When Sony finally began revealing information about the then upcoming PlayStation 5, one of the exciting new features of the console was Activities. Besides letting players jump into specific parts of a game, this carousel of cards on the PS5’s Control Center can also provide Game Help if the developer decides to include it. A number of patents recently filed by Sony show that the company has continued to focus on other ways to help ease the player experience.

Game Help is intended to replace the need to search for game assistance from an online video or walkthrough, which usually interrupts gameplay and requires going to a computer, searching on a mobile device, using the console’s built-in browser, or even scribbling notes on paper. In some PS5 titles, players can now access tips directly from Activity Cards, which might include a screenshot, a written game walkthrough, or videos to help overcome specific challenges.

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A patent application filed by Sony on May 20, 2021, reveals that another quality-of-life game service the company might like to provide is the ability for the console itself to note when a player is struggling and offer video assistance. This is different from the videos that might appear using Game Help, which must be added to a game by the developer and then actively sought by the player.

The patent details a system by which the developer could add identifiers to the game’s code that would mark important or noteworthy events in the game, as well as an estimated time of completion. Finishing these activities or events would send a notification to the “computer system,” which could then assess when a player might be having difficulty with a particular part of a game, for instance, if the rate at which identifiers were triggered slowed down. The computer system, such as the PlayStation 5, could then offer videos to assist the player.

The Sony patent doesn’t seem to be limited to the PS5, however. The description in the patent application specifies that people play games on a number of different systems, including video game consoles and mobile devices. The user experience on this range of systems and between games may vary greatly, as will the way in which the player seeks help. The goal of the patent is to not only make finding assistance easier, but to homogenize the user experience no matter the device on which the game is played.

The identifiers added to the video game’s code would include a link to a video or portion of a video that corresponds to a particular activity, and these videos would specifically include content relevant to that identifier. It’s not clear if these videos would only link to gameplay videos shared by third parties like YouTube, for example, or if they could be made and stored by the game developer.

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