Sony Patents ‘Gameplay Rewind’ Universal Controller Button: How it Works

Sony has patented a brand new common controller button that would change the way in which avid gamers work together with video games on the corporate’s PlayStation consoles. The new ‘gameplay rewind’ button might let avid gamers revisit sure elements of the sport which have already been accomplished and think about these sections, after which return to reside recreation play. Players may also be capable to generate “bookmarks” whereas taking part in video games, and the purported rewind button would permit them to repeatedly entry the favorite elements of their video games.

Sony Patents ‘Gameplay Rewind’ Button for Controllers

A patent document (via Tech4Gamers) titled “Gameplay Rewind with User Triggered Buttons” describes a devoted button on the controller that may permit customers to generate a bookmark of the sport that they’re taking part in. The gadget will bear in mind these bookmarks generated by the consumer, and the sport being performed by the consumer also needs to be able to robotically producing them.

Fig 4A exhibits the rewind button and Fig 4B exhibits the rewind interface
Photo Credit: WIPO/ Sony

 

Sony explains how such a function might be helpful for avid gamers. The firm says {that a} rewind button might let customers “overview” lately performed parts of the sport, in case they missed directions offered by a non-playable character (NPC).

For instance, you would be taking part in Life is Strange: True Colours, the place you go round a bar and speak to patrons, report again to the bartender and repeat what two folks ordered. If you had been paying consideration when the patrons had been speaking to you, you’ll be capable to give the correct order, otherwise you may get it incorrect. While there isn’t any penalty for offering a incorrect reply on this recreation, the rewind button might have probably helped you out in such a situation. 

Getting entry to earlier moments of gameplay generally is a problem, and Sony says that it might contain hacking an present service to achieve entry to a specific a part of the sport. The firm provides that even when a participant managed to file some elements of the sport, they would wish to cease taking part in the sport to entry the content material. 

According to the corporate, avid gamers will be capable to press the common button throughout reside gameplay, and the console will show a brand new interface that gives playback-style controls, together with a “rewind” possibility. Selecting the rewind possibility will present customers a “subset of captured picture frames from the gameplay”, in keeping with the corporate.

These captured picture frames might be manually (or robotically) bookmarked and saved throughout gameplay. They will likely be displayed in sequence — in reverse order — when the participant enters rewind mode, as per the main points shared within the patent doc. 

As a consequence, avid gamers will be capable to work together with previous moments from the sport. For instance, they will replay a specific part if they don’t bear in mind directions offered by an NPC, or they missed some info proven by the sport when passing by an vital space.

Sony’s patent doc additionally means that customers will be capable to “work together” with gameplay moments in rewind mode, however there isn’t any info on how that might work. It’s price noting that the existence of a patent doesn’t essentially imply that Sony will embrace help for such a function on its controllers sooner or later.