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Games that automatically adjust your difficulty while you play aren’t unheard of, but the latest patent filed by Sony may be slightly more sophisticated than what’s been seen in the past. According to SIE’s patent, this software aims to implement “new methods that allow the difficulty of an interactive session to be dynamically adjusted according to the current capabilities of a user and that change as the capabilities of the user change over time.”
Based on the brief description Sony provided via WIPO, their invention works similarly to the divisive skill-based matchmaking feature present in recent Call of Duty entries. Of course, with SIE and its studios mainly focusing on single-player AAA games, the software would likely perform a completely different and much more bespoke function compared to that of its multiplayer-focused counterpart.
Naturally, projects that potentially implement this software would remove the need for difficulty options at the beginning of their story. Instead, each game would begin at a set difficulty, which is automatically adjusted depending on how well or poorly you’re doing. This means specific plot beats, boss fights, puzzles, and significant events would be much harder to complete, depending on how you did in similar scenarios.
In addition, the latest Sony patent also seems to allude to this software carrying over to different games, as one of the document notes states: “evaluating game performance data collected when the user plays a second interactive session associated with a same or different digital content title.” This could mean that playing a Sony studio-developed project, like, say, Spider-Man 2, would store your performance data and use that to adjust the difficulty in the next series installment.
With the implementation of this new invention likely still far off, though, this is still merely speculation, and its function could end up changing entirely in the future. So while you wait to experience an AAA game with SBMM, take a look at our pages on LEGO Fortnite’s game-changing updates and the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC reportedly being leaked to pass the time.
