Sony has filed an interesting new gameplay recording patent, intended to provide help to gamers on a tough part of a game by searching for footage that will help them pass it. According to its summary:
“Implementations of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for surfacing prerecorded gameplay video for in-game player assistance.”
Such a thing, if it were implemented, would definitely help players to be able to know how to get past a point or boss fight without having to pause the game and look it up online. Considering some of the most popular games out there, ranging from Souls-style difficult games to puzzle-solvers, such a thing would likely be quite welcomed. It also builds on the increasing prevalence of video recordings in gaming, according to the gameplay recording patent’s background.
“An expanding area of the gaming industry is that of sharing gameplay video and spectating gameplay.”
While Let’s Plays and livestreams have been around for over a decade by this point, such things are only getting more and more popular as the increased relevance of streamers enters the public consciousness of gaming. Many players first go to YouTube if they want a walkthrough of how to get past a certain part.
According to the summary of Sony’s patent, the methods that they use to grab these sorts of videos off the internet will be context-sensitive, taking note of where the player is now that they’re having difficulty and drawing on videos of that area to try and assist. According to the patent itself:
“…for each video, receiving, over the network from one of the first client devices, location metadata that identifies spatial locations in a virtual environment of the video game at which gameplay identified by the video occurs…”
While only time will tell exactly how effective such a thing will be, Sony’s gameplay recording patent could definitely help struggling gamers in the future if they ever implement it. You can read the patent for yourself by following this link.