Do you mind if others reveal the best story decisions to you? Sony has announced a curious patent for the PS4 and PS5 that is supposed to protect you from spoilers. MeinMMO explains how it is supposed to work.
Where do the information come from? A patent from Sony has appeared at the American US Patent and Trademark Office (via uspto.gov). According to the published data, the patent is supposed to protect players from things that could be spoilers.
But how is the patent supposed to work? MeinMMO has taken a closer look at the patent and explains how it could work in detail.
A feature for the PS5 – This is how the spoiler protection works
According to the patent, the mechanism is controlled via a server. The data is processed there as well. If Sony implements it, the spoiler protection is supposed to work like this:
- A server checks which data is potentially available to the player.
- The server recognizes that certain objects occur in a specific game.
- The server recognizes based on the metadata which objects the player cannot have seen yet, and thus they are potential spoilers.
- The system determines that certain objects must be a spoiler.
- The user is prevented from interacting with blocked objects through the PlayStation system.
Where does this protection work? According to the patent, it is “cross-platform spoiler blocking”. This means that this protection could work on both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5. However, that is pure speculation.
It is also unknown whether the patent can also be applied to old games or whether this function would need to be integrated into the games by the developers through an interface.
The patent also states that the system is mainly intended for games with story and PvE focus. Whether this protection could also work in multiplayer games is therefore also unknown.
That’s why Sony wants to protect you from nasty spoilers
In the description of the patent, it says:
Spoilers are one of the biggest worries of players of single-player, co-op, or PvE games when they are out with friends or in online communities (through discussions, walkthroughs). This fear can prevent players from engaging in community-building social behaviors, which could lead to a significant loss of engagement with the gaming platform for these users.
Sony’s patent text, source: uspto.gov.
What does this mean for the player? It’s not just about protecting players from the betrayal of the story. They also think of people who are afraid to talk to others because they fear that someone might spoil the story for them.
They do not want to disadvantage or exclude players. Thus, no one should be excluded from the gaming platform or the community.
There are also players who are socially excluded but can overcome their fears in a special way. For example, a boy has found 900 new friends online despite his fears:
PS4 and PS5: You still want to know how the story ends? No problem
However, this protection is not necessarily mandatory for everyone. According to the patent, you are still allowed to get spoiled: because according to the text, this protection mechanism can also be turned off.
In response to a request, marked objects of a type can be made visible again for the player.
Sony’s patent text, source: uspto.gov.
So you are still allowed to get spoiled if you want to.
PS5 Release – Are there any more patents?
Sony has now filed several patents around the PlayStation:
- An intelligent AI is supposed to be able to speak with you. The system is called PlayStation Assist
- In another patent, it is about a robot that allows you to never play alone.
In another patent, it was explained that the PS5 controller could process biosensory feedback. And as it looks so far, the announced Dualsense controller is indeed going to have such a feature.
What can the PS5 controller actually do?
The PS5 controller was recently introduced by Sony. And not only in terms of design does the PS5 controller differ from the old Dualshock 4.
If you are interested in the PS5 controller, we have summarized all important information regarding the Dualsense controller for you.
