Nintendo Patents Watch

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Knowledge-based discourse

Miyamoto’s Patents Depict a Gamified Video Streaming Service for Children

Last year Nintendo released It’s Me, Mario! and Pikmin Close to You shorts. In the recent Shareholders Meeting, Furukawa reaffirmed the plan to engage young children through videos (img below). This isn’t just lip service. Its patent filing suggests R&D in a gamified video streaming service for children.

Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, Q&A Summary https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2026/qa2606e.pdf Q7 How does Nintendo view increasing points of contact with Nintendo IP through videos and other non-game content for children who are not yet old enough to play games on their own, or for households that do not usually play games? A7 Furukawa: How to approach younger audiences who are not yet old enough to play games is an important challenge for Nintendo. In August 2025, we began offering a series of products in Japan that parents and children can enjoy together under the My Mario series, and sales began in the U.S. and Europe in February 2026. For My Mario, various products are being released not only by Nintendo but also by our partner companies, and we will continue expanding the lineup. Our core business is the integrated hardware-software business centered on dedicated video game platforms. At the same time, we want audiences who are not yet old enough to play games to also encounter our IP, including Mario. In the area of video content, last year we released Close to you, a short movie featuring Pikmin that was produced by our subsidiary Nintendo Pictures. Going forward, we will continue creating opportunities through such visual content for people who do not play games and for young children to casually become familiar with Nintendo characters.

Since this is a company about play (going so far as to omit labels in its museum), it isn’t content with a passive, linear watching experience. A Nintendo patent issued in the US and Japan shows a content system that can generate a personalized video series based on the user’s viewing choices. Here are some examples on how it may work (img below is an episode selection screen):

Drawing from patent US 12279012: FIG. 6 shows an example of a selection screen.
  • If a new character is introduced in ep.4 but the user skips forward to ep.5, the character now won’t appear in ep.5 customized for the user.
  • If the hero acquires a hat in ep.5 and the user watches it, in subsequent episodes they will be wearing the hat.
  • If a heist takes place in ep.2 and the user watches ep.3 within a week, the thief will be caught; otherwise the thief will get away.
  • The dynamic video content can show the treasures acquired by the user (img 1 below); they may be required to unlock certain content, such as a happy ending.
  • The dynamic video content can also visualize the user viewing history as an adventure log (img 2).
Drawing from patent US 12279012: FIG. 12 shows an example of images in playback content being changed.
Drawing from patent US 12279012: FIG. 10 shows an example of images in playback content being changed.

The content of each episode is composed based on a template and a collection of “compositing materials” (img below). The video can be generated on a server and then streamed to the user device, or the template and materials can be sent to the device before an episode is rendered on the device locally.

Drawing from patent US 12279012: FIG. 4 shows an example of a data configuration of content data.

To facilitate the local rendering, in the US, Japan, China, and EU Nintendo filed a lossless compression patent that might be used for streaming the programs and data from the server to the user device efficiently (img below).

Drawing from patent US 12341538: FIG. 13C shows an intermediate application server that receives encoded compressed data files from an encoding device and provides the encoded compressed data files over a network to one or more application execution systems that each include a decoder for decoding the encoded compressed data files and then using (e.g., executing) the decoded data to produce an output.

Another issue needing addressed is the “previously on” recap. Since the already viewed episodes may be customized, the system takes into account the user’s viewing history to compose a recap from description clips and digest clips based on the premise data (imgs 1-2 below). This patent was filed in the US and Japan.

Drawing from patent US 12593086: FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a method for generating an opening content item
Drawing from patent US 12593086: FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of a method for generating an opening content item

The usual disclaimer that R&D patents may or may not be commercialized applies. Also note that it isn’t specified in these patents that the video streaming service is designed for children; I inferred that from the UI and use case examples. Lastly, perhaps I’m burying the lede, the inventors of the episode and recap patents include Shigeru Miyamoto and Norio Asakura, both involved in the Mario movies.

[Originally posted on 2026-07-06 Pacific Time]