Sony Could Increase Your Game’s Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony is often among the leading conglomerates to introduce new dynamic systems for its games. As such, it is always exploring unique—and sometimes bizarre—ideas worth analyzing. Now, a new patent published by the company wants to use a player’s emotions to personally alter a game’s difficulty for them. In other words, the gameplay may change to ensure we experience exactly what the devs have intended for the gamers.

The legal doc dubbed “AFFECTIVE GAMING SYSTEM AND METHOD” wants to introduce a system that analyzes the emotions of players by using a biometric system. The proposed tech would personalize the gameplay for each user depending on their current feelings. It may decrease difficulty for a player who complains while increasing it for another who finds it much easier until everyone has the intended or balanced experience.

Certain users of a multiplayer video game may experience the game in a manner different to that which was intended, or different to that of other users also playing the game, which may lead to the user being dissatisfied with their game experience, and even feel a sense of isolation thereby,” reads the patent.

Sony uses the example of a horror game to explain the system. It may increase the health of players or help in another way to help them survive better. Similarly, another bunch of users not feeling the horror vibes may see a dramatic decrease in brightness, increased volume, and stronger enemies until they start to feel the creeps like the devs intended.

The certain user’s avatar may have their health reduced or in-game sound effects may have their volume level increased, the screen brightness lowered, or the like, in order that the certain user’s experience of the game resembles that of the other users, or otherwise resemble that which was intended by the game developers.”

It is worth noting that the patent only explicitly considers multiplayer games, leaving single-player ones out in the dust. We could see the disparity in players’ experience decrease as gameplay could adjust for each player accordingly. However, it is unclear how such a massive addition would affect the collective gameplay sessions of a lobby.

This is not the first time Sony has patented an idea that changes gameplay based on a player’s emotions. A similar notion was published that could detect when a player is in distress and save them from harassment by others. Similarly, the company also secured a patent to let you decide how much NPCs talk in the games by offering multiple options.