SERVICE-TRIGGERED GAME EVENTS

1 . A method of managing game data of a video game, comprising:

receiving, at a game service computing machine, game data of the video game as the video game is being executed on a remote user gaming machine;

generating a game statistic based on the game data;

if the game statistic meets reward criteria defined at the game service computing machine, awarding a reward to a user; and

sending, to the video game, a reward notification message indicating that the user has earned the reward.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a command from a developer computing machine to modify the reward criteria to define updated reward criteria;

if the game statistic meets the updated reward criteria, awarding the reward to the user; and

sending, to the video game, the reward notification message indicating that the user has earned the reward.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

storing archived game data generated for the user during previous game play of the video game;

generating the game statistic based on the archived game data;

if the game statistic generated from the archived game data meets the updated reward criteria, awarding the reward to the user; and

sending, to the video game, the reward notification message indicating that the user has earned the reward.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving a command from a developer computing machine to create new reward criteria after the video game has been published;

if the game statistic meets the new reward criteria, awarding a new reward to the user; and

sending, to the video game, a reward notification message indicating that the user has earned the new reward.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving game data of the video game from each user gaming machine of a plurality of user gaming machines associated with a community of users;

generating the game statistic based on the game data received from the plurality of user gaming machines;

if the game statistic meets community reward criteria defined at the game service computing machine, awarding a community reward to each user of the community of users; and

sending, to the video game executed on each of the plurality of user gaming machines, a reward notification message indicating that the community award has been awarded to the community of users.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the game data includes information associated with a game event and the game data is sent to the game service computing machine substantially in real time in response to occurrence of the game event.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

sending the reward notification message to subscribers having a subscription to the reward.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

tracking reward information for a plurality of users including a number of users who attempt to earn the reward and a number of users who successfully earn the reward; and

sending the reward information to subscribers having a subscription to the reward information.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the subscribers include a companion application executed on a companion computing machine that is different than the user gaming machine.

10 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

establishing a persistent connection with the subscribers, and wherein the reward notification message is sent to the subscribers via the persistent connection.

11 . A method of managing game data of a video game, comprising:

receiving, at a game service computing machine, game data of the video game as the video game is being executed on a remote user gaming machine;

generating a game statistic based on the game data;

if the game statistic meets reward criteria defined at the game service computing machine, awarding a reward to a user; and

sending a reward notification message to subscribers having a subscription to the reward.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the subscribers include the video game, and the reward notification message is sent to the video game as the video game is being executed on the user gaming machine.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the subscribers include a companion application.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the companion application is executed on the user gaming machine.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the companion application is executed on a companion computing machine that is different than the user gaming machine.

16 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

establishing a persistent connection with the subscribers, and wherein the reward notification message is sent to the subscribers via the persistent connection.

17 . A method of receiving game data of a video game, at a companion computing machine, the method comprising:

subscribing to a reward awarded by a game service computing machine;

receiving a reward notification message from the game service computing machine in response to the game service computing machine awarding the reward to a user based on a game statistic meeting reward criteria defined at the game service computing machine, wherein the game statistic is generated by the game service computing machine based on game data of the video game that is received at the game service computing machine from a user gaming machine as the video game is being executed on the user gaming machine; and

delivering the reward.

18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

establishing a persistent connection with the game service computing machine, and receiving the game statistic from the game service computing machine via the persistent connection.

19 . The method of claim 17 , wherein delivering the reward includes displaying the reward in a user interface generated by the companion application.

20 . The method of claim 17 , wherein the companion computing machine does not directly communicate with the user gaming machine.