The process of setting up a video game tournament is both arduous and fraught with expenses. Many titles simply don’t offer means of ensuring competitive viability; those that do still require coordinated production teams. Sony may be able to offer a solution that will minimize both difficulty and expense based on a recent patent.
Sony has found itself arguably on the backfoot as of late. Microsoft, Sony’s greatest competitor as far as console wars go, has picked up Bethesda and recently offered a bid to acquire Discord. Sony has long been a larger creator of console-exclusivity in past generations, and Microsoft has recently been fighting back. Yet Microsoft has similarly picked up Smash.gg, an esport platform for managing competitive tournaments. Sony, ever-eager to maintain its own strength, now has a solution in-hand.
A recently-filed patent on behalf of Sony relies on the tracking of gameplay to create entire tournaments. Players will be gauged on the speed and playstyle and matched with others of similar metrics within brackets. The patent offers a wealth of admittedly esoteric data that Sony would use to allow tournaments based on the PlayStation Network infrastructure, including the automatic recording of gameplay when certain achievements are attained as a highlight of gameplay. These highlights, keyed by in-game metrics that are already in place, could automatically be posted to whichever forum or social media network is preferred.
Tournaments could range from international competitions to a small tournament among a group of friends, assisted by the system automatically. Brackets could be automated, or crafted by a designated tournament organizer (TO). This would allow TOs as much direction as preferred to allow for specific match-ups against big names, or for necessary storylines within the scene. Additionally, the usage of achievements to find at what time a players’ perspective should be shown if the TO prefers to broadcast the tournament, shifting perspective between competitors seamlessly.
The usage of the patent would allow a far greater range of competitive gaming to the enjoyment of fans and players alike. Suddenly, a competition based on the popular Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is more than plausible in spite of the title having no means of immediate competitive play. Likewise, figuring out who the JRPG legend within a small group of friends could finally be decided thanks to the PlayStation Network and an additional system being added to the backend.
The patent, unfortunately, does not offer insight into when gamers could expect to see this system, if Sony decides to actually bring the idea to fruition in the near future. This does offer Sony a means of competitive play within the PlayStation Network. Including the ability to finally compete in titles that the original developers never fathomed for competitive play, and the patent is a fascinating look into how Sony is continuing to develop an ongoing PlayStation advantage.
Source: USPTO
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