Sony patents "Direct Gameplay" (game activity/progress tiles presented in PS5 OS)

[Wollan]

The ultra fast SSD and instant loading surely will help make this a great feature. Seems like developers will be able to create custom tiles with a lot of functionality and have this be presented in the general PS5 OS. Think of a tile as an extension of the game (a mini app/widget merged into the OS) showing i.e. your latest position in an RPG with a screenshot, current gear and a button for jumping straight back into the action in a second. Or a Multiplayer FPS tile with a matchmaking button pre-set to "Team Deatchmatch" (your favorite mode), general stats etc. Potentially the tiles could also enable you to perform async game activities while in the PS5 OS (i.e. sending out delivery robots in Death Stranding). Hey, what about not presenting a main menu within a game at all...

Patent can be seen here: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20200086217.pdf

I first saw this mentioned on a Norwegian news site.

Mark Cerny's comments from last years Wired articles (thanks GTVision ):

The PS4's bare-bones home screen at times feels frozen in amber; you can see what your friends have recently done or even what game title they might be playing at the moment, but without launching an individual title there's no way to tell what single-player missions you could do or what multiplayer matches you can join. The PS5 will change that. "Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don't want the player to have to boot the game, see what's up, boot the game, see what's up," Cerny says. "Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them—and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like."

 

[Deleted member 10726]

That sounds fantastic on paper, can't wait to look back on this in a couple of years and see how devs utilized this.

 

[King_Moc]

Seems like an interface for the similar feature MS announced where you can have multiple game suspension profiles at the same time.

 

[McFly]

Seems like an interface for the similar feature MS announced where you can have multiple game suspension profiles at the same time.

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Its not the same. They talked about it in the wired interview.

 

[Chaserjoey]

That sounds really cool. Can't wait to potentially see it.

 

[Wollan]

They talked about it in the wired interview.

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Yup. Patent reveals a bit more concrete details on that.

 

[RedSparrows]

So it'd be like accessing a save file direct from the OS? That'd be cool.

 

[jem]

Didn't the original XB1 OS kinda have this?

When you went to the home screen the main tile would show the game you were currently running.


Although this obviously has significantly more to it than that.

 

[Thera]

Seems coherent with the fact data management will allow to keep only some part of a game (solo or MP for exemple).

 

[Philippo]

If they make a tile dedicated to load your most recent save in an SP game or as OP says launch your favorite MP mode directly from the OS, then coupled with the tech we could finally get into playing directly in a matter of seconds. Crazy stuff.

 

[Wollan]

Didn't the original XB1 OS kinda have this?

When you went to the home screen the main tile would show the game you were currently running.

Although this obviously has significantly more to it than that.

Click to shrink...

Think of the tile as a dynamic mini app that's merged into the general OS. A widget of sorts.

 

[Skittles]

Seems like an interface for the similar feature MS announced where you can have multiple game suspension profiles at the same time.

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This is different, you can launch into a round of Domination in Call of Duty directly from the OS

This will be huge in evergreen titles like Fifa, Cod, etc

 

[Deleted member 20297]

I think emulators do that (at least some) with your save states - they also grab a screenshot of where you saved.

 

[Jekked]

It's just a patent though. Where does it mention PS5?

 

[Wollan]

It's just a patent though. Where does it mention PS5?

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They talked about it in the exclusive PS5 Wired interviews last year.

 

[mortadelo]

Sounds like a beefed up version of the game invite from the PS4, where it's possible to add even more information in there now.

Edit: And of course, it's not just for game invites.

 

[modiz]

So this is comparable to emulator save states right? that would be pretty awesome, and something that i had speculated on before the second wired article. it just makes a lot of sense if the game loads so fast. You could see this as an alternative option for multi game suspend where instead of copying the whole game ram data into the SSD like what MS does, you would just load up your save states (which should take roughly 1 second).

 

[Dalcop]

This is different, you can launch into a round of Domination in Call of Duty directly from the OS

This will be huge in evergreen titles like Fifa, Cod, etc

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Is it really that different from resuming a game on the multiplayer menu and selecting Domination?

 

[kubev]

Sounds like Live Tile Deep Linking on Windows 8+ and Windows Phone.

 

[thevid]

Is it really that different from resuming a game on the multiplayer menu and selecting Domination?

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Yes, because you don't need to have a game suspended on the multiplayer menu first. It also sounds like it can display pertinent info on the tile such as player counts and such.

This has less to do with suspending and resuming, and more to do with making games more immediately accessible, something that is apparently a big point for Sony next generation. So rather than starting a game, selecting multiplayer, then selecting team deathmatch, you can have a tile for that game's team deathmatch and jump straight in.

 

[Gay Bowser]

Sony seems keen on addressing the pain points of modern gaming — and one of them is that it takes too damn long to start playing.

The SSD is part of their solution for addressing that. This is another part. What's better than loading a bunch of menus faster? Not having to load them at all. Being able to jump into a specific part of the game or game mode straight from the OS sounds great.

The user interface described sort of reminds me of PS Vita's LiveArea, where the "icon" for a game was really a widget that could contain multiple options. This sort of deep linking has become the norm for mobile apps; it's great to see it applied to console games.

 

[noyram23]

Oh it's like apps shortcuts right? Imagine playing directly from a save (without loading), play a game mode directly, say check a timer based minigame (like those map missions on DA:I). Could be really great. It could probably change how we play games like how rest mode did for me this gen.

Is it really that different from resuming a game on the multiplayer menu and selecting Domination?

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Say you're on a different game, you just select a game mode from a diffent game then you're on it. No loading (probably) no game bootup to tackle, no menu to see just straight into the game mode.

That said i'm not sure if 3rd party engine and tools would be ok with it, I remember GG asking a lot of their 3rd party tools if it's ok to remove their logos for that ps4 Killzone game

 

[Starlatine]

I can't see devs and pubs liking this very much, but if Sony manages to do it i hope it takes traction and everyone else does it too. Loading directly from a save state and skipping all logos, intros, fluff and loading is one of the reasons id rather play rpgs on emulators than on real hardware

 

[JustAnotherOne]

That is actually a really,really,cool idea.

 

[Dalcop]

Yes, because you don't need to have a game suspended on the multiplayer menu first. It also sounds like it can display pertinent info on the tile such as player counts and such.

This has less to do with suspending and resuming, and more to do with making games more immediately accessible, something that is apparently a big point for Sony next generation. So rather than starting a game, selecting multiplayer, then selecting team deathmatch, you can have a tile for that game's team deathmatch and jump straight in.

Click to shrink...

Say you're on a different game, you just select a game mode from a diffent game then you're on it. No loading (probably) no game bootup to tackle, no menu to see just straight into the game mode.

That said i'm not sure if 3rd party engine and tools would be ok with it, I remember GG asking a lot of their 3rd party tools if it's ok to remove their logos for that ps4 Killzone game

Click to shrink...

Does it skip the bootup, though? Or does it just start a game (that's not suspended) as normal, then automatically take you to whatever mode or save you wanted to load like it does now when you accept multiplayer game invites? I think that distinction fundamentally changes the discussion.

It is a cool concept if implemented as pointed out, though.

 

[Atheerios]

Oh that is cool. Reminds me of the Wii Menu where the games could display dynamic content in the banner, but this time they can also include buttons and shortcuts.

 

[jschreier]

I have heard some fascinating things about the PS5's operating system like this - one of the pitches they've been making to developers is "playing a PS5 game should be as easy as Netflix." They want to make players feel like they can load up the game immediately and know exactly how much time a given activity is going to take them. They want people to feel more inclined to play in short bursts rather than only wanting to turn on the console when they have a few hours to spare.

 

[natestellar]

I have heard some fascinating things about the PS5's operating system like this - one of the pitches they've been making to developers is "playing a PS5 game should be as easy as Netflix." They want to make players feel like they can load up the game immediately and know exactly how much time a given activity is going to take them. They want people to feel more inclined to play in short bursts rather than only wanting to turn on the console when they have a few hours to spare.

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That sounds amazing, hope it looks something like this

 

[GTVision]

The following is from the Wired article from last year (https://www.wired.com/story/exclusive-playstation-5/):

The PS4's bare-bones home screen at times feels frozen in amber; you can see what your friends have recently done or even what game title they might be playing at the moment, but without launching an individual title there's no way to tell what single-player missions you could do or what multiplayer matches you can join. The PS5 will change that. "Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don't want the player to have to boot the game, see what's up, boot the game, see what's up," Cerny says. "Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them—and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like."

 

[modiz]

That sounds amazing, hope it looks something like this

Click to shrink...

heh, that concept is pretty cool and probably not too far off from what this is going to be like.

I have heard some fascinating things about the PS5's operating system like this - one of the pitches they've been making to developers is "playing a PS5 game should be as easy as Netflix." They want to make players feel like they can load up the game immediately and know exactly how much time a given activity is going to take them. They want people to feel more inclined to play in short bursts rather than only wanting to turn on the console when they have a few hours to spare.

Click to shrink...

this sounds really great, i would love to see it in action.

 

[Naga]

The ultra fast SSD and instant loading surely will help make this a great feature. Seems like developers will be able to create custom tiles with a lot of functionality and have this be presented in the general PS5 OS. Think of a tile as an extension to the game (a mini app/widget merged into the OS) showing i.e. your latest position in an RPG with a screenshot, current gear and a button for jumping straight back into the action in a second. Or a Multiplayer FPS tile with a matchmaking button pre-set to "Team Deatchmatch" (your favorite mode), general stats etc. Potentially the tiles could also enable you to perform async game activities while in the PS5 OS (i.e. sending out delivery robots in Death Stranding). Hey, what about not presenting a main menu within a game at all...

Patent can be seen here: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20200086217.pdf

I first saw this mentioned on a Norwegian news site.

Click to shrink...

Steam already does that outside of the "launch the activity".

 

[McFly]

These are some of the features that were talked about in the interview.

Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don't want the player to have to boot the game, see what's up, boot the game, see what's up," Cerny says. "Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them—and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like.

Click to shrink...

Modular game installation.

configurable installation—and removal—process. "Rather than treating games like a big block of data," Cerny says, "we're allowing finer-grained access to the data." That could mean the ability to install just a game's multiplayer campaign, leaving the single-player campaign for another time, or just installing the whole thing and then deleting the single-player campaign once you've finished it.

Click to shrink...

Edit: Beaten

 

[Deleted member 5028]

What I heard from my sources was that the OS itself can display several tasks or in-game achievements you have still to finish

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This already exists on Xbox though. You can see how far along to an achievement you are and how close to completion straight from the dash without launching. Unsure if this is a big thing in the end?

 

[Mathieran]

I have heard some fascinating things about the PS5's operating system like this - one of the pitches they've been making to developers is "playing a PS5 game should be as easy as Netflix." They want to make players feel like they can load up the game immediately and know exactly how much time a given activity is going to take them. They want people to feel more inclined to play in short bursts rather than only wanting to turn on the console when they have a few hours to spare.

Click to shrink...

this sounds like a great feature for casual players. I don't need it as much now, but when my kids were younger this would have been amazing. I don't know how many times I held off on playing cause I wasn't sure if it was gonna be worth starting up to play.
I am still really excited for quick start though. Sometimes if I only have half an hour to play I won't bother with booting up the PS4 cause it can be 5 or more minutes before I'm playing.

 

[thevid]

Does it skip the bootup, though? Or does it just start a game (that's not suspended) as normal, then automatically take you to whatever mode or save you wanted to load like it does now when you accept multiplayer game invites? I think that distinction fundamentally changes the discussion.

Click to shrink...

I imagine that's up to the developers and how they define each template.

 

[Castamere]

This would be amazing if games weren't so big, but we live in a world where 800gb might only get you 6-7 AAA games.

What one of them should have been is have rewritable blurays that patch themselves, so that there's no need to keep a game on your system. A disk would pop in and boom you're gone, as long as you keep it patched. I don't know how feasible it is, but that would have completely changed the concept of storage.

 

[Deleted member 5028]

This would be amazing if games weren't so big, but we live in a world where 800gb might only get you 6-7 AAA games.

What one of them should have been is have rewritable blurays that patch themselves, so that there's no need to keep a game on your system. A disk would pop in and boom you're gone, as long as you keep it patched. I don't know how feasible it is, but that would have completely changed the concept of storage.

Click to shrink...

Imagine a world where someone hacks the PS5 allowing to write games from the SSD onto disc without worry. Also very expensive.

 

[Strings]

It would be cool to be able to perform missions that take real-world time from outside of the game, which is kind of what I'm getting from this? Like sending out characters on expeditions in RPGS, that sort of thing.

 

[Phellps]

This would be amazing if games weren't so big, but we live in a world where 800gb might only get you 6-7 AAA games.

What one of them should have been is have rewritable blurays that patch themselves, so that there's no need to keep a game on your system. A disk would pop in and boom you're gone, as long as you keep it patched. I don't know how feasible it is, but that would have completely changed the concept of storage.

Click to shrink...

There will always be a need to keep the game in the system because disks are very slow, even more so when compared to SSDs. You're not getting 2.5GB/s of read speed on any disk, specially if it's multi-layered like these blurays need to be.

The only alternative is going back to cartridges, which is far more expensive.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Is this not the stuff already on Xbox. Achievement tracker etc

 

[Fisty]

This will likely be very helpful since 825 GB of storage wont store a ton of games. People would be irritated if they had to copy over COD 24 just to see what's going on in the game, find out nothing's happening and then copy it back to cold storage

 

[Outrun]

Think of the tile as a dynamic mini app that's merged into the general OS. A widget of sorts.

Click to shrink...

Sounds amazing.

 

[Wollan]

I could also imagine game tiles remaining installed (like game saves) despite if the full game is installed or not. That would be great and make storage space a smaller concern (in countries with no Internet cap & good bandwidth).

 

[BitterFig]

Having a dynamic game menu directly in the UI of the OS is cool but I can see this feature being largely ignored by devs if it does not exist on other consoles. So hopefully Microsoft can add something similar, if they didn't already. It's purely software so not a problem to add this later in time.

 

[KeRaSh]

This ia what I really want from next gen.
I hate having to juggle between different games because they take so long to load and after a while I forget what I had to do to progress. That's why I usually only focus on one game.
Systems like this or multi-suspend-and-resume with sub 10s loading times are what I'm really excited about.

 

[MarsipanRumpan]

I'd love this. Hopefully it has something like this, pretty much every console UI is pretty bland right now.

 

[Deleted member 20297]

This will likely be very helpful since 825 GB of storage wont store a ton of games. People would be irritated if they had to copy over COD 24 just to see what's going on in the game, find out nothing's happening and then copy it back to cold storage

Click to shrink...

I think that Sony will do PlayGo again but not only from disc to disk but also from disc to SSD and, more importantly, disk to SSD.
Disk to SSD should be pretty fast, we can easily expect 80MB/s from a USB 3 drive which means 4.8GB/min and with PlayGo this should mean that perhaps a few minutes are enough to start the game.

 

[noyram23]

Does it skip the bootup, though? Or does it just start a game (that's not suspended) as normal, then automatically take you to whatever mode or save you wanted to load like it does now when you accept multiplayer game invites? I think that distinction fundamentally changes the discussion.

It is a cool concept if implemented as pointed out, though.

Click to shrink...

Given how fast these ssd are, it probably bypasses the bootup, think of it as a how saved state works on emulator. You're just there, even from where you are.

 

[Nightengale]

Having a dynamic game menu directly in the UI of the OS is cool but I can see this feature being largely ignored by devs if it does not exist on other consoles. So hopefully Microsoft can add something similar, if they didn't already. It's purely software so not a problem to add this later in time.

Click to shrink...

I don't know - it's not as if the devs are creating modes for this - but more of OS-level link to in-game modes that normally would need 5 presses from game -> multiplayer menu -> game type -> deathmatch -> create lobby, now you only need 1 or 2.

So long as it's not too complicated - or if there are legal issues where skipping the T&C and engine logos and shit have some ramifications, I could see many devs embrace it.

 

[nib95]

Didn't the original XB1 OS kinda have this?

When you went to the home screen the main tile would show the game you were currently running.

Although this obviously has significantly more to it than that.

Click to shrink...

Is this not the stuff already on Xbox. Achievement tracker etc

Click to shrink...

What you're both describing the PS4 already has, but what's described in the OP goes well beyond it. Essentially it would allow you to load specific modes, chapters or whatever else from a game, without even needing to have the game be suspended. Essentially you have more fine grain freedom to quickly load specific parts of games as and when you need them, even if you haven't already been running it.