This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Wow that's depressing. I guess the main solace is that if Sony patents this then we're unlikely to see this practice on other systems.
Still, on the long list of shit we need to fix with America, fixing the patent system is a big one.
Large corps buy them like lotto tickets and try to patent anything and everything they can.
Look how long WB has sat on the Nemisis system because they got a patent a decade ago on it. It wasn't really a unique idea, but thousands of games have been prevented from doing anything similar.
A lot of times companies will patent things that they don't necessarily intend to ever produce. Sometimes to obscure the patents that they actually do want to produce. Sometimes to reserve it in the case that they do want to later. And sometimes so that no one else can.
This. Sony patented the stand up and say something to skip ads.
This was a decade ago, and it’s not a thing, and won’t be a thing.
Also, the OP article is an accessibility thing, sometimes people just can’t physically do stuff, fuck them for their disability I guess is what top level comment is saying.
I love that patent. Whoever made it was really trolling.
As someone who does have a cognitive disability, there is a genuine difference between augmented input/level skip vs. what is effectively an integrated TAS.
Mario Kart 8 is a good example of accessibility that still empowers the player, as the player still needs to hold an input and retains control of the character - it's just that massive errors that would result in loss (IE: falling off the track) are prevented by corrective steering taking control.
An automated TAS gives no empowerment to the player - it's no different that running a lengthy macro script. If I wanted to watch the characters have an adventure without my ability to have influence in the journey, I'd just watch a movie instead.
Ai is not, and cannot be considered an accessibility feature. If anything it'll just stifle any genuine attempts to create something accessible because why bother trying to make the game fun for everyone when the ai can just play the game for you when you're stuck
Are you kidding me? What's next, entire stories that just play out in front of you?
Sony invents radical new idea of a passive medium where you just watch the action instead of control it.
Wait a minute...
But it's just vanilla combats with predictable outcomes.
So they invented... the first dozen seasons of the Pokemon cartoon?
It could be a good idea! Maybe we should create rooms with big screens for people to watch it together. We could make them pay for it and it would be a great opportunity to sell pop-corns and Coca-Cola!
It might work for a bit but it’s gonna fizzle out if they decide to overcharge for popcorn and coke to the point it costs $100+ to watch one video game.
Just make a fuckin movie!
Sony:
I'm just gonna end up being an old man in my basement, staying warm with the radiant glow from my CRT monitor while playing SNES, Genesis and NES games.
There is a small bit of intrigue here, imagine you get to a boss and think, 'this is impossible' but there is an ability to observe a ghost of your character taking the boss on in your gear.
Bare in mind as well that 'AI' has existed as a word in gaming for decades and has nothing to do with LLMs, surely this is achieveable purely with the gaming definition of 'AI' simply coding the PC also as an NPC that reacts to things.
Yeah, it really annoyed me that the author of this piece doesn’t understand the distinction between AI as a concept (always around in computing) and AI as in LLMs and the other stuff.
And the next patent will be about a controller, not actually being plugged into the console, but merely giving gamers the illusion of affecting the gameplay...
I also made my little brother player 2.
Wait until they discover some remote controller, where you can switch the games that are played according to some schedule. Like some form of game stations. Maybe they could broadcast them for the whole population somehow, so that everybody can talk about the games they ~~played~~ watched last week on their next town hall gathering or Sunday church with Aunt Lizzy.
Didn't Nintendo do this in the New Super Mario Bros.? If you died enough times, it asked you if you wanted Luigi (or some other character?) to show you how to do the course.
Yep. Stadia also had a feature like this (that no one ever used).
Just another example of why software patents should not exist.
Stadia was a Squandered Opportunities masterclass. That platform had SO much potential; the tech was there, and the tech worked, but Google hired the worst possible person to run the project.
So... What's the point of playing then?
Games are expected to pose some sort of challenge, of difficulty, to keep the player interested. Even if it boils down to pure frustration at some point, making some turn from it, even learning how to deal with it is useful. Games are some of the oldest teaching tools we stumbled upon.
This another move on human and individual agenda, on learning how to exist, to an extent.
This isn't funny.
Every game is an idle game now... ?
Sure, why not.
Player counts is all Wall Street is looking for.
Isn’t this already done with Mario game(s)? I think it was Super Mario Deluxe, where if you die enough times, Luigi shows up and will be doing the entire level for you including the ‘boss’ fight.
This feels like it's going to incentivise developers to either make bad puzzles, or bad hint systems. Why bother with a good one if the platform has a "complete this for me" feature? It is basically impossible for players to get stuck or struggle, when they're either shown the solution, or the game completes it for them.
I'm not sure how I feel about games that are easy enough that AI can play them, and that people might need help with them.
The games we play are that easy though. Dark souls with eyes = hard, dark souls to an entity which has no eyes, but can read RAM states = easy.
Most singleplayer games (so the opponents are clockwork) are easy to enough to play with heuristics, why do we need a whole ass neural network?
Remember when the way to beat hard bosses was to either git gud or input a built in cheat code? Pepperidge Farms remembers
MMO veterans might be very interested in this kind of totally never seen before type of play automation
Remember when the way to beat hard bosses was to either ~~git gud~~ hand the controller to an older sibling/cousin/friend or input a built in cheat code?
I wanted robots to do my chores but instead they are taking my job and my hobbies! Hopefully they become addicted to gaming and don't to take my job anymore.
Oh boy, the darksouls community is doing to be very funny to read
Hey Alexa, have fun, so I don't have to!!
...fuck off.
this just in the next generation of video games will play themselves. Due to rising costs though play time for most run-throughs will top out at about 90 minutes.
Can't wait for crappy devs to use this feature as an excuse to design dogshit puzzles.
Look, that ledge has yellow paint. I bet I can climb it.
Sometimes I like to play a game on max difficulty, sometimes I choose easy chill mode so I'm all for games having a wide difficulty scale of options.
This just seems stupid, and more like they can't be arsed to balance a bunch of difficulties so just slap some AI slop in there and call it done.
Unpopular opinion: I like this idea. I like games that are essentially interactive stories with an open world to explore. I don’t want to be challenged when playing games, but even on the easiest difficulty level, I occasionally hit a challenge that results in me abandoning the game altogether.
AI is not necessary for this though. The Persona games handle this well where the player does not need to restart from the last save when they die. They get an option that fully heals them and they can keep going.
So a bot? Those have been in gaming for fucking ever.
This patent is so dumb.
I wonder if this is a step toward them self-purchasing game micro transactions, too. ..
Nintendo has been doing this since the Wii era.
New Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Super Mario Maker 2…
Technically all the Rhythm Heaven games also have this feature.
What they gonna watch a movie for me too? Fucka my wife for me? Eat a steak for me? I can see this for games for kids like with that Mario example, but for everyone else seems like it would be a nuisance. At least have it be opt in.
