Sony is truly the king of patents. Every season, we discover a few with always crazy proposals. If most of them concern peripherals, like the banana controller or the one with integrated headphones, the latest one could represent a real revolution in the world of video games. The firm is tackling the issue of difficulty in its games, and is thinking of a way to get everyone to agree.
This new patent states that Sony is working on a technology that allows to vary the difficulty according to the player's level, in real time. So no more choices at the beginning of the game, which we regret in the middle if we don't have the possibility to change. The patent is called “Adaptive difficulty calibration for skill-based activities in virtual environments” and is very clearly explained in the language of Molière. It reads:
“The present invention provides methods that can collect data when a user plays one or more different types of games when determinations are made as to whether the difficulty of a game should be changed. The collected data can be evaluated to identify whether a user's level of game performance meets an expected level of performance. […]
Parameters that relate to a movement speed, lag or hesitation, character strengths, numbers of competitors or other parameters can be changed incrementally until a performance level of the current user matches an expectation level of a particular user currently playing the game. At that point, the user's expectation level can be changed, and the process can be repeated at as the user's skills are developed over time.”
Sony does indeed speak in its patent of an adaptive technology, and completely reversible although it is applied automatically. This would therefore make it possible to follow the player's level as it improves. The goal is to offer a difficulty adapted to the player's current level... to the detriment of his progression? This is a thorny question whose potential answers are not unanimous.
The end of a long debate?
This could definitively put an end to the debate between novice players who demand accessibility and experienced players who live for the constant challenge. On the other hand, it also questions the creativity of studios. Today, between 2 and 5 difficulty levels are offered to players in the vast majority of mainstream titles. Even independent games with few resources, or games that are said to be "demanding" by nature (Souls-like games for example) are increasingly doing it.
While it has become the norm, it is not uncommon to see players tear each other apart when a studio deliberately chooses to offer a single difficulty (often high). This was already the case when Elden Ring or SIFU were released. The latter backtracked a few months later, not explaining whether the turnaround was due to pressure from players. So one can imagine that if Sony's real-time variable difficulty were to see the light of day, and become popular, making the decision not to give the player a choice could be increasingly difficult to assume.
0 Comments