, user registration processing is performed.
In the user registration process, first, the user registration application transmits a user registration request to the registration server 30 (S124), and the registration server 30 receives the user registration request (S304). The user registration application may include user information such as the user's nickname in the user registration request. The registration server 30 that has received the user registration request issues a user ID as a user account (S306), and records the issued user ID in a new row (record) of the user registration data table TBL351 (S308). When user information is included in the user registration request, the user ID and the user information may be associated with each other and recorded in the user registration data table TBL351.
Next, the registration server 30 transmits a user registration completion notification including the issued user ID to the user registration application of the user terminal 10 (S310), and the user registration application of the user terminal 10 receives the user registration completion notification (S126). The user registration application further records the user ID (an example of a user account) included in the user registration completion notification in the storage 18 in association with the user registration application (S128). As a result, the user account for recognizing the user of the user terminal 10 is shared between the user terminal 10 and the registration server 30.

  Although not shown in FIG. 11B, when the user registration application is activated after the game K distribution start time and a user registration request is transmitted to the registration server 30, a user ID as a user account is not issued. This is because it is not necessary to generate a user ID after the game K is distributed. In this case, the registration server 30 may transmit information notifying that the game K has already been distributed to the user registration application, or may perform the processing after S330 in FIG. . In that case, the user registration is performed when the game application of the game K is first activated.

(1-7-2) Process flow for executing user registration application (FIG. 12)
Next, a processing flow when the user registration application is executed in the user terminal 10 between the user registration completion and the game K distribution start time will be described.
First, when an instruction for an icon of a user registration application is received (S129: YES), the OS of the user terminal 10 starts the user registration application (S130). At this time, the user ID is read from the storage 18.
After activation, the user registration application transmits a login request including the user ID and the version information of the game K application application (ver. 1 in the example of the present embodiment) to the registration server 30 (S132). 30 receives the login request (S320). Note that the version information of the game K application may not always be included in the login request, but may be included regularly or at a predetermined frequency.
The registration server 30 executes login processing including user ID verification based on the login request (S322). The collation of the user ID is a process for determining whether or not the user ID included in the received login request is recorded in the user registration data table TBL351. Although not shown in FIG. 12, when the user ID included in the received login request is not recorded in the user registration data table TBL351, the user terminal 10 may be notified that the login has failed.

Hereinafter, a case where the user ID included in the received login request is recorded in the user registration data table TBL351 and the login is successful will be described. In that case, the process proceeds to S324. That is, the registration server 30 acquires information on the game K distribution start time by reading out information on the game K distribution start time from the RAM 33 (S324). Then, the registration server 30 determines whether or not the current time has passed the distribution start time of the game K (S326). When the current time is before the game K distribution start time (S326: NO), the registration server 30 includes an HTML document including information on the distribution start time based on the information of the distribution start time acquired in S324. Is transmitted to the user terminal 10 (S328), and the user registration application of the user terminal 10 receives the HTML document (S134). The “information regarding the distribution start time” transmitted from the registration server 30 to the user terminal 10 is information indicating the date and time of the distribution start time of the game K itself (for example, “August 10, 2014, 3:00”). ), Or information that allows the user terminal 10 to specify or calculate the distribution start time of the game K (for example, a code for specifying a date or a time that is a difference from a predetermined reference date).
The user registration application of the user terminal 10 calculates the remaining period (for example, “8 days”) until the distribution start time based on the information regarding the distribution start time acquired from the registration server 30 (S136). The remaining period is an example of “information indicating the distribution start time of the game K”. Then, the user registration application of the user terminal 10 displays an image (for example, the image G21 in FIG. 7) including the remaining period calculated in S136 (S138). When the information regarding the distribution start time received in S134 is information on the remaining period itself, the process of S136 is not required.
When the registration server 30 is used as the game server for the game K after distribution of the game K, the registration server 30 knows that the game K has been distributed, so that after the login process of S322, S324 and You may progress to the process of S330 of FIG. 13A mentioned later, without passing through the process of S326.

(1-7-3) Processing flow for enabling game K to be executed after distribution of game K (FIGS. 13A and 13B)
Next, a processing flow when the user registration application is executed on the user terminal 10 after the game K distribution start time has elapsed will be described.
After the game K distribution start time has elapsed, the process when the user registration application icon instruction is accepted is the same as S130, S132, and S320 to S324 in FIG. This is different from the case of 12.
That is, when the distribution start time has elapsed (S326 in FIG. 12: YES), as shown in FIG. 13A, the registration server 30 designates the application ID of the game K application application and updates the latest application. The request for providing the version information is transmitted (S330), and the application server 50 receives the request (S520). The application server 50 refers to the data in the storage, identifies the latest version information of the game K application application registered in the application distribution site (S522), and transmits the identified latest version information to the registration server 30. (S524). The registration server 30 receives the latest version information transmitted from the application server 50 (S332).
Next, the registration server 30 includes the version information of the game K application application included in the login request received from the user terminal 10 (that is, the login request received in S320 of FIG. 12) and the latest game K application application acquired in S332. A process of comparing with the version information is performed (S334). Here, since the distribution start time has passed, the latest version information of the game K application application is ver. 2 (that is, the game application of game K). Therefore, the registration server 30 generates data including a URL for acquiring the game K application with the latest version information from the application distribution site (S336), and transmits the data to the user registration application of the user terminal 10 ( S338). The user registration application of the user terminal 10 receives the data transmitted from the registration server 30 (S140).

  When receiving the data including the URL, the user registration application of the user terminal 10 delivers the URL to the web browser. The web browser transmits the HTTP request by specifying the delivered URL (S142), and the application server 50 receives the HTTP request (S526). When receiving the HTTP request, the application server 50 displays a download image (for example, the image G31 in FIG. 8) including a button for instructing the user terminal 10 to update the user registration application to the game application of the game K. An HTML document (image data for download) to be displayed is generated (S528), and the data is transmitted (S530). The web browser of the user terminal 10 receives the data transmitted in S530 (S144). Based on the data received in S144, the web browser of the user terminal 10 displays an image (for example, the image G31 in FIG. 8) for downloading the game application of the game K on the display unit 16 (S146).

  The web browser of the user terminal 10 determines the presence / absence of a download request to the application server 50 based on the presence / absence of an operation for instructing update of the application (for example, a designation operation for the button P210 of the image G31 in FIG. 8) (S148). . When it is determined that there is a download request (S148: YES), the web browser of the user terminal 10 transmits a download request for updating the application to the application server 50 (S150). A request is received (S532). In response to the download request, the application server 50 extracts a game application for the game K (that is, a game K application with the latest version information) from the storage (S534), and transmits the application to the user terminal 10 (S536). The user terminal 10 receives, that is, downloads the game application of the game K transmitted in S536 (S152).

The OS of the user terminal 10 performs a process of updating the installed user registration application to the game application of the game K downloaded in S152 (S154). Specifically, the OS of the user terminal 10 performs a process for installing the downloaded game application of the game K so that the game application can be executed. Subsequently, the OS of the user terminal 10 replaces the icon of the user registration application on the home screen of the user terminal 10 at the position where the icon is arranged (for example, the home screen of FIG. 8). Display processing for displaying the icon Q201 of G32 is performed (S156). The icon displayed in S156 includes information related to the game K, but has a different display mode from the icon (user registration application icon) displayed in S118 of FIG. 11B.
Further, the OS of the user terminal 10 records information (user ID as a user account, user information such as a nickname) recorded in the storage 18 in association with the user registration application in association with the game application of the game K. As a result, a user account takeover process is performed (S158). After the takeover process, the OS of the user terminal 10 deletes the user registration application and information associated with the user registration application (such as user ID, user information, and icon image data) from the storage 18. May be.

(1-7-4) Processing flow when game application is activated after game distribution (FIGS. 14A and 14B)
14A and 14B show a flow when a user who has performed user registration before distribution of the game K starts the game. As described above, the registration server 30 functions as a game server after distribution of the game K, and the game server stores a user data table in which data is inherited from the user registration data table TBL351. In addition to the nickname, data related to the game K is recorded in the user data table in association with the user ID.

14A, first, when an instruction for an icon of a game application of the game K on the home screen of the user terminal 10 is received (S168: YES), the OS of the user terminal 10 starts the game application (S170), and the game A login request is transmitted to the server (S172). At this time, the game application of the game K reads the user ID data handed over from the user registration application from the storage 18 and includes it in the login request. The registration server 30 receives this login request (S350).
The game server executes login processing including user ID verification and the like based on the user ID included in the login request (S352). The collation of the user ID is a process for determining whether or not the user ID included in the received login request is recorded in the user data table. Here, as described above, since the user data table of the game server is created based on the data of the user registration data table TBL351, the user ID of the user who performed user registration before the distribution of the game K is the user It is recorded in the data table. Therefore, the login of the user who performed user registration before the distribution of the game K is successful. Although not shown, when a user who has not performed user registration before distribution of the game K logs into the game K for the first time after distribution of the game K, user registration processing is executed, and the issued user ID is stored in the user data. Recorded in the table.

Next, the game server refers to the user data table and determines whether or not the nickname corresponding to the user ID has been recorded (S354).
If the user has registered as a user before distribution of the game K, but has not entered a nickname at that time, that is, if a nickname corresponding to the user ID is not recorded (S354: NO), the user's The following processing is performed to obtain nickname information. That is, the game server generates nickname input image data (S356) and transmits it to the game application of the game K of the user terminal 10 (S358). The game application of the game K receives the data (S174), and displays the nickname input image on the user terminal 10 as illustrated in the image G36 (FIG. 9) (S176). The nickname input image is configured such that text input is possible using, for example, a software keyboard. For example, when the game application determines that the input of the nickname has been completed based on an instruction of a predetermined confirmation button (S178: YES), the game application transmits the input nickname information to the game server (S180). The game server receives the nickname information (S360), and records the nickname in the user data table in association with the user ID included in the login request (S362).

Although not shown in the user registration data table TBL 351 shown in FIG. 4, after the game K is distributed to the user based on the execution result or execution history of the user registration application before the distribution of the game K by the user. An available privilege may be given. In that case, privilege data is recorded in the user registration data table TBL351 in association with the user ID. Alternatively, when a privilege is given to a predetermined number of users who have performed user registration early, the date of user registration may be recorded in the user registration data table TBL351. When granting a privilege to a user, the privilege data (for example, 100 pt) and the basis data for the privilege (for example, the data on the date of user registration described above) are associated with the user ID of the game K. It is written in the user data table before distribution.
Then, the game server determines whether or not the user ID included in the login request corresponds to the user to whom the privilege is granted with reference to the user data table (S364). When the game server is a privilege granting user (S364: YES), the game server generates game data including privilege information (S366), and when it is not a privilege granting user (S364: NO). Then, game data not including privilege information is generated (S368). The game data includes, for example, data such as a background image when the game K is advanced, an image of a character appearing in the game K, and parameters. The game server transmits the generated game data to the game application of the user terminal 10 (S370). The game application of the user terminal 10 receives the game data (S182), and generates and displays the top screen of the game K as illustrated in the image G37 (FIG. 9) (S184). The user can start playing the game K by designating one of the buttons on the top screen displayed in S184 (for example, the buttons P371 to 374 of the image G37). That is, it is possible to start playing the game K subgame corresponding to each button. The game data necessary for executing the game is not limited to the time of login, and may be acquired from the game server in a timely manner after the game starts. Also, data indicating the game execution result is appropriately sent to the game server and recorded in correspondence with the user ID.

  As described above, the user terminal 10 according to the present embodiment is provided with a home screen capable of displaying a plurality of icons. When the user registration application is installed in the user terminal 10 before the game K is distributed, an icon of the user registration application including information regarding the game K is displayed on the display screen. Therefore, the user recognizes the presence of the icon of the user registration application on the home screen when operating the user terminal 10 before distributing the game, so that the user does not forget the game K. In other words, since the icon of the user registration application is always displayed on the home screen that is viewed when the user terminal 10 is operated before the game K is distributed, the user K can play a note about the existence of the game K and Never forget. In addition, after the game K is distributed, a process for causing the user to play the game K is executed by the user performing an operation of instructing an icon of the user registration application on the home screen. Therefore, a user who is interested in the game K before distribution of the game K can play the game K without forgetting it after distribution of the game K.

Further, when an instruction for the icon of the user registration application is received, a process for recording the user ID (an example of a user account) in the registration server 30 is executed by the user registration application. Therefore, it becomes easy for the game operator of the game K to grasp the number of users who are going to play the game K before the game K is distributed, and it is not necessary to prepare a dedicated site for user registration. In addition, the user account data of the registration server 30 can be transferred to the game server.
On the other hand, the user does not need to input an e-mail address or the like for user registration as in the case of conventional pre-registration, and only has to perform an operation for instructing an icon of the user registration application, so the burden of user registration is reduced. Is done.

  In addition, in the user terminal 10 according to the present embodiment, when the game application of the game K (an example of the second application) that can execute the process related to the game K is downloaded and installed after the distribution of the game K is started. The game application can be executed. At this time, since the information related to the user account is transferred from the user registration application to the game application of the game K, information related to the user (for example, user account and user information) obtained before the distribution of the game K is distributed to the game K. Later, it can be used in the game application of the game K. For example, when the user's nickname is included as the inherited user information, the nickname can be used in the game K, and the user can save the trouble of inputting the nickname again after the game application is distributed. . In addition, for example, when a reward is given to the user based on the execution result of the user registration application by taking over the information related to the user account, the reward can be taken over after the game K is distributed.

  When the registration server 30 functions as a game server after distribution of the game K, the user registration data table TBL351 may be expanded to be a user data table for the game K, or data (user ID, nickname) of the user registration data table TBL351. May be extracted to newly generate a user data table of the game K.

  In the present embodiment, information indicating the distribution start time of the game K (for example, “8 days” in the image G21 in FIG. 7) is displayed on the image displayed when the user registration application is activated. Although the form has been described, the display of the information is not essential. Even when the information is not displayed, the user registration application icon is displayed on the home screen, so that the user does not forget the game K, and an operation for instructing the icon after the distribution of the game K is used as a trigger. A game application of the game K can be acquired.

In the present embodiment, the icon display means 130 updates the icon of the user registration application to the game application icon of the game K after the processing for causing the user to play the game K is executed by the execution means 150. Although the case where it displays on a screen was demonstrated, it is not restricted to this case. For example, as will be described later in (1-8-1) Modification 1, after installing the game application of the game K on the user terminal 10 without updating the icon, Both the registered application icon and the game K game application icon may be displayed.
Alternatively, after installing the game application of the game K, the icon may be displayed as the icon of the game application without changing the display mode of the icon of the user registration application. If the user can recognize that the game has been distributed by another means (for example, notifying the user that the game K has been distributed by the image G21 in FIG. 7), the icon display mode has not changed. However, the user can recognize that the icon functions as a game application of the game K.

  In the present embodiment, when the receiving unit 140 receives an instruction for the game application icon (an example of the second icon) of the game K displayed on the home screen by the icon display unit 130, the execution unit 150 performs the game K. Although the case where the process is executed has been described, the present invention is not limited to this case. For example, after installing the game application of the game K, the icon of the user registration application (an example of the first icon) is not changed, and the icon is displayed as an icon of the game application (that is, without updating). In the case of display, the execution unit 150 may execute a process related to the game K by receiving an instruction for the icon of the user registration application.

In the present embodiment, a case has been described in which the execution unit 150 receives the upload destination URL of the game application as a process for acquiring information about the upload destination of the game application of the game K. However, the present invention is not limited to this case. You may acquire the upload destination of a game application as follows.
When the API for notifying the latest version information of the designated application ID is provided in the download service program of the application server 50, the user registration application delivers the application ID of the game K application application to the API. Thus, the latest version information of the game K application can be acquired from the application server 50 without using the registration server 30. In this case, the latest version information of the game K application is an example of upload destination information.
When the user registration application acquires the latest version information, it compares its version information with the latest version information, and if the latest version information is newer, accepts the user's instruction on whether to update the application. Is displayed on the user terminal 10. When receiving an instruction to update the application by the user, the user registration application transmits to the application server 50 an HTTP request specifying a predetermined URL including the application ID of the game K application. The URL is a URL in a known format for acquiring the latest version information application designating the application ID from the application distribution site. As a result, for example, as shown in an image G31 in FIG. 8, an image for downloading the game K application with the latest version information is displayed on the user terminal 10.

The “process for causing the user to play the game K” that is the execution target of the execution unit 150 is not limited to the process for acquiring the upload destination of the game application of the game K.
The “process for causing the user to play the game K” may be a process for acquiring (receiving) a game application of the game K. In this case, for example, in FIG. 8, when the instruction (i) for the icon of the user registration application is received after the game K is distributed, the user registration application and the web browser cooperate to (ii) to (viii) in FIG. The series of processes is executed without the user's tap operation on the button P210.
The “process for causing the user to play the game K” may be a process for installing a game application of the game K and displaying an icon of the application on the home screen. In this case, for example, in FIG. 8, when an instruction (i) for the icon of the user registration application is received after the game K is distributed, the user registration application, the web browser, and the OS cooperate to perform (ii) to (ii) to FIG. A series of processes (x) (or (ii) to (xi)) is executed without a tap operation of the button P210 by the user.
The “process for causing the user to play the game K” may be a process for executing the game application of the game K. In this case, for example, in FIG. 8, when an instruction (i) for the icon of the user registration application is received after the game K is distributed, the user registration application, the web browser, and the OS cooperate to perform (ii) to (ii) to FIG. The series of processes (ix) is executed without the user's tap operation on the button P210, and the game application of the game K is activated.

(1-8) Modified Examples Hereinafter, modified examples of the present embodiment will be described.

(1-8-1) Modification 1
In the present embodiment, the case where the user registration application is updated to the game K game application after the game K game application has been downloaded has been described with reference to FIG. 8, but the user registration application is changed to the game K game application. There is no need to update.
FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating a modified example of the flow until the game becomes executable after the game is distributed in the information processing system of the present embodiment. The differences between FIG. 15 and FIG. 8 will be described below.
15, the point that the HTML document is transmitted from the application server 50 after the login request is transmitted from the user terminal 10 to the registration server 30 is the same as (i) to (v) in FIG. The HTML document transmitted from the server 50 to the user terminal 10 is not for guiding the update of the user registration application, but for acquiring the game application of the game K. In this modification, the application distribution site is configured such that applications having the same application ID but different version information can be individually downloaded. When the application server 50 receives an HTTP request by redirection from the registration server 30, for example, a download for acquiring an application having the latest version information among applications having an application ID (that is, a game K application application) included in the HTTP request. Image data is generated and transmitted to the web browser of the user terminal 10.
The web browser of the user terminal 10 displays the image G31A based on the download image data. The image G31A includes a button P1210 (“Acquire”) for acquiring a game application of the game K. A download request is transmitted to the application server 50 by performing an operation (for example, a tap operation using the finger F with respect to the button P1210) for designating the button P1210 ("Acquire"). Based on the download request, the application server 50 transmits the game application of the game K to the user terminal 10 as the game K application with the latest version information.

The OS of the user terminal 10 installs the received game application of the game K on the user terminal 10 and displays the icon Q201 of the game application as shown on the home screen G32A. That is, the icon Q101 of the user registration application already installed and the icon Q201 of the game application of the newly installed game K are both displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10.
In addition, the OS of the user terminal 10 performs a process (takeover process) of transferring the user account and user information from the user registration application to the game application. For example, when the OS of the user terminal 10 determines that the already installed user registration application and the newly installed game K game application have the same application ID, the user account and user information Perform the takeover process.

  In this modification, the application distribution site has been described as being configured to be able to individually download applications having different version information even if the application has the same application ID. Whether or not to permit the password may be determined based on an authentication result based on a predetermined password from the user (for example, a password registered in advance in the application distribution site by the user).

(1-8-2) Modification 2
In the present embodiment, the case where the game application of the game K is downloaded based on the user's operation and the user registration application is updated to the game application has been described with reference to FIG. You may comprise so that it may update automatically.
This modification will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a modified example of the flow until the game becomes executable after the game is distributed in the information processing system of the present embodiment. Differences between FIG. 16 and FIG. 8 will be described below. In FIG. 16, the OS of the user terminal 10 transmits to the application server 50 an application information request that requests transmission of the latest version information of the game K application application every predetermined time. The frequency of the application information request may be predetermined depending on the OS, or may be configured so that the user can set a desired time unit.

Hereinafter, description will be made in the order of (i) to (vii) in FIG.
(i) When the timing of the application information request is reached, the OS of the user terminal 10 transmits an application information request including the application ID of the game K application application to the application server 50.
(ii) The application server 50 reads the application ID included in the application information request, and identifies the latest version information of the application corresponding to the read application ID from the distributable applications stored in the application server 50. To do. Then, the application server 50 transmits, to the user terminal 10, application information including the latest version information identified and the URL at which the game K application of the version information is uploaded on the application distribution site.
(iii), (iv) The OS of the user terminal 10 uses the game K application application version information (ver.1) installed in the user terminal 10 and the game K application included in the application information received in (ii). When the latest version information of the application is compared, and it is determined that the latest version information is newer, the game K application application of the latest version information (that is, ver. 2) specifying the URL included in the application information. The download request for the game application of the game K) is transmitted to the application server 50. The application server 50 transmits the game application of the game K to the user terminal 10 in response to the download request. That is, the game application for game K is downloaded.
In (iii), the OS of the user terminal 10 is the version information (ver.1) of the game K application that is installed in the user terminal 10, and the latest version of the game K application received in (ii). If it is determined that the information is the same, the processing after (iv) is not performed.
(v) to (vii) The processing after downloading the game application of the game K is the same as (ix) to (xi) in FIG.
Note that the application information transmitted to the user terminal 10 in (ii) may not include the URL at which the game K application of the version information is uploaded on the application distribution site. If the URL format for acquiring the latest version information application designating the application ID from the application distribution site is known, the URL need not be acquired from the application server 50.

In this modification, the first acquisition unit 180 shown in FIG. 10 is further provided. The 1st acquisition means 180 is provided with the function which acquires the application information (an example of the information regarding upload of a 2nd application) of a game K use application. This function is realized by the above (i) and (ii). In addition, the second download unit 160 according to the present modification, in response to the acquisition of the application information of the game K application application by the first acquisition unit 180, includes the URL (that is, the latest version information) included in the application information. A game K game application, which is a game K application application, and a game K upload application URL). This function is realized by the above (iii) and (iv).
According to this modification, it is possible to automatically download the game application of the game K after the distribution of the game K, so that the user plays the game K immediately after the distribution of the game K without any additional operation. Will be able to. Moreover, since the display mode of the icon is changed by the automatic update, the user can know that the game K can be played. Therefore, the user can surely play the game K without forgetting it. .

(1-8-3) Modification 3
In the present embodiment, FIG. 8 illustrates the case where the application update process is performed using a user operation (instruction operation on the icon Q101) as a trigger. However, the application update process is performed using a push notification from the registration server 30 as a trigger. You may be made to be.
This modification will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a modified example of the flow until the game becomes executable after the game is distributed in the information processing system of the present embodiment. Differences between FIG. 17 and FIG. 8 will be described below. In FIG. 17, the registration server 30 notifies the user terminal 10 of information indicating that the application can be updated by push notification. “Push notification” is a notification method in which the system actively acquires information and notifies the user terminal of the information. When the OS operating on the user terminal 10 receives the push notification, the OS displays the push notification on the home screen of the user terminal 10 even when the user terminal 10 does not activate the user registration application.
By performing the application update process using the push notification as a trigger, the user can be effectively notified that the distribution of the game K has been started. In other words, in addition to the icon of the user registration application being displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10, a push notification is displayed on the home screen, thereby further increasing the possibility of starting the game after the distribution of the game K. Can do.

In the following, the case where the registration server 30 directly performs push notification to the user terminal 10 will be described. However, the registration server 30 requests that other servers that manage push notification perform push notification. The other server may transfer the push notification to the user terminal 10.
For example, a framework called APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) is prepared when the OS of the user terminal 10 is iOS, and GCM (Google Cloud Messaging) is prepared when the OS of the user terminal 10 is Android. In any case, when the registration server 30 sends a push notification to a server managed by Apple Inc. or Google Inc. in the United States under the permission of the user, the registration server 30 is configured to be transferred to the user terminal 10. Then, the OS of the user terminal 10 receives the received push notification and displays the notification on the home screen of the user terminal 10.

Hereinafter, description will be made in the order of (i) to (xii) in FIG.
(i) The user terminal 10 receives a push notification indicating that the game K application has been updated from the registration server 30. For example, text is displayed in the display area G50a of the home screen G50.
(ii) to (ix) The user registration application is activated based on a user operation (for example, a tap operation using the finger F) specifying the display area G50a. After the user registration application is activated, the same processing as (ii) onward in FIG. 8 is performed. That is, the user registration application acquires a URL from the registration server 30 and delivers the URL to the web browser. Then, the web browser designates the URL to access the application distribution site, and the game K application is downloaded from the application server 50.
(x) to (xii) The processing after the designation operation (for example, the tap operation using the finger F) of the button P510 (“update”) of the image G51 is performed as (ix) to (xi) in FIG. It is the same.

(1-8-4) Modification 4
In the present embodiment, the distribution time display unit 210 displays information indicating that the distribution start time of the game K has been changed using information regarding the distribution start time of the game K acquired by the second acquisition unit 190. May be. By such a display mode, the user can recognize that the time of distribution of the game K has been changed before the distribution of the game K. Therefore, it becomes easy to make a future plan for the time when the game K is played.
In order to realize this modification, after the user registration application of the user terminal 10 acquires information indicating the distribution start time of the game K from the registration server 30 in S134 of the sequence chart of FIG. In comparison, it is determined whether or not the distribution start time of the game K has been changed. In order to perform this determination process, the user registration application records the information in the storage 18 every time it acquires information indicating the distribution start time of the game K from the registration server 30.
In S138 of FIG. 12, in addition to the remaining period until the distribution start time, the user registration application displays “Game K distribution has been changed” as information indicating that the game K distribution start time has been changed. Is displayed. For example, such text is included in the image G21 in FIG. Alternatively, the color or pattern of the image G21 may be a different color or pattern from the case where the distribution start time is not changed, or a mark indicating that the distribution start time is changed may be attached. Thereby, the user can immediately recognize that the delivery start time of the game K has been changed.

  As a display mode of information indicating that the distribution start time of the game K has been changed, a display is made so that the difference between the initial distribution start time or the distribution start time immediately before the change and the distribution start time after the change can be compared. Also good. For example, a text such as “The game K distribution start time has been postponed from August 6, 2014 to August 15, 2014” is an image when the user registration application is executed (corresponding to the image G21 in FIG. 7). Image). Alternatively, information indicating the difference between the distribution start times before and after the update (for example, text such as “postponed for 9 days”) may be displayed.

(1-8-5) Modification 5
In this modification, the distribution time display unit 210 displays information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started using the information regarding the distribution start time of the game K acquired by the second acquisition unit 190. With such a display mode, it is possible to effectively notify the user that the distribution of the game K has been started.
A sequence chart of this modification is shown in FIG. The sequence chart shown in FIG. 18 shows a modified example of processing when the user registration application shown in FIG. 12 is executed. In FIG. 18, the processing of S1130, S1134, and S1136 of the user terminal 10A according to this modification is the same as S130, S134, and S136 of the user terminal 10 of FIG. 12, and S1322 of the registration server 30A according to this modification. , S1324, and S1328 are the same as S322, S324, and S328 of the registration server 30 in FIG. 12, respectively.

The point that the sequence chart of FIG. 18 is substantially different from FIG. 12 will be described below. In FIG. 18, a flag FL (0: not elapsed, 1: elapsed) indicating whether or not the game K distribution start time has elapsed in the user terminal 10A is provided. The flag FL is stored in the storage 18 in association with the user registration application. The initial value of the flag FL is “0” (not elapsed).
When the instruction of the icon of the user registration application is received (S1128: YES), the user registration application is activated (S1130), and the flag FL is read from the storage 18 (S1131). The login request transmitted from the user registration application to the registration server 30A in S1132 includes the value of the flag FL. When the value of the flag FL is “0” (S1326: NO), the registration server 30A transmits information regarding the distribution start time to the user registration application of the user terminal 10A (S1328). After calculating the remaining period (S1136), the user registration application determines whether or not the distribution start time of the game K has elapsed with reference to the current time based on the information regarding the distribution start time acquired in S1134 (S1138). If it has elapsed, the value of the flag FL in the storage 18 is rewritten to “1” (elapsed) (S1140).
The user registration application determines a display mode of information indicating the distribution start time of the game K based on the value of the flag FL (S1142). In this modification, when it is determined that the value of the flag FL is “1”, in S1142, information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started is displayed.

  For example, instead of displaying the remaining period in the image G21 in FIG. 7, text such as “Delivery of game K has started” may be displayed as the display mode of S1142. Alternatively, the color or pattern of the image G21 may be a different color or pattern from the case where the distribution start time is not changed, or a mark indicating that the distribution start time is changed may be attached. Alternatively, the image G21 may be displayed with a different color and pattern as compared to the case where the distribution start time of the game K has not elapsed, or a mark indicating that the game K has started may be displayed. With these display modes, the user can immediately recognize that the distribution of the game K has started.

  When the distribution start time of the game K has elapsed and information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started is displayed on the user terminal 10, the flag FL is “1”. Thereafter, when the user registration application is activated, the flag FL included in the login request transmitted to the registration server 30 is “1”. In that case, the registration server 30A performs the same process as in FIGS. 13A and 13B (S1326: YES). Thereby, the process of downloading the game application of the game K from the application distribution site can be executed by the redirect process from the registration server 30 to the application server 50.

(2) Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment will be described. The system configuration of this embodiment may be the same as that shown in FIG. The hardware configurations of the user terminal 10B and the registration server 30B of the present embodiment may be the same as those shown in FIGS. The application server 50 of this embodiment may be the same as that described in the first embodiment.
The present embodiment is the same as the first embodiment in that information indicating the game K delivery start time is displayed on the user terminal, but the display mode of the information is different from the first embodiment. Specifically, in the present embodiment, information indicating the game K distribution start time is displayed on the icon of the user registration application. As described in the first embodiment, since the icon of the user registration application is displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10B, the game K is displayed through the home screen that the user always sees when operating the user terminal 10B. Can be played after distribution of the game K without forgetting.
In the following, the contents specific to the present embodiment will be referred to, and duplicate explanations will be omitted for matters that have already been described in the first embodiment and can also be applied in the present embodiment.

(2-1) User Registration Application Icon Display Processing The user registration application icon display processing of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 19 and 20. FIGS. 19 and 20 each illustrate a mechanism for updating (changing) the display of the icon of the user registration application on the home screen after installing the user registration application of the game K in the user terminal 10B in the present embodiment. It is a figure to do.

19 and 20, a case where the display mode of the user registration application icon Q101 changes such as the icons Q101A, Q101B,... Will be described. In the following description, the icons Q101A, Q101B,... Are collectively referred to as icons Q101 when not distinguished from each other.
19 and 20 show an example in which the information indicating the game K distribution start time displayed on the icon of the user registration application is the remaining period from the current time at the time of display to the game distribution start time. However, it is not limited to this example. The information indicating the game K distribution start time displayed on the icon is information indicating the game distribution time itself (for example, date and time such as “August 10, 2014” or “8/10”). Information).

In the present embodiment, the user registration process is performed when the user registration application is started for the first time after the user registration application is installed, as in the first embodiment. In the present embodiment, after the user registration process, the user registration application and the OS cooperate to execute the following process shown in FIG.
(i) The user registration application is activated when the user performs an operation of selecting the icon Q101 of the user registration application on the home screen G60 (for example, a tap operation using the finger F on the icon Q101).
(ii) When the user registration application is activated, the user registration application transmits a login request including a user ID as a user account to the registration server 30B.
(iii) The user registration application receives information ST related to the distribution start time of the game K from the registration server 30B.
(iv) In cooperation with the user registration application and the OS, information indicating the game K distribution start time is displayed on the icon of the user registration application based on the information ST regarding the game K distribution start time acquired in (iii). As shown, the icon is displayed on the home screen G60 of the user terminal 10B.

  In the example illustrated in FIG. 19, it is assumed that the N−1th, Nth, and N + 1th user registration applications are activated in order, and the above processes (i) to (iv) are performed each time the activation is performed. The As a result, an icon Q101A indicating that the remaining period (that is, the remaining period until the game K distribution start time) is “8 days” after the N−1th user registration application is activated is displayed. After the Nth user registration application is activated, an icon Q101B indicating that the remaining period is “5 days” is displayed. After the N + 1th user registration application is activated, an icon Q101C indicating that the remaining period is “3 days” is displayed. In addition, although FIG. 19 illustrates the case where the display of the icon is updated in accordance with the change of the remaining period in units of one day, an icon indicating the remaining period in units of hours or minutes may be displayed. .

FIG. 20 shows an example of a change in the display of the icon of the user registration application before and after the game K distribution start time on the home screen G61 of the user terminal 10B. In FIG. 20, for example, the user registration application icon Q101D displayed when the user starts the M-th user registration application indicates that the remaining period is “2 days”. The user registration application icon Q101E displayed when the user registration application is started after the game K distribution start time is preferably identifiable by the user as compared to before the game K distribution start time. It is displayed in such a display mode. For example, the icon Q101E includes a text “distributing” and is displayed in a different pattern from the icon displayed before the distribution start time. The text or pattern displayed on the icon Q101E is a display example of information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started.
Note that FIG. 20 is merely an example of changes in the display mode of the icons before and after the game K distribution start time, and is not limited to this example. It is preferable that the icon Q101E includes text, a color, a pattern, or a mark that is different from the icons Q101A to Q101D. Thereby, the user can immediately recognize that the distribution of the game K has started.

(2-2) Overview of Functions Provided by User Terminal as Information Processing Device In the functional block diagram shown in FIG. 10, the functions essential to the present embodiment are the first download means 110 and the first installation means. 120, an icon display unit 130, a reception unit 140, a second acquisition unit 190, a generation unit 200, and a distribution time display unit 210.
When the second acquisition unit 190 of this embodiment receives an instruction for the icon of the user registration application (an example of the first icon) displayed on the home screen by the reception unit 140 before the distribution of the game K, the game K It has a function to acquire information related to the delivery start time.
The generation unit 200 uses the information regarding the distribution start time of the game K acquired by the second acquisition unit 190 to generate image data (an example of output data) for displaying information indicating the distribution start time of the game K. It has a function to generate. The delivery time display unit 210 of the present embodiment has a function of performing a process of displaying an image based on the image data generated by the generation unit 220.

  In the present embodiment, the second acquisition unit 190 can be realized in the same manner as described in the first embodiment. That is, when the instruction for the icon of the user registration application displayed on the home screen is recognized, the OS of the user terminal 10B activates the user registration application. When the user registration application is activated, the user registration application transmits a login request including the user ID to the registration server 30B. By executing the server program, the registration server 30B reads information on the distribution start time of the game K from the RAM 33 after the login process, generates an HTML document including the information, and transmits the HTML document to the user terminal 10B. The user registration application of the user terminal 10B acquires the information regarding the game K distribution start time by receiving the HTML document transmitted from the registration server 30B.

The function of the production | generation means 200 is realizable as follows, for example.
When the user registration application of the user terminal 10B acquires information about the game K distribution start time from the registration server 30B, the remaining time until the game K distribution start time is calculated based on the acquired time. The user registration application passes the calculated remaining period as an argument to the icon display API provided by the OS of the user terminal 10B. Note that the calculated value of the remaining period being a negative number means that the distribution start time of the game K has passed when the information regarding the distribution start time of the game K is acquired from the registration server 30B. The OS generates icon image data (an example of output data) of the user registration application based on the value of the remaining period passed.

The generation unit 200 uses the information regarding the game K distribution start time acquired by the second acquisition unit 190 to display image data (an example of output data) for displaying information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started. ) Is preferably generated. By such a display mode, it is possible to provide the user more effectively than information about the game K distribution start time.
Specifically, when the user registration application of the user terminal 10B determines that the current time has passed the distribution start time of the game K based on the information regarding the distribution start time of the game K acquired from the registration server 30B. Then, information indicating whether or not the distribution start time has passed (a flag FL to be described later) is passed as an argument to the icon display API provided by the OS of the user terminal 10B. When the OS determines that the distribution start time has passed based on the argument, the OS determines the display mode of the icon image of the user registration application so that information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started is displayed. Then, image data of the icon is generated.

  In order to realize the function of the distribution time display unit 210 of the present embodiment, the OS of the user terminal 10B allows the user registration application icon to be installed on the user terminal 10B based on the generated image data. The icon is displayed on the home screen of the user terminal 10B.

(2-3) Processing when activating user registration application (FIG. 21)
FIG. 21 shows a sequence chart of the present embodiment. The sequence chart shown in FIG. 21 shows an example of processing when the user registration application is executed, as shown in FIG. In FIG. 21, the processes of S2130, S2134, and S2136 of the user terminal 10B according to this modification are the same as S130, S134, and S136 of the user terminal 10 of FIG. 12, and S2322 of the registration server 30B according to this modification. , S2324, and S2328 are the same as S322, S324, and S328 of the registration server 30 in FIG. 12, respectively, and therefore these processes will not be described in detail.

The point that the sequence chart of FIG. 21 is substantially different from FIG. 12 will be described below. In FIG. 21, a flag FL (0: not elapsed, 1: elapsed) indicating whether or not the game K distribution start time has elapsed in the user terminal 10B is provided. The flag FL is stored in the storage 18 in association with the user registration application. The initial value of the flag FL is “0” (not elapsed).
When the instruction of the icon of the user registration application is received (S2128: YES), the user registration application is activated (S2130), and the flag FL is read from the storage 18 (S2131). The login request transmitted from the user registration application to the registration server 30B in S2132 includes the value of the flag FL. When the value of the flag FL is “0” (S2326: NO), the registration server 30B transmits information regarding the distribution start time to the user registration application of the user terminal 10B (S2328). After calculating the remaining period (S2136), the user registration application determines whether or not the distribution start time of the game K has elapsed with reference to the current time based on the information regarding the distribution start time acquired in S2134 (S2138). If it has elapsed, the value of the flag FL in the storage 18 is rewritten to “1” (elapsed) (S2140).

  Next, the OS of the user terminal 10B generates image data of the icon of the user registration application based on the calculated remaining period and the value of the flag FL (S2142). That is, the user registration application passes the value of the remaining period calculated in S2134 and the value of the flag FL as arguments to the icon display API provided by the OS of the user terminal 10B. The OS determines the display mode of the icon image of the user registration application based on the delivered data, and generates image data of the icon. Specifically, when the flag FL is “0” (not elapsed), the value of the remaining period is displayed, and when the flag FL is “1” (elapsed), Information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started is displayed, and the display mode of the icon image of the user registration application is determined. The OS displays the icon image of the user registration application on the home screen of the user terminal 10B based on the generated image data, thereby updating the icon display of the user registration application (S2144).

  When the game K distribution start time has elapsed and information indicating that the game K distribution has started is displayed on the icon of the user registration application, the flag FL is “1”. Thereafter, when the user registration application is activated by performing an operation to instruct the icon, the flag FL included in the login request transmitted to the registration server 30 is “1”. In that case, the registration server 30B performs the same process as in FIGS. 13A and 13B (S2326: YES). Thereby, the process of downloading the game application of the game K from the application distribution site can be executed by the redirect process from the registration server 30 to the application server 50.

According to the present embodiment, the icon of the game K user registration application is displayed on the home screen that is always viewed when the user operates the user terminal 10B so that the information indicating the game K distribution start time is represented. Since it is displayed, the user can easily recognize the distribution start time of the game K. Therefore, in order to make the user play after distributing the game K without forgetting the game K, a mechanism for notifying the user of the distribution time of the game can be constructed. In the present embodiment, the user can immediately recognize the game distribution start time without performing an additional operation (for example, an operation of executing a user registration application).
In this embodiment, every time the user registration application is activated, the icon of the game K user registration application is updated according to the game K distribution start time. If the information indicating the delivery start time displayed on the icon is the remaining period until the delivery start time, the icon is displayed so that the remaining period counts down as time passes. Since it changes, the expectation of the user until the game distribution start time can be felt.

In the present embodiment, since the icon of the user registration application changes so as to display a countdown, the following effects are further achieved.
When the user recognizes that the game K has been distributed by the countdown display of the icon of the user registration application, the user terminal 10 performs an operation (for example, a tap operation using a finger) to indicate the icon. An image for downloading the game application of game K from the application distribution site is displayed (S2326 in FIG. 21: display in S140 in FIG. 13A following the determination of YES). Therefore, after recognizing that the game K has been distributed, it is not necessary to access the application distribution site and search for the game application of the game K. Therefore, after recognizing that the game K has been distributed, it is possible to start playing the game K in a short period of time. In the social game field, it is said that “start dash after game distribution is important”. This is because a special privilege may be obtained if the game is started immediately after the game is distributed, and the game level can be higher than other users who start the game later. This is to make it easier to create a favorable situation. Therefore, information on when the game is distributed is important information for a user who wants to start dash.
Conventionally, there has been a method of sending an e-mail describing a URL for downloading a game application from an application distribution site to a user who has registered as a user before distribution after distribution of the game. The user may miss an email. On the other hand, in this embodiment, since the icon of the user registration application is displayed on the home screen, the game application can be downloaded more reliably and in a shorter period than before, and the game can be started.

  19 and 20 exemplify the case where the information indicating the distribution start time of the game K displayed on the icon of the user registration application is the number of remaining days until the distribution start time. However, the present invention is not limited to this case. The information indicating the distribution start time of the game K displayed on the icon may indicate the distribution start time in hour / minute units or the remaining period in hour / minute units. By displaying in units of hours and minutes, the user can know a more accurate distribution start time, so that it is easy to make a plan for starting the game play. Especially for a user who wants to perform a start dash, knowing more accurate time is very important information.

  19 and 20 exemplify the case where the information indicating the distribution start time of the game K displayed on the icon is time information corresponding to the remaining period until the distribution start time, it is not limited to this example. The information indicating the distribution start time may be a text (“still still”, “a little more”, etc.) reminiscent of the distribution start time, or may be a color, pattern, or mark corresponding to the remaining period Good. With this display mode, the user can recognize the remaining period. The user cannot recognize an accurate remaining period, but can sensuously recognize that the delivery start time is approaching in stages. On the other hand, a game operator such as a company has an advantage in that it does not need to indicate an accurate distribution time. The delivery time may be postponed depending on the progress of game production, and it may be difficult to indicate the exact delivery time. In this case, it may be more convenient to display the remaining period with a width. This is because, for example, if the display format is wide even if the delivery time is postponed for one week, the display of the remaining period may not be changed.

(2-4) Modified Examples Hereinafter, modified examples of the present embodiment will be described.

(2-4-1) Modification 1
In the present embodiment, the generation unit 200 displays information indicating that the delivery start time of the game K has been changed using the information related to the delivery start time of the game K acquired by the second acquisition unit 190. Image data (an example of output data) may be generated. With such a display mode, the user can recognize that the game delivery time has been changed before the game delivery. This makes it easier to make future plans for when to play the game.
An example of the display mode of the icon of the user registration application of this modification is shown in FIG.
FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of a change in the icon display of the user registration application due to the user executing the user registration application. FIG. 22 shows an example in which the icon of the user registration application changes in the order of icons Q101A, Q101B, Q101F, Q101G, Q101H, and Q101J with the passage of time. In FIG. 22, since the distribution start time acquired to display the icon Q101F has been changed (delayed) from the distribution start time acquired to display the icon Q101B, the display mode of the icon Q101F is changed to the icon Q101B. It is different from that. Similarly, since the distribution start time acquired to display the icon Q101H has been changed (earned) from the distribution start time acquired to display the icon Q101G, the display mode of the icon Q101H is changed from that of the icon Q101G. Are different.

  In order to realize this modification, the user registration application stores information indicating the distribution start time of the game K from the registration server 30 </ b> B every time it acquires information similar to Modification 4 of the first embodiment. 18 is recorded. Then, each time the information is acquired, the user registration application determines whether or not the distribution start time of the game K has been changed compared to the information acquired last time, and delivers it to the icon display API based on the determination result. Determine the argument. The argument in this modification example includes a remaining period and information indicating whether or not the game K distribution start time is changed. Then, the OS generates image data of the icon of the user registration application based on the argument.

(2-4-2) Modification 2
19 and 20 show an example in which the information indicating the game K distribution start time displayed on the icon of the user registration application is the remaining period from the current time at the time of display to the game distribution start time. However, the display target may be information indicating an indicator of the remaining period, not the remaining period itself. FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a modified example of a change in display of the icon of the user registration application due to the user executing the user registration application. FIG. 23 shows an example in which the icon of the user registration application changes in the order of icons Q101K, Q101L, and Q101M with the passage of time. A gauge Q101a whose length varies according to the remaining period is displayed below each icon shown in FIG. Even with such information indicating the remaining period index, the user can intuitively recognize the remaining period until the distribution of the game K is started or the distribution start time of the game K.

(2-4-3) Modification 3
In this modification, the information indicating the distribution start time of the game K to be displayed is information relating to the remaining period until the game K distribution start time. Then, the generation unit 200 generates image data to be displayed in a display mode that is stepwise different depending on the length of the remaining period.
With such a display mode, the user cannot recognize the accurate remaining period, but can sensuously recognize that the distribution start time is approaching in stages.
For example, in FIGS. 19 and 20, when the remaining period displayed on the icon Q101 of the user registration application is 7 days or more, the display is blue, when the remaining period is 3 to 6 days, the display is yellow, and the remaining period is When it is within two days, it may be displayed in red. In this way, by changing the display mode in stages, it is possible to provide the user more effectively than information about the game distribution start time. In this case, the remaining period itself (for example, “8 days”) may not necessarily be displayed. Even if the remaining period itself is not displayed, any display mode may be used as long as the user can associate the degree of the remaining period.
As another example of the display mode, the length of the gauge Q101a shown in FIG. 23 may be changed stepwise according to the length of the remaining period.

(2-4-4) Modification 4
In this modification, when the delivery start time of the game K is changed, a privilege is given to a user who has already been registered.
For example, the remaining period displayed when the user registration application is started on a certain day is “4 days”, and the remaining period displayed when the user registration application is started on the next day is “15 days”. In some cases, it means that the game K distribution start time is delayed due to the convenience of the game operator. Such a delay in the game K distribution start time may discourage the user. In addition, even if the game K distribution start time is advanced due to the convenience of the game operator, the future schedule of the user may be lost. Therefore, when the delivery start time of the game K is changed, a user's dissatisfaction can be eliminated by giving a privilege to the user as the compensation. The type of privilege is not particularly limited, and may be points or items that can be used in the game K, or a certain amount of virtual currency that can be used in games other than the game K.
In the present modification, the second acquisition unit 190 acquires privilege information related to a privilege that can be used in the game K when the distribution start time of the game K is changed from the registration server 30B. And the production | generation means 200 produces | generates the image data for displaying the information which shows that the delivery start time of the game K was changed, and privilege information.

An example of image display in this modification is shown in FIG.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 24, the icon Q101N of the user registration application displayed on the home screen G70 indicates that the remaining period until the game K distribution start time is “4 days”. The user registration application is activated by performing an operation to instruct the icon Q101N. When the user registration application is activated, for example, an image G71 is displayed. In this example, the image G71 includes a display area G71a in which information indicating the distribution start time is displayed, information indicating that the distribution start time of the game K has been changed ("10-day delay"), and privilege information ("500 pt )) Is displayed. The display area G71b is displayed.

This modification can be realized as follows.
By executing the server program, the registration server 30B determines whether or not there has been a change to the information about the distribution start time when the game K was acquired last time, every time the information about the distribution start time of the game K is acquired. For example, the distribution start time information (information that can be rewritten by the game operator) stored in the RAM 33 of the registration server 30B is periodically read out to determine whether or not the distribution start time information has changed. When there is a change in the information on the distribution start time, the registration server 30B receives information on the distribution start time of the game K and privilege information in response to a login request from the user registration application of the user terminal 10B. Send to the user registration application. Next, the registration server 30B records the transmitted privilege information in the user registration data table TBL351 in association with the user ID.
When the privilege information is information related to a privilege that can be used in the game K after distribution of the game, the privilege information recorded in the user registration data table TBL 351 after distribution of the game K is taken over to the game server of the game K.

(2-4-5) Modification 5
In the present embodiment, information displayed on the user registration application, that is, information indicating the distribution start time of the game K (see icons Q101A to Q101C in FIG. 19), indicating that the distribution start time of the game K has been changed. Information (see Modification 1) and information indicating that the distribution of the game K has started (see, for example, the icon Q101E in FIG. 20) are not limited to the illustrated display mode. Each information is not limited to text, and may be represented by a color, a pattern, or a mark. Such a display mode of information allows the user to roughly recognize information to be displayed.

(3) Additional Notes Hereinafter, additional items for each embodiment will be described.

  In each of the above-described embodiments, the case where the information on the distribution start time of the game K is recorded in the registration server 30, 30A, or 30B has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the registration server 30, 30A, or 30B The information on the distribution start time of the game K may be recorded in another device. For example, in S328 of the sequence chart of FIG. 12 relating to the first embodiment, the registration server 30 does not transmit information regarding the game K distribution start time to the user terminal 10, but records information about the game K distribution start time. The address information of the device being used may be transmitted to the user terminal 10. In this case, the user terminal 10 accesses the device based on the address information and acquires information related to the game K distribution start time.

The technical matters described in the above-described embodiments and the modifications related to the embodiments can be appropriately combined as long as no technical contradiction occurs.
For example, in the first embodiment, the information indicating the distribution start time of the game K is not displayed when the user registration application is executed, and the information is registered as in the second embodiment. An application icon (an example of the first object) may be included and displayed. Similarly, in the first embodiment, information indicating that the distribution start time of the game K has been changed (see modification 4 of the first embodiment), and information indicating that distribution of the game K has started. (Refer to Modification 5 of the first embodiment) may also be displayed by being included in the icon (an example of the first object) of the user registration application.
According to this configuration, the user can immediately recognize the distribution start time of the game K from the home screen of the user terminal without performing an instruction operation on the icon of the user registration application to start the user registration application.

  The function of the distribution time display means 210 mentioned in the second embodiment displays information indicating the distribution start time of the game K as described in the first embodiment (for example, the image G21 in FIG. 7 is displayed). This can also be realized. In that case, generation of image data (an example of output data) and display of an image are executed by a user registration application.

  In each embodiment described above, the game server of the game K after the distribution of the game K and the user who registered the user before the distribution start time of the game K (referred to as “pre-registered user”) and the distribution of the game K You may distinguish and manage the user who performed user registration after the start time (referred to as “post-registration user”). Thereby, for example, different services or settings can be performed for both in the game K (for example, the contents of the privilege can be changed). The contents of the privilege obtained by the campaign or event planned in the game K may be different between the two. The pre-registration user provides a service that is more advantageous after the game K is distributed than the post-registration user, thereby promoting the user's pre-registration (“user registration” in the above-described embodiments).

  In the game server, as a method for managing the pre-registered user and the post-registered user separately, for example, the following method can be adopted. The game server acquires a user registration data table from the registration server, and generates a game K user data table based on the user registration data table. At this time, the user ID and nickname recorded in the user registration data table are recorded (that is, taken over) in the user data table. Then, in correspondence with the user ID taken over from the user registration data table, information indicating that the user is a pre-registered user is recorded in the user data table. When the game server receives a login request including a user ID from the user terminal, the game server refers to the information indicating that the user is a pre-registered user, and the request source user is a pre-registered user or a post-registered user. Determine whether.

  Each of the above-described embodiments has been described by taking a game as an example, but can be applied to an application other than a game. For example, when a specific business application is available by downloading after a predetermined distribution start time, it is possible to construct a mechanism similar to each embodiment.

[Summary of Invention]
From the above description, the present invention is grasped as follows, for example.
The terms used in the present invention are described first.
The “information processing apparatus” may be any apparatus as long as it can establish communication with the server. The information processing apparatus may be, for example, a dedicated communication device, a portable communication terminal such as a smartphone or a portable terminal, a tablet type, a laptop type, or a stationary personal computer.
The “application” is software (also referred to as application software) that enables a user to realize a predetermined function on the information processing apparatus.
“Information relating to the game” included in the icon is information that allows the user to identify that the icon is an icon for executing an application related to the game. “Information about the game” is, for example, the name or abbreviation of the game K, an illustration of a game character appearing in the game K, an illustration reminiscent of the game K, and the like.
“Display screen capable of displaying multiple icons” is a basic operation screen of an information processing apparatus configured to allow the user to select an instruction target icon to execute one of a plurality of applications. is there. Different names are used depending on the type of information processing device, such as a home screen or a desktop screen.
The “process for causing the user to play the game” may be all processes until the user can play the game, or may be a part of the process. For example, a process for acquiring a game application for executing a game, a process for acquiring information necessary for acquiring the game application, and the like are examples of “a process for causing a user to play a game”.
The “process related to the game” is a process for allowing the user to play the game or advance the game, and is not necessarily limited to the process of executing the game based on the user's operation. For example, login processing before the user plays the game, processing for generating or transmitting data necessary for the user to play the game, processing for displaying the top screen of the game, and the like are processing related to the game.
The “game delivery time” is the time when the game delivery is started. The time is not particularly limited, but is a specific date or a specific date and time (may include up to hours and minutes).
The “information indicating the time of game distribution” may be information indicating the time of game distribution itself (for example, information indicating the date and time such as “3rd of August, 2014”). May be information (for example, information indicating the remaining period until the game delivery time, such as “8 more days”) that can be recognized by the user.
The “user account” is information for identifying the user (for example, user ID, user e-mail address, terminal identification information, etc.).
The “information about the user account” is not limited to information on the user account itself, and may be information associated with the user account. Examples of the latter include user information such as the user's nickname, gender, nationality, and the like.

One embodiment of the present invention provides:
First download means (110) for downloading a first application (for example, a user registration application) via the network before distribution of the game (for example, game K);
In order to make the first application downloaded by the first download means (110) executable, processing for installing the first application in the information processing apparatus (for example, the user terminal 10) (for example, in S116) First installation means (120) for performing processing);
A first icon (for example, Q101) for executing the first application installed by the first installation means (110) and including information related to the game is displayed as a plurality of icons (for example, Q91 to Q91). Icon display means (130) for displaying on a display screen (for example, home screen G) capable of displaying Q97);
The accepting means (140) for accepting an instruction (for example, the process of S120) for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means (130), and the display by the accepting means (140) after the game is distributed. Execution means (150) for executing processing (for example, processing of S140) for causing the user to play the game when an instruction (for example, processing of S120) for the first icon displayed on the screen is received;
Is an information processing apparatus (for example, user terminal 10).

  This information processing apparatus is provided with a display screen capable of displaying a plurality of icons. Each icon is an icon for executing an application. The user is configured to selectively instruct one of a plurality of icons in order to execute the application, and the display screen can be said to be a basic operation screen of the information processing apparatus. When the first application is installed in the information processing apparatus before the game is distributed, a first icon including information related to the game is displayed on the display screen. Therefore, since the user recognizes the presence of the first icon on the display screen when operating the information processing apparatus before the game is distributed, the user will not forget the game. Further, after the game is distributed, a process for causing the user to play the game is executed by performing an operation in which the user instructs the first icon on the display screen. Therefore, a user who is interested in the game before distributing the game can play the game without forgetting after distributing the game.

In the information processing apparatus, the icon display means (130) executes the process for causing the user to play the game (for example, the process of S140) by the execution means (150), and then executes the first icon ( For example, Q101) may be updated to a second icon (for example, Q201) and displayed on the display screen (for example, home screen G32).
The first icon displayed on the display screen before the game is distributed is updated to the second icon, so that the process for causing the user to play the game is executed, that is, the game can be executed. The user can clearly recognize that it has become.

In the information processing apparatus, the reception unit (140) instructs the second icon (for example, Q201) displayed on the display screen (for example, the home screen G35) by the icon display unit (130) (for example, S168). Processing)
When the execution unit (150) receives an instruction (for example, the process of S168) for the second icon (for example, Q201) displayed on the display screen (for example, the home screen G35) by the reception unit (140), You may perform the process regarding the said game (for example, process of S370).
With this configuration, the user can play a game by performing an operation of instructing the second icon displayed on the display screen of the information processing apparatus. Therefore, it is excellent in operability when the user starts playing after distribution of the game.

In the information processing apparatus,
The execution means (150) uploads information of a second application (game application of game K) that can execute the game to the first application (user registration application) in order to make the user play the game. (For example, the process of S140) for specifying (for example, URL) is executed,
Second download means (160) for downloading the second application based on the upload destination information specified by the execution means (150);
In order to make the second application downloaded by the second download means (160) executable, processing for installing the second application in the information processing apparatus (for example, the user terminal 10) (for example, in S154) Second installation means (170) for performing processing),
The second installation means (170) makes the second application executable by a process of updating the first application to the second application,
The icon display means (130) displays a second icon (eg, Q201) for executing the second application installed by the second installation means (170), and the first icon (eg, Q101). ) And display on the display screen (for example, home screen G32),
The accepting means (140) accepts an instruction (for example, the process of S168) for the second icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means (130).
When the execution unit (150) receives an instruction for the second icon (for example, the process of S168) by the reception unit (140), the execution unit (150) performs the process related to the game (for example, the process of S370) in the second application. It may be executed.
According to this configuration, when the user performs an operation of instructing the first icon on the display screen, the second application is downloaded and installed in the information processing apparatus. Therefore, in order to acquire the second application, the user can save the trouble of accessing and searching for an application distribution site, for example. When the second application is installed in the information processing apparatus, the first application is updated to the second application, and the first icon on the display screen is updated to the second icon. Since the user can execute the game by the second application by performing an operation of instructing the second icon on the display screen, the user can start playing the game by a simple operation after the game is distributed. it can.

The information processing apparatus further includes first acquisition means (180) for acquiring information (for example, application information) related to upload of the second application (for example, a game application of the game K),
The second download unit (160) is included in the information related to the upload in response to the acquisition of information (for example, application information) regarding the upload of the second application by the first acquisition unit (180). The second application may be downloaded using URL information that is an upload destination of the second application.
According to this configuration, the second application can be automatically downloaded after the game is distributed, so that the user can play the game immediately after the game is distributed without an additional operation. become.

The information processing apparatus includes:
Second acquisition means (190) for acquiring information related to the game distribution time (for example, game K distribution start time);
Information indicating the game distribution time (for example, game K distribution start time) (for example, text indicating the remaining period) using the information regarding the game distribution time acquired by the second acquisition means (190). And a delivery time display means (210) for displaying ().
By displaying the information indicating the game delivery time, the user can recognize the game delivery time before starting the game delivery.

In the information processing apparatus, the delivery time display means (210) uses information relating to the delivery time of the game (for example, the delivery start time of the game K) acquired by the second acquisition means (190), Information (for example, text) indicating that the game delivery time has been changed may be displayed.
With such a display mode, the user can recognize that the game delivery time has been changed before the game delivery. This makes it easier to make future plans for when to play the game.

  In the information processing apparatus, the delivery time display means (210) uses the information on the delivery time of the game acquired by the second acquisition means (190) to confirm that the delivery of the game has started. Information to be shown (for example, text) may be displayed. With such a display mode, it is possible to effectively notify the user that the distribution of the game K has been started.

In the information processing apparatus, the delivery time display means (210) may include information to be displayed in the first object (for example, the icon Q101) for display.
According to such a display mode, for example, information indicating the timing of game distribution (such as the remaining period until game distribution is started) is displayed in the first object on the display screen. The user can immediately recognize the game delivery time without performing an instruction operation on the first object.

  In the information processing apparatus, the information displayed by the distribution time display means (210) may be any of text, color, pattern, or mark. The user can recognize the displayed information roughly by the display mode of such information.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a computer,
First download means (110) for downloading a first application (for example, a user registration application) via a network before distribution of the game (for example, game K);
In order to make the first application downloaded by the first download means (110) executable, processing for installing the first application in the information processing apparatus (for example, the user terminal 10) (for example, in S116) First installation means (120) for performing processing),
A first icon (for example, Q101) for executing the first application installed by the first installation means (110) and including information related to the game is displayed as a plurality of icons (for example, Q91 to Q91). Icon display means (130) for displaying on a display screen (for example, home screen G) that can display Q97),
Accepting means (140) for accepting an instruction (for example, the processing of S120) for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means (130);
When the instruction to the first icon displayed on the display screen is received by the receiving means (140) after the game is distributed (for example, the process of S120), the process for causing the user to play the game (for example, S140). Execution means (150) for executing
It is a program for realizing.

  Another aspect of the present invention is a computer-readable storage medium such as an optical disk or a magnetic disk that stores the program.

Another aspect of the present invention is an information processing system (1) including a server (30) and an information processing apparatus (for example, a user terminal 10) that can access the server (30).
The information processing apparatus (for example, the user terminal 10)
First download means (110) for downloading a first application (for example, a user registration application) via the network before distribution of the game (for example, game K);
In order to make the first application downloaded by the first download means (110) executable, processing for installing the first application in the information processing apparatus (for example, the user terminal 10) (for example, in S116) First installation means (120) for performing processing);
A first icon (for example, Q101) for executing the first application installed by the first installation means (110) and including information related to the game is displayed as a plurality of icons (for example, Q91 to Q91). Icon display means (130) for displaying on a display screen (for example, home screen G) capable of displaying Q97);
The accepting means (140) for accepting an instruction (for example, the process of S120) for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means (130), and the display by the accepting means (140) after the game is distributed. Execution means (150) for executing processing (for example, processing of S140) for causing the user to play the game when an instruction (for example, processing of S120) for the first icon displayed on the screen is received;
Is an information processing system.

Another aspect of the present invention is an information processing apparatus (for example, a user terminal 10) that can access a server (30) that records a user account (for example, a user ID)
A first application (for example, a user registration application) distributed via a network before distribution of a game (for example, game K) can be executed to cause the server to record a user account (for example, the process of S308). First download means (110) for downloading a first application;
In order to make the first application (for example, user registration application) downloaded by the first download means (110) executable, the first application is transferred to the information processing apparatus (for example, user terminal 10). A first installation means (120) for performing a process of installing (for example, the process of S116)
A plurality of objects (for example, icons) can be displayed as the first object (for example, icon Q101) for executing the first application (for example, user registration application) installed by the first installation means (120). First display means (130) for displaying on a simple display screen (for example, home screen G);
Receiving means (140) for receiving an instruction (for example, the processing of S120) for the first object displayed on the display screen (home screen G) by the first display means (130);
In response to receiving an instruction for the first object (for example, the icon Q101) by the receiving unit (140), the server (30) records a user account (for example, the process of S308). Execution means (150) to be executed by an application (for example, a user registration application);
Is an information processing apparatus.

In this information processing apparatus, when the first application is installed before the game is distributed, the first object for executing the first application is displayed on a display screen capable of displaying a plurality of objects. Therefore, the user who is going to play the game before distributing the game can be made to play after distributing the game without forgetting the game.
Further, when an instruction for the first object is received, a process for causing the server to record a user account is executed by the first application. Therefore, it becomes easy for the game operator to grasp the number of users who are going to play the game before the game is distributed. The user does not need to input an e-mail address or the like for user registration as in the conventional pre-registration, but only has to perform an operation of instructing the first object, so that the burden of user registration is reduced.

The information processing apparatus includes: a second download unit (160) that downloads a second application (for example, a game application) that can execute processing related to the game (for example, the game K);
In order to make the second application (for example, game application) downloaded by the second download means (160) executable, the second application (for example, game application) is changed to the information processing apparatus (for example, user). A second installation means (170) for performing a process of installing in the terminal 10) (for example, the process of S154);
A second object (for example, icon Q201) for executing the second application (for example, game application) installed by the second installation means (170) is displayed on the display screen (for example, home screen G). Second display means (180) for causing
The second installation means (170) is a process for causing the second application (for example, a game application) to transfer information relating to the user account from the first application (for example, a user registration application) (for example, the process of S158). ) May be performed.

When the second application capable of executing the process related to the game is downloaded after the game distribution is started, the second application can be executed. At this time, since the information about the user account is taken over from the first application to the second application, the information about the user obtained before the game distribution can be used in the second application after the game distribution. become. For example, if the user account includes the user's nickname, the nickname can be used on the game.
Note that the first object and the second object may be individually displayed on the display screen.

In the information processing apparatus, the second installation means (170) is configured to update the first application (for example, a user registration application) to the second application (for example, a game application) (for example, the process of S154). , Making the second application (for example, a game application) executable,
The second display means (130) may update and display the first object (for example, icon Q101) to the second object (for example, icon Q201).
In this configuration, when the second application is installed, the first application is updated to the second application, and the second object is updated and displayed with respect to the first object. As a result, the display mode of the object changes when viewed from the user. Therefore, the user can clearly recognize that the game can be executed.

  In the above, in order to facilitate the understanding of the present invention, the reference numerals described in the drawings are appropriately described in parentheses, but the information processing apparatus and the like according to the present invention are thereby limited to the illustrated embodiments. It is not a thing.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Information processing system 10, 10A, 10B ... User terminal 11 ... CPU
12 ... ROM
13 ... RAM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 15 ... Operation input part 16 ... Display part 17 ... Communication interface part 18 ... Storage 19 ... Bus 110 ... 1st download means 120 ... 1st installation means 130 ... Icon display means 140 ... Acceptance means 150 ... Execution means 160 ... 1st 2 download means 170 ... second installation means 180 ... first acquisition means 190 ... second acquisition means 200 ... generation means 210 ... delivery time display means 30, 30A, 30B ... registration server 31 ... CPU
32 ... ROM
33 ... RAM
34 ... Communication interface unit 35 ... Storage 36 ... Bus 50 ... Application server

Claims (12)

A first download means for downloading a first application via a network before distributing the game;
First installation means for performing processing for installing the first application in an information processing device in order to make the first application downloaded by the first download means executable;
Icon display for displaying on the display screen capable of displaying a plurality of icons an icon for executing the first application installed by the first installation means and including information relating to the game Means,
An accepting means for accepting an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means, and an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the accepting means after distribution of the game An execution means for executing processing for causing the user to play the game;
An information processing apparatus comprising: The icon display means updates the first icon to a second icon and displays it on the display screen after processing for causing the user to play the game is executed by the execution means.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. The receiving means receives an instruction for the second icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means;
The execution means executes processing related to the game when receiving an instruction for the second icon displayed on the display screen by the reception means.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2. The execution means causes the first application to execute processing for specifying information on an upload destination of a second application capable of executing the game in order to cause the user to play the game.
Second download means for downloading the second application based on the upload destination information specified by the execution means;
A second installation unit that performs a process of installing the second application in an information processing device in order to make the second application downloaded by the second download unit executable;
The second installation means makes the second application executable by a process of updating the first application to the second application,
The icon display means updates the second icon for executing the second application installed by the second installation means from the first icon and displays it on the display screen,
The accepting means accepts an instruction for the second icon displayed on the display screen by the icon display means,
The execution unit causes the second application to execute a process related to the game when receiving an instruction for the second icon by the reception unit.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. First acquisition means for acquiring information related to uploading of the second application;
The second download unit is a URL that is an upload destination of the second application included in the information regarding the upload in response to the acquisition of the information regarding the upload of the second application by the first acquisition unit. Download the second application using the information;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 4. Second acquisition means for acquiring information relating to the delivery time of the game;
A delivery time display means for displaying information indicating a delivery time of the game using information relating to the delivery time of the game acquired by the second acquisition means;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. The delivery time display means displays information indicating that the delivery time of the game has been changed using information on the delivery time of the game acquired by the second acquisition means.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 6. The distribution time display means displays information indicating that the distribution of the game has started, using information regarding the distribution time of the game acquired by the second acquisition means.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 6 or 7. The distribution time display means includes information to be displayed in the first object and displays the information.
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 6 to 8. The information displayed by the delivery time display means is any of text, color, pattern, or mark.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 6. On the computer,
A first download means for downloading a first application via a network before distributing the game;
First installation means for performing processing for installing the first application in an information processing device in order to make the first application downloaded by the first download means executable;
Display means for displaying the first icon including information related to the game, which is an icon for executing the first application installed by the first installation means, on a display screen capable of displaying a plurality of icons. ,
Accepting means for accepting an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the display means;
Execution means for executing processing for causing the user to play the game when receiving an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the receiving means after the game is distributed;
A program to realize An information processing system including a server and an information processing apparatus accessible to the server,
The information processing apparatus includes:
A first download means for downloading a first application via a network before distributing the game;
First installation means for performing processing for installing the first application in an information processing device in order to make the first application downloaded by the first download means executable;
Display means for displaying the first icon including information related to the game, which is an icon for executing the first application installed by the first installation means, on a display screen capable of displaying a plurality of icons. When,
A receiving unit for receiving an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the display unit; and a case for receiving an instruction for the first icon displayed on the display screen by the receiving unit after the game is distributed. Execution means for executing processing for causing the user to play the game;
An information processing system with

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