Patent Suggests PlayStation Exploring Use of NFTs in Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 14 November 2022 / 2,690 Views
A new patent by Sony Interactive Entertainment that was published this month with a July 5, 2021 application date suggests PlayStation is exploring the use of NFTs and Blockchain technology in games.
The title of the patent reads "Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger" and is about creating a system that could track unique in-game digital content.
"Individuals often find it meaningful to own or use unique physical items related to respected celebrities or activities," reads the background section of the patent. "For example, fans of skilled baseball player Babe Ruth, or of baseball in general, often seek to purchase and own baseballs autographed by Babe Ruth, baseballs hit by Babe Ruth in an important baseball game, trading cards depicting Babe Ruth, and the like.
"Video gaming is an increasingly popular activity worldwide. Skilled players of multiplayer video games gain popularity in multiplayer matches or tournaments, which are often live-streamed or otherwise broadcast to numerous viewers. Likewise, well-known players often live-stream or otherwise broadcast gameplay of single-player or multiplayer video games, for instance in which the players perform or attempt speedruns, in-game challenges, multiplayer matches, or other gameplay activities.
"Some players who are particularly skilled or charismatic can develop large followings of devoted fans, much like fan followings for famous athletes, singers, actors, or other celebrities.
"In some video games, a player can use digital assets during gameplay. Such digital assets can include, for example, specific characters, costumes, or items. In traditional video games, multiple instances of the same in-game item exist within the same copy of the video game and/or within different copies of the video game.
"These different instances of the same in-game item are traditionally fungible, as they are indistinguishable from one another. For instance, even if a particular in-game item is rare to obtain within the video game, the in-game item is represented in the video game as a string of code that is identical to representations of other instances of the same in-game item in the same video game, and/or in other copies of the same video game. Thus, in traditional video games, no one digital asset is unique from other instances of the same in-game item.
"As a result, in traditional video games, there is no way to know, track, or authenticate a history of a particular instance of an in-game item. For instance, in traditional video games, there is no way to differentiate a specific instance of an in-game item that a famous player of the video game used to win a famous tournament from any other instance of the in-game item."
The detailed description on the patent specifically mentions making fungible digital video game content non-fungible.
"The techniques and technologies described herein expand the capabilities of digital assets associated with video games, and of systems that create and manage such digital assets, by converting the digital assets associated with video games from being fungible to being non-fungible," reads the detailed description.
"The techniques and technologies described herein expand the functionality of digital assets associated with video games, and of systems that create and manage such digital assets, by tracking a history of the digital assets. Tracking the history of the digital assets can include, for example, tracking when, how, and by whom the digital asset was created, used, modified, rented to, rented by, sold to, purchased by, licensed to, licensed by, exchanged to, exchanged by, and/or other actions."
PlayStation did recently launch a new loyalty program called PlayStation Stars that is available for free. Grace Chen, vice president of network advertising, loyalty and licensed merchandise, stated the "digital collectibles" available in PlayStation Stars are not NFTs.
Thanks, Gamesual.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Let's hope this is one of the many patents that never move past the conceptual stage.
In fact, if that's the case, this patent might prove to be beneficial for games, since this sounds exactly like what everyone's been suggesting be done with NFTs in games - that is, this would block others from doing this. But like you said: let's hope.
(Also, I still dislike what kind of stuff you can patent, but at least for once it sounds like it has some potential for good.)
The issue is the patent would expire eventually anyway. And more likely than not, a very similar patent could be made to accomplish almost the same thing.
So hopefully sony doesn't use it, but I wouldn't count on it stopping anyone else.
I wouldn't either, but there's some hope. Of course the main thing we have to hope for is for Sony to not use this, which is what I'm concerned about.
Fuck off Sony
no fudging thanks
Awful idea.
I'm honestly not surprised. Every tech company is at the very least going to look into new technologies, even if they outright ban them in the end, they had to have looked into the technology first. Most of the time, nothing comes out of it. Pretty sure that will be the case here.
Agreed. The application date on this one is 7/5/2022 - think about everything that has happened to the cypto market as a whole, blockchain and NFTs included, since then. For all we know, Sony has already completely shut-down this department lol
Nightmare for thou
But why.gif
July 2021 was at the height of that bullcrap, I'd be very surprised if half the companies in the world weren't trying to get in on it even if they don't do anything with it.
No. No. No. Better leave this one in the archives.
This better stay in the patent stage.
Burn it to the ground
Cool
2021 when they thought about it,
So they never pushed thru,
This is just trying to gaslight Sony lol!
I think they already know that nft is a dumpster fire,
They won't burn themselves just to learn their lesson.
What the fuck? Why? Please don't go through with this.
Goes well with the $70 price tag.
