Sony is contemplating a feature that allows games to rewind its game state at any point in time based on its recent patent filings (via Tech4Gamers), which would be good news if you suck at gaming, but perhaps not-so-great if you swear by games like Dark Souls 3, which gained popularity for simply how difficult it is to complete (and is super rewarding when you do).
Sony Patents Rewind Button
It’s worth reminding that patents are not necessarily real designs, often they come in the form of proof-of-concept that ends up nothing more than that. Still, Sony’s idea isn’t too unrealistic, to say the least. The idea is to have a universal “rewind” button on the controller that, when triggered, prompts the game to reverse its game state to moments earlier so players can retry a specific sequence if mistakes were made.
Here’s how the patent describes the feature in detail:
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. (…) In addition, because image frames and/or events are automatically bookmarked, the user is able to select a particular bookmarked image frame and/or event from a list of bookmarks when entering the rewind mode.
Another aspect of this feature involves the in-game “bookmarks” that users can select as a restore point when rewind is triggered. The image above roughly shows how the user interface would look like if it were to introduced to the PlayStation, which shows a list of bookmarks with accompanied description (i.e. objective found) that users can select to revert the game state.
It’s worth noting that this concept isn’t entirely novel, as many racing games has already adopted rewind features that allow players to re-execute a turn if mistakes occurred during one corner. This patent likely aims to expand the feature universally to all games, perhaps with one obvious exception – multiplayer. Unless someone invented a time machine, of course.
Pokdepinion: A very interesting concept that I can see being realized if developers are onboard – but I can see others not adopting this to have the “authentic” gameplay experience.
