Sony patent hints at PlayStation feature that would adjust game difficulty depending on how well you play
Different parameters could be adjusted automatically
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Do you ever wish that you weren’t confined to strict, specific difficulty levels in the games you play?SonyInteractive Entertainment has clearly been having a think about this, as the company has filed a patent for a feature that would be able to alter the difficulty of games depending on the skill of those playing (viaEurogamer).
The patent, which was published earlier this month and shared on theWorld Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)website, refers to the feature as “adaptive difficulty calibration for skills-based activities in virtual environments.” In essence, it refers to the idea of collecting data from individuals as they play games, which could then be evaluated to figure out how their skill level “corresponds to an expected level of performance.”
Furthermore, the patent explains that if someone’s skilldoesn’tcorrespond with the so-called “expected level of performance,” different difficulty-related parameters (such as those related to movement speed, the number of enemies, and the strength of player characters) could be adjusted automatically and incrementally.
Interestingly, it doesn’t sound like the data collection and adaptation of difficulty would be limited to just one game, either. The patent goes on to say: “In certain instances, a skill associated with one game may correspond to [an] aptitude of another game. For example, a person skillful [at] moving to new positions in a first-person shooter game may correspond to the person running quickly in a racing game.
“Alternatively, a weakness of [a] person playing a first-person game may include taking too long to accurately aim at a target and this weakness may correspond to a tendency for that person to not react quickly when a vehicle attempts to pass their vehicle in a racing game. This means that data gathered from one game may be used to help select difficulty parameters to update [when] a person plays a different game.”
As with any patented feature, it’s worth keeping in mind that just because this has been filed, it doesn’t mean that the feature will definitely be rolled out in the future. Earlier this year, a different Sony patent was published, which described a feature that would allow gamers toreplay campaigns from selectable ‘trigger points’via streaming. However, that’s not something that’s actually been brought to fruition yet, either. That said, these sorts of innovations are certainly food for thought and suggest new approaches that developers might be able to take in the future.
If you’re aPlayStation 5owner, you can find some fantastic recommendations for games to play over the holidays with our list of thebest PS5 games. You can also enhance your gaming experience with our picks for thebest PS5 controllers.
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Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.
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