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

Your emotions might define your gameplay in the future.

Story Highlights

  • Sony wants to adjust your game’s difficulty and gameplay based on emotions.
  • It can also alter audio, brightness, and more to make gameplay more effective.
  • The patent exemplifies horror titles to explain how it would use the system.

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.

The figure shows the schematics of the proposed affective entertainment system | Image Source: Patentscope
The figure shows the schematics of the proposed entertainment system by Sony | Image Source: Patentscope

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.”

The schematic figure shows the inner workings of the proposed system | Image Source: Patentscope
The schematic figure shows the inner workings of the proposed system | Image Source: Patentscope

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

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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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