http://www.gameguru.in/action/2009/02/epics-new-game-nanostrike-for-the-xbox-360/

Epic Games, whilst not mending Gears of War 2 and working on its downloadable content, are indeed busy with a bunch of projects. Last week, they applied for a patent for a brand new game that was titled Nano.Strike. A few more patents around Nano.Strike showcase a rather unusual faceplate patent for consoles, which curiously makes us think about the Xbox 360, which is a matter of pure speculation at the moment.

Details regarding this title remain mysterious, although we think of this game as a spiritual successor to Kill.switch with elements of Gears of War infused within it. On a serious note, this could very well turn out to be the psychological babbling game Cliff Blezenski has been rumored to be involved with or the new undisclosed game that People Can Fly (The studio behind Painkiller, which was later subsumed within Epic) and Electronic Arts partnered to develop and produce sometime last year. 

With Electronic Entertainment Exposition promising to become “bigger better and more badass” this year around, a surprise from these famed and talented developers may make quite a few heads turn this year.

(Software patent)

http://tarr.uspto.gov/tarr?regser=serial&entry=+77719570+&action=Request+Status

(Face plate patent)

http://tarr.uspto.gov/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77719601&action=Request+Status

Sounds like it is most likely coming to 360.  If EA is publishing, it will definitely be multiplat.  Should be interesting to see what this game is all about.

Nice,interesting stuff.

With that name I want a game about being shrunk all Amazing Journey style and injected into people to battle against viruses one by one. As a Biochemist I'd like to play it and scoff condescendingly at the inaccuracies.

Cool.

It's probably that survival horror game that Cliff Bleszinski wants to make.

Uh? How exactly do you patent a videogame?

I think they are patenting some wierd face plate for the Xbox 360.

That's still sort of silly, unless they invented a new way to attach a faceplate, but the first link actually leads to  something described as: "Computer game software for use with personal computers, home video game consoles used with televisions, and for arcade-based video game consoles".

Trademark, ok. Copyright, ok. But patent?

Face plates for those old Nokia phone..jk

Who knows? In any case the whole patent industry is broken when it comes to software patents, and trademarks and copyrights probably already offer adequate protection. Patents really only help patent trolls from what I've seen in regards to software.