Sony Applies For Patent For New Way Of Sorting Games

With the continued rise of online gaming, both pure multiplayer games or multiplayer components of single player games, new ways to handle them may appear. It seems that Sony has devised a new method of possibly sifting through the madness that is the friends list. In a patent that was filed in 2017 and published a few days ago, Sony introduced a way of organizing the PS4 home menu based on your friend list.

Essentially, Sony thought of a method of making sure that you can easily tell which games your friends have. This is accomplished by half-merging the friends list with the home menu icons. This is designed to possibly help people who may have out-of-date versions of games or a large library of games to sort through. It would help to get to the active multiplayer games. As Sony described it, “There is presently no way to discover new content, rediscover content, or determine what content is being played by one’s friends other than by reaching out and asking such friends.”

Here is how the process in the patent might work. PSN tracks the player’s library of games, as well as their contacts. It then checks their friends’ activity, content-wise, and filters out the library to a custom list based on what the friends have played.

The patent shows off two examples, as seen above. In the first one, players can check a friend’s activity thread to see which games have been played or pre-ordered. They can view more info on the games and even go to the pre-order page immediately.

In the second picture, we see a modified home screen where friend icons take up spaces where games normally would be. By going to a friend icon, you can easily choose to join up with the friend via Party or other chat features, as well as see what game they’re active in. So even if it’s been a while since you’ve played The Last of Us Remastered, you can rediscover it and play with friends via this integrated home menu option.

The patent has not been granted yet, meaning it might be a while before this possible feature is implemented. That is, if it is at all. However, it seems Sony is intent on making the process of joining multiplayer as hassle-free as possible.