PlayStation Games May Soon Allow Players to Change Difficulty Automatically, in Real-Time, Based on Skill Level

Remember the time when players had to think hard before choosing game difficulty? Game developers stepped it up by giving players the option to change the difficulty during the game. Players have to pause and change, and sometimes players have to restart the level for the change. Now, PlayStation may further kick it up a notch. It seems like Sony is going to do exactly that with its future PlayStation exclusives by providing a more seamless experience.

Sony reportedly filed a new patent recently. It’s something that may change the way players indulge themselves in the combat during a mission. If the patent becomes a reality, the game will change the difficulty for you.

Sony patent hints at making changing difficulty seamless

A legal document was recently spotted online, and it was found that it’s a new patent filed by Sony. Titled “ADAPTIVE DIFFICULTY CALIBRATION FOR SKILLS-BASED ACTIVITIES IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS”, the patent states that in upcoming games from Sony, the difficulty will change automatically in real-time based on how good a player is going through a campaign/mission.

The document reads, “The collected data maybe evaluated to identify whether a user gaming performance level corresponds to an expected level of performance. When the user gaming performance level does not correspond to an expected level of performance, parameters that change the difficultly of the game may be changed automatically.”

Simply put, players will get automatically get an easy experience if they find a game too hard in terms of difficulty. If they are beginners and don’t have enough skills to tackle the scale of difficulty, it will get toned down for them in real-time.

Moreover, crucial parameters like “movement speed, delay or hesitation, character strengths, numbers of competitors, or other metrics” may change overtime if a player’s skill level improves. Precisely speaking, the overall difficulty will automatically adapt to the player’s style while making progression throughout the missions.

Read More: Can Netflix Challenge the Dominance of PlayStation and Xbox?

Sony also tried to imply in the document that currently available games usually have unbalanced enemies and quests. Sometimes it may feel easy to defeat one set of enemies, but the next set may turn out to be too overpowering. It’s because the player might be lacking special skills required to take down a specific enemy type.

However, whether the patent materializes is anybody’s guess. Sony is known for filing patents which don’t always see the light of day.

Sony is on a ‘patent streak’ lately

For the uninitiated, Sony has been filing multiple patents since the last few months in 2023. For example, one document from the PlayStation maker stated that players can eventually replay a given campaign from any point. The requirement of having to play certain missions to reach a specific quest might be removed completely.

There was another patent that mentioned Sony’s ambition to have in-game activities according to how players emote. In short, there will be built-in testers inside a game to check the mood of players overtime during their gaming experience. One can see it having an emotional satisfaction by completing challenges in the virtual environment of video games.

Now that a new patent has been discovered regarding difficulty and skill levels, it will be interesting to see how gamers react to it going forward. Their response will surely determine whether Sony will implement its new approach or not in future PlayStation exclusives.

Watch This Story: Best Side Quests in Video Games That No One Should Miss