System and method for purchasing physical toys and corresponding virtual toys

Abstract

System and methods for physical toy and virtual toy interactions are disclosed. According to aspects of the invention, a system for purchasing a physical toy and a corresponding virtual toy comprises a video game console, a physical toy, and a virtual toy corresponding to the physical toy. The virtual toy corresponding to the physical toy may be made available in a video game played on the video game console. The physical toy may be purchased by a user of the system from an external merchant. The virtual toy corresponding to the physical toy may be separately purchased by the user from a purchasing system within the video game. The physical toy may be registered with the gaming platform. If the user registers the physical toy with the gaming platform and the user previously purchased the virtual toy, the system refunds to the user the purchase price of virtual toy.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.