PS5 Could Have An Increased Emphasis On User-Generated and Community Content, Patent Filing Suggests

An increased emphasis on community and community interactions was an integral part of Sony’s original pitch for the PlayStation 4–they even made the Share button one of the primary ones on the DualShock 4. And sure enough, the PS4 has been more community-interaction friendly than any previous PlayStation console.

And Sony may only be doubling down on that with the PS5–at least if this new patent filing, which was discovered on the US Patent and Trademark Office website by RespawnFirst, seems to suggest that. The patent specifically seems to indicate that the PS5 will have a way of automatically generating metadata for any user-created data (such as footage), which will be appropriately descriptive and allow players to search and organize for content accordingly.

This is just my interpretation of it, but, for instance, you could search for “Phantom Thieves’ Final Calling Card”, and well get a recording of the Scene where the final calling card is sent in Persona 5 (and yes, I understand the irony of using one of the few games that completely blocks the PS4’s sharing features as my example here).

I’ll include the relevant text, so people smarter than me can figure out what the implication is for themselves.

“… A method for implementing and using scene tagging, the method comprising: generating user content associated with a videogame, the generated user content including a recording of an event that occurred within the video game being played on a user computing device; characterizing details about the recorded event, the details including a location that the recorded event occurred at within the videogame; assigning metadata to the generated user content, wherein the assigned metadata is automatically generated and describes features of the recorded event of the generated user content; storing the generated user content and assigned metadata in a database; receiving a request from a user to view the generated user content stored in the database, the user request including terms that correspond to the assigned metadata; displaying the generated user content for the user to view on their user computing device, wherein displaying includes recreating the recorded event so that the user can participate within the same event on the user computing device.“

To me, this is probably the most interesting thing I have learned about the PS5 (other than the patent filing that suggested it could use cartridges). Hopefully, Sony sheds more light on the official sharing and community features on the PS5 when they finally officially unveil it to the world.