Not so long ago, it was only in our wildest imaginations that we could play console-grade video games on mobile devices, let alone control our avatars via voice commands. As it turns out, the latter may be a reality very soon, thanks to a new patent filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
First spotted by video game analyst, Daniel Ahmad aka ZhugeEx, the new patent by Sony is dubbed PlayStation Assist.
As its name suggests, it is designed to be a voice-activated console command that allows you to perform rudimentary to slightly more complex actions in-game, not just on your console’s dashboard. A clause on the patent reads:
A query is received from a first player playing the gaming application, wherein the query is related to a first game play of the first player. A current game context of a first game play of a first player is determined from the information. A response to the query and the current game context is generated based on the information related to the plurality of game plays. The response is delivered back to a device of the first player.
For example, as Ahmad’s Tweet above suggests, you could potentially request for the location of a supplementary item in-game, such as a health pack, and the game would take in the commands issued by your voice, and translate it into code and mark the item’s location on your map.
It could prove useful to streamlining the gaming experience, by reducing the hassle it takes to navigate through cluttered menus and whatnot. This then reduces the “increased complexity” that gamers may experience, especially with the “expansive” nature of today’s AAA games, which require complex or specific commands that sometimes may prove too tricky for the player to perform manually.
This would make perfect sense when playing through a game as complex as Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, or even Death Stranding, with multiple controls and macros for multiple actions, or even add a new dimension of play to simpler titles such as Crash Team Racing.
In any case, Sony’s answer to Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft’s Cortana sounds like a very sound plan, even if it looks like it’s dedicated to just gaming. And while nothing in the patent suggests it, it looks as though PlayStation Assist could be a mainstay in the upcoming PlayStation 5.
Of course, this is all pure speculation, but the realms of possibility here are virtually endless, given just how powerful the next-gen Sony gaming giant is.
Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.
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