Sony Patents A Massive Co-Op Game That Supports Hundreds Of Players In A Theater

The patent talks about a highly unique and unforgettable co-op gaming experience.

Story Highlights

  • Sony has published a new patent that wants to revolutionize the co-op genre. It seeks to create a huge local multiplayer co-op gaming experience involving hundreds of players in a single place.
  • The publisher discusses using giant venues like a movie theater with a massive screen in front of hundreds of players for gargantuan co-op gaming multiplayer and competitive gaming sessions.
  • Sony also talks about building huge local multiplayer co-op games in VR or AR, which will require more challenges. The tech could also be utilized in the field of professional and competitive gaming.

Sony is always trying to stand out with its unique ideas in every generation, and its latest vision could truly revolutionize the way we view the co-op genre. It has recently published a patent that seeks to create a massive co-op gaming experience to allow hundreds of players to participate in the session at a single place. The giant conglomerate wants to achieve this result by holding giant co-op gaming sessions in a movie theater.

A technique for scaling a multiplayer co-op and competitive computer gaming to dozens or even scores of people playing simultaneously, for example in a movie theater. The gameplay occurs on the giant screen at the front of the theater,” mentions Sony in the patent.

The image shows an example theater layout and an massively multiplayer local co-op and competitive gaming environment.
The image shows an example theater layout and a massively multiplayer local co-op and competitive gaming environment.

The patent dubbed “MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER LOCAL CO-OP AND COMPETITIVE GAMING” argues that current co-op experiences are usually limited to two to four players at a single console. It seemingly hinders the potential and enjoyment to be had with many enticing games. Thus, it is exploring ways to let hundreds of users play together in the same place in front of a giant screen, preferably someplace like a movie theater.

The legal document discusses a way to scale a multiplayer co-op or competitive game to such an enormous level but keeps the details quite ambiguous in the process. Each player will have the ability to control a single in-game avatar in the theater while playing the game on the huge screen, making the prospect pretty alluring. Sony notes in the patent that a hundred players in the theater could be playing on the same screen at the same time.

The image shows an example implementation of a multiplayer local co-op and competitive gaming environment.
The image shows an example implementation of a multiplayer local co-op and competitive gaming environment.

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Sony also talks about building huge local multiplayer co-op games in VR or AR, which comes with its own set of challenges. A huge selection of different perspectives and viewpoints in a game would require the devs to render them all in real-time by synchronizing together in a single play area in the respective headsets. The publisher gives an example by using the analogy of a spaceship simulator game of some kind.

Each player controls a spaceship in 3D space that is bound by the boundaries of the theater using a respective controller 50B associated with the respective seat 200. In this embodiment, the game executed on each HMD requires an awareness of a player’s position in space (what seat they are in) relative to other players, so the AR can be rendered from the appropriate perspective of each individual player.”

The image shows an example flowchart logic of the system.
The image shows an example flowchart logic of the system.

It may also utilize the technology in competitive gaming scenes. For instance, we may see huge local co-op of battle royale games being held at a movie theater involving a hundred players.

The patent by Sony touches on a pretty anticipated dream of many gamers. It has been our long-lost wish growing up to have huge gaming meetups to play together in massive co-op experiences; it would be so enticing to play with strangers in a huge exhibition at a movie theater or a venue. The company may soon turn these wistful thoughts into reality if the patent is ever realized into an actual product.

The renowned publisher of many popular AAA games has also published a bundle of patents in the past to aid disabled gamers and for more accessibility features. For instance, it pushed out a legal document to improve voice chat in games for disabled users. In a similar vein, Sony may punish gamers for immoral voice chat behaviors. It is also tinkering with ways to fix your posture while gaming for prolonged albeit healthy sessions.

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Source
Patentscope

Shameer Sarfaraz is a Senior News Writer on eXputer who loves to keep up with the gaming and entertainment industries devoutly. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and several years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.

Experience: 4+ Years || Education: Bachelor in Computer Science.

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