News Sony patents a dedicated rewind button to save us when we suck at gaming

[Admin]

Sony seems intent on bringing over Save/Load State functionality from emulation to mainstream console gaming, according to a new patent.

Sony patents a dedicated rewind button to save us when we suck at gaming : Read more

 

[ottonis]

"For example, multiplayer titles that rely on synchronizing game states between players, servers, or both won't allow for functionality like this. "

Not necessarily: As part of a dedicated "God mode" one or more players might be granted rights to go "back in time" and let a scene repeat, while other players would be forced to play these rewinded scenes again.
Such functions might even be part of the regular gameplay and could add another dimensional layer to the gaming experience, especially when used only in certain situations or levels.
Just imagine a FPS where you can collect "time capsules" that allow you to get back in time.

 

[Konomi]

While neat in theory, games generally need more difficulty, not less. Unfortunately, many don't want to put the effort into anything they do and would rather take the easy route. That goes for real life too - people don't want to work, yet expect to be given money.

 

[hushnecampus]

You shouldn't be able to patent something like this. The software side of it isn't a new idea, and just creating a dedicated button for a software feature is not an invention.

 

[Nikolay Mihaylov]

You shouldn't be able to patent something like this. The software side of it isn't a new idea, and just creating a dedicated button for a software feature is not an invention.

The USPTO: "Hold my beer!"

 

[snemarch]

You shouldn't be able to patent something like this. The software side of it isn't a new idea, and just creating a dedicated button for a software feature is not an invention.

If they've found a way to do it at system level, without per-game support, there might be some merit to a patent, though?

One thing is doing it in an emulator, but being able to do it on a non-emulated system seems... tricky

 

[Giroro]

"The user is able to enter the rewind mode from the live game play using one or more controller inputs to view recent game play (e.g. rewinding, fast-forwarding, playing, etc.) and returning to live game play afterwards."

"One or more inputs" describes all existing save state features, not just a dedicated button. So maybe Sony will run into some trouble with that part of the patent being valid. Most of the rest of the description reads almost exactly like Nintendo's implementation on even the NES mini.
Areas where this patent would be novel to Sony could be

1. Their method is probably uploading all the save states to PSN in real time. Probably very important since Offline Single-Player games are extinct
2. When you jump back, it automatically creates a new save state where you were at and puts it on a timeline, so you can dynamically return. They reference going back to recall information an NPC said before continuing. I'm not sure if it's so easy to jump forward in other implementations

I would much rather have a save state button than a useless share/screenshot button that I keep accidently hitting. I don't thin it matters much though. Modern games, even campaign focused games, are always-online multiplayer microtransaction cheat-busting games-as-a-service f2p ripoff nightmares. If they implemented this feature at a system level, I doubt many devs would actually support it. It will be like when Playstation implemented streaming at a system level, so devs marked the entire game as a story cutscene to limit streaming.

 

[thisisaname]

They applied for it or it was granted, that makes all the difference!