In the future, difficulty modes for the PS5 and PlayStation games more generally could be a thing of the past. It won’t make everyone happy.
Do you find some games too difficult? The question of difficulty is an old debate in video games. Sometimes players feel that a title offers an adventure that is too simple. The opposite is also true, especially with regard to FromSoftware productions. Well, obviously Sony intends to offer something for the PS5 and its future productions that addresses these concerns.
An adaptive difficulty level for future PS5 games?
What alarmed the community was a patent filed by Sony. The latter has the advantage of being quite clear: “ Adaptive difficulty calibration for skill-based activities in virtual environments “. In short, it would mean that the difficulty of a game on PlayStation consoles like the PS5 would adjust depending on how you play. If we spend our time dying in a very specific place, this will automatically make our “life” easier . We imagine that this will entail, for example, a reduction in the health of enemies.
This is far from the first time we’ve seen such a concept. In addition, multiplayer games are already at the cutting edge, with matchmaking based on skill (the “ Skills-based matchmaking ), among others. The difference is that it is less present in experiences designed for solo play. Here Sony seems to want to make sure that it goes even further, that it is truly tailor-made. However, will this be widespread across all games on the PS5 and beyond? At the moment it’s hard to know.
At the page dedicated to the patentWe remain entitled to provide further details at any time. This would of course analyze a player’s expected performance in a game. If it doesn’t meet the right criteria, the difficulty level adjusts: ” The collected data may be evaluated to determine whether or not a user’s gaming performance level meets an expected performance level. “. It goes without saying that this will not necessarily please everyone. However, we do not yet know whether we will have control over this functionality. However, for now it remains just a patent.
What are the consequences for gameplay?
Above we explained that it could affect the lives of enemies. In fact, we already have information on this topic. This is not an exhaustive list, but Sony has laid out details on the subject and indeed does not do things by halves. We are talking about reduced movement speed and increased strength for our character. It remains to be seen whether this will all see the light of day:
Parameters related to Speed of movement, lag or hesitation, character strengths, number of competitors or other parameters may be changed incrementally until a performance level of the current user meets an expected level of a particular user currently playing the game.
