Do you ever wish that you weren’t confined to strict, specific difficulty levels in the games you play? Sony Interactive 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 (via Eurogamer).
The patent, which was published earlier this month and shared on the World 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 skill doesn’t correspond 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 to replay 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 a PlayStation 5 owner, you can find some fantastic recommendations for games to play over the holidays with our list of the best PS5 games. You can also enhance your gaming experience with our picks for the best PS5 controllers.
