In 1998, video game company Namco was granted a patent on technology allowing a small “auxiliary game program code” to run alongside the “main-game program code” to avoid an “unnecessary wastage of time.” In more human terms, this meant Namco—and only Namco—could put minigames on its loading screens, which usually…
Source: Kotaku – An ode to load screens—just in time for the Xbox Series X and PS5 to render them obsolete