Recent Sony Patent Showcases Multiscreen Capabilities

A recently published Sony Interactive Entertainment Patent showcases the idea of multiscreen displays, where both can run at the same time.

[Hakuoro]

That sounds cool. So you could have a game where the character exists in two places and switch between them. Sounds like a great feature that would only be possible using the SSD.

[Zeref]

GTA 5 already does this...

There's also A Way Out. Which is pretty much exactly this.

You don't need an SSD for this lol

[DeadManMMX]

Xperts on Sega Genesis did this lol. I’m joking. I’m joking.

[fr0sty]

By zooming way out into the sky, sitting there until the area loads, then zooming back in. It's far from seamless.

[TommyVercetti88]

@Hakuro 🙄

[jukins]

I think you misunderstood. Gta5 is DIFFERENT characters. What the op is implying is two same games at two same points of progress but so in one game state you complete in one way while you switch and try a different way on the other. This could be a nice feature for games where qctions effect the game.

[Zeref]

@Jukins

That's a convoluted way to go about it... You could design a game that achieves the same result while not having an entire different state wasting resources. Splitscreen games exist and you could easily tweak it to achieve this result.

[jukins]

How is convulted? This in combination with another patent where players can "share" their save state. Its not something everyone would use but again a nice feature. You can do this already now on pc, have multiple save states for one game and hop in and out. Being able to do this with other players save states or watching a stream and being able to play youre game at the same point with someone else's setup. All while being ear instantaneous?

[ChiefofLoliPolice]

You do if you want to make things more immersive in more complex built games yeah you will need to lol...

[Profchaos]

I don't think it's a SSD feature where you're playing multiple games at once it's more picture in picture the thing TVs were all about in the 90s. Being able to play a game while keeping an eye on the basketball game playing in another app

[crazyCoconuts]

Some of these patents seem silly. A whole lot of words to describe an overlay? What am I missing?

[mania568]

if within the game you could play several characters doing the same mission without delays and give options for more game to use more than just the Main character.
-
outside gaming you can
1- play a game and control music in case you think your own music is better than the games
2- watch netflix, youtube, game conferences while playing the game muted/low volume.
if you do not think this is nice i dont know what to tell you, i really want this to be on the console.

[Kribwalker]

suggestion number 2 was the Snap feature that was previously on the xbox one.

I really enjoyed having that feature and it sucked when they got rid of it, i feel not enough people used it

[sprinterboy]

The a console version of Pip (picture in picture)? Sounds good to me plus you could play another sp game while waiting for the MP match on another game to start or watch a bit of YouTube while in matchmaking? Cool

[anonymousfan]

Could be neat to for live streaming directly from console (not that I would ever us that). What I miss though is some good old fashion splitscreem local coop. There are still a few odd gems but they are rather scarce.

[jukins]

If you're not descriptive and detailed enough you're patent is worthless as someone could just tweak it and word it differently enough to get their own patent for basically the same thing

[ShadowWolf712]

I think it's more that your patent gets rejected if it's too broad as it would eliminate competition in the market.

[jukins]

Well that too.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Sounds amazing tbh

[Relientk77]

That would be sweet if PS5 can do that.

[WhiteHawk]

The use of the word screens here is stupid, it’s one screen with it spilt up or overlaid, like we have seen already, not multiple screens.

[Kerppamaister]

So... Snap from Xbox One early days.

[Software_Lover]

Somehow this will be turned into Microsoft copied Sony lol

[Kerppamaister]

Or a Sony innovation somehow. They use that a lot.

[Minute Man 721]

Is it like PiP??

[sprinterboy]

Seems like it, as I mentioned above great while in matching and just switched over to a sp game or youtube for a quick 5 mins while waiting for mp gane to start etc.
Be great with gts as it's like 20mins for the race to start online sometimes

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

I think it is less like PiP and more like what you see whenever you watch a streamer playing a video game. If you notice, none of the diagrams actual show the images switching places but instead how the second image can be re-positioned and interacted with (which is what the patent is actually for). It isn't like some are saying about displaying different parts of the same game since the patent is clear that the main image is from one program and the sub image is from a different program. The most common example of this is in video game streams that have the gameplay video combined with the video of the streamer as well as the video of the comments all overlaid.

[FyBy]

This seems like some form of ai assistant in games - small screen with tutorial will adapt to your movement on main screen. Maybe.

[sprinterboy]

That'll be one of the features no doubt, that,streaming, switch to yt, so assistant etc and allowing another player to take control via streaming

[Sophisticated_Chap]

If it were for multi-monitor support, then that would be kind of neat.

[kryteris]

it's picture in picture? how does this qualify for a new patent?

[Bruh]

Wait I'm confused, one of the most touted features of the Xbox One was its multi-tasking capabilities and the people on N4G shat on it....its almost like theres some kind of agenda

[phoenixwing]

i think they "shat" on it because the system itself ran games at lower quality than ps4. i don't think the actual feature was hated on or maybe i missed that part

[Bruh]

No doubt the hardware should get shat on, but plenty of people also down played the usefulness of some of the features that Xbox One had unique to it. Its exactly why Microsoft just gave up on it

[ILostMyMind]

Yeah! It is agenda to play victim everytime/everywhere.

[rainslacker]

A patent doesn't really mean much until it's implemented. MS implemented their silly PIP thing, which in itself wasn't so silly, but making it such a huge focus of their reveal, and marketing was what opened the doors for people to mock MS.

The agenda against MS back then was more about their DRM and online policies, and it was a valid agenda.

[Bruh]

I agree it was, and you're probably right. The media focus drove into all other realms of hate for the devise. I do hope they bring back multitasking to the Series X, it seems like you can play multiple games side by side. Be dope to also do PIP for web browsing or Youtube etc

[rainslacker]

It wasn't really the multi-tasking that people took issue with. It was the focus on the multi-tasking, and lack of compelling content to justify MS overall plans with everything else. The multi-tasking itself was just the butt of jokes, and something to pile onto the mountain.

[contra157]

This could be interesting

[GreatSako2020]

At the end, this might end up as another patent. In technology companies, patents are employees' kpi. We file as much as we can to get our next promotion. 😅

[chiefJohn117]

Snap? Is that you?
It can finally be considered a good feature now that Sony is doing it

[Tedakin]

The Xbox One did this in 2013

[Soulrakk]

So "Snap" from 2013 basically. Pretty funny how it's now "cool" that Sony is patenting this "unique" feature. At this point with the exception of the ridiculous DRM and not being able to play used games (even tho I've never actually done that this generation), it's pretty safe to say the vision for Xbox One was ahead of it's time. The Snap feature is still one of those features that some OG XB1 fans want back.

[AK91]

I think this is old news I swear I already read about an article that had this feature although I could be getting mixed up with the previous patents if XSX.

[JWave]

This is related to Sony's new game assist option. So you can basically watch a walkthrough as you're playing.

[TheHan]

So what Xbox one had with the snap feature which I loved. Wish they’ll bring it back

[WhyHate]

Oh snap, Sony is copying Microsoft again!