Sony Patents AI Tool That Could Help PlayStation Players If They Get Stuck In a Game

Sony has submitted a patent for an AI that may be able to help players stuck in a game by pointing them towards items or weapons that may help them overcome their obstacle. This can either be an in-game item or if need be, an item available for purchase. In a patent filing for something called the “In-Game Resource Surfacing Platform,” Sony describes a scenario in which a player is stuck in a video game that they may need help to overcome. “Many video-games have hundred of thousands of individual items for users to earn, find, or purchase and use within the video game,” it says in the patent description. The AI tool that Sony is hoping to patent would help search and identify “in-game resources that assist a player based on contextual data and data from a community of similar players.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=igns-top-25-playstation-4-games&captions=true"] Sony lays out three variations of this tool. One is where the AI identifies the “current state” the player is in while in a game and cross-references it with other players who’ve successfully moved past that point. “[T]he method provides an operation for selecting a resource that is usable by the player to complete the objective based on the one or more resources utilized by respective other players during said successful attempt of completing the objective[.]” [caption id="attachment_2300616" align="alignnone" width="720"] This figure illustrates how Sony's tool might suggest microtransactions to help the player get through a difficult section of a game.[/caption] Meaning the AI will find out how other players completed the obstacle and point the stuck players towards that solution. The AI tool may also point players towards an item in a store, in-game or online, that can help complete the objective or even advance the game to a point past the obstacle (a skip, maybe?). The use of AI during a game session is not new. Ubisoft has rolled out an AI service called Sam which can track progression in games, or check in-game stats. Google Stadia has also promised a feature in the future where players may be able to directly interact with Google Assistant for in-game help. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/07/next-gen-console-watch-how-powerful-ps5-xbox-series-x-may-be"] Sony’s patent seems at first more localized towards getting players past a certain obstacle, either through in-game or purchasable methods. But there’s a chance the service could expand to provide deeper help. Though there’s always the IGN Wiki guides if you need a leg-up on how to get past certain game obstacles. The patent was filed last year and published recently. There’s been no public announcement of a new AI tool for Sony games, so this may be a next-gen feature for the PlayStation 5. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.

source https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-patents-ai-tool-that-could-help-playstation-players-if-they-get-stuck-in-a-game