Sony has filed a patent for a groundbreaking universal controller button that has the potential to enhance the gaming experience on its PlayStation consoles. The proposed ‘gameplay rewind’ button aims to enable players to revisit segments of the game they have already completed, allowing them to review those parts before seamlessly returning to current gameplay. Additionally, players might have the option to create “bookmarks” during their gaming sessions, with the rewind button facilitating repeated access to their favorite game moments.
Sony Files Patent for ‘Gameplay Rewind’ Controller Button
A patent document (via Tech4Gamers) entitled “Gameplay Rewind with User Triggered Buttons” outlines the concept of a dedicated button on the controller that lets users bookmark their current game progress. The system is designed to store these user-generated bookmarks and may even allow the game to automatically create them at critical moments.
Fig 4A displays the rewind button, while Fig 4B illustrates the rewind interface
Photo Credit: WIPO/ Sony
Sony emphasizes the potential benefits of implementing this feature for gamers. The company suggests that the rewind button could allow users to “review” sections they have just played, which could be particularly helpful in situations where players miss instructions from non-playable characters (NPCs).
For instance, in a game like Life is Strange: True Colours, players must interact with various characters and recall specific orders they receive. If players do not fully remember what to do, the rewind button could assist in refreshing their memory and ensuring accurate responses, even if the game does not penalize incorrect answers.
Accessing previous gameplay moments has often been a complex task. Currently, players may have to resort to workarounds to revisit specific parts of the game, and even recorded segments require players to pause their game. Sony proposes that users could simply press the universal button during live play, triggering a new interface that would present playback features, including a rewind function. By selecting this option, users would see a “subset of captured image frames from the gameplay,” as indicated in the patent.
These captured frames can be bookmarked both manually and automatically during gameplay. When players enter rewind mode, these frames will be displayed in reverse order, creating a sequence for users to interact with their past gameplay moments.
With this functionality, players can revisit critical gameplay segments, ensuring they do not overlook vital instructions from NPCs or information crucial to their progress. Furthermore, Sony’s patent hints at the potential for users to interact with specific gameplay moments while in rewind mode, though details on how this interaction would function remain unclear.
It is important to note that the mere existence of the patent does not guarantee that Sony will implement this feature in the controllers moving forward.
