Summary
According to a recently filed patent,Sonyis working on a new summary system to help gamers keep track of everything that happens during a play session. The PlayStation parent company has filed several patents over the years, detailing interesting new features like the ability to replay particular story moments through “trigger points.” AnotherSonypatent mentions game difficulty that automatically adjusts to a player’s skill level so they don’t have to dive into a settings menu if they are struggling with a certain level or boss fight.
Many of these Sony patents are centered around making gaming more accessible to players, such as the adjustable PlayStation 5 Access Controller that launched back in December. This also includes making complicated in-game systems like inventory management easier for inexperienced players to use with the help of an AI coach orbundling online players togetherinto different virtual “houses” based on their skill level. A game’s single-player storyline can be just as difficult for some players to keep track of, but Sony may be working on a system to alleviate this in such narrative-driven titles likeGod of War RagnarokorMarvel’s Spider-Man 2.
Details of Sony’s Game Story Tracking System Patent
Earlier this week, a new patent was filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC in America and Sony Interactive Entertainment INC in Japan detailing a system to help forgetful or easily distracted players keep track of things that happen in theirfavorite narrative-based PlayStation games. Said system would make a note of key story events and notifications, then relay the information back to the player in the form of an “In Case You Missed It” window. As noted by the patent, this could be especially helpful to gamers with ADHD or poor memories who might struggle to keep track of everything that takes place in a given title’s story campaign.
Many story-focused games have some kind of recap feature, but these usually require the player to dig into a menu. Last year’sFinal Fantasy 16included afeature called Active Time Lore, which lets the player pause any cutscene or gameplay scenario and pull up a web of all the characters and events related to that particular scene, allowing them to refresh themselves on the complex lore of Valisthea without having to devote their time to searching through a hefty datalog system.
The system described in Sony’s latest patent sounds somewhat similar to this, recapping the various story beats and gameplay events ofnarrative-heavy titles likeHorizon Forbidden Westin an accessible pop-up window that could make keeping track of everything easier for more forgetful gamers. As is the case with all patent filings, there is no guarantee that Sony’s summary system will ever see the light of day, but it is a promising prospect for players who struggle with following the rich storylines of their favorite PlayStation titles.
Sony PlayStation 5
The Sony PlayStation 5 console is one of the most popular gaming machines currently with a fast SSD, a custom AMD APU, and 16GB of GDDR6 console memory, making it one of the best options on the market. It also happens to have a surprising number of console exclusives and currently trades at a discount at multiple retailers nationwide.
