Gaming industry companies filing patents isn’t really a new thing, and most of the products never end up making it to market anyway. However, Sony has filed a new one that has a high chance of actually seeing the light of day. As caught by Clawsome Gamer, the patent, titled “Cloud-Based Platform For Real-World Experimentation Driven Game Incubation”, hopes to bring game development tools to the cloud in order to support indie studios.
In the abstract, Sony has described the technology as being a cloud-based platform that can lower the barrier for studios to create and test their game concepts. It is also set to be quite scalable, giving developers the option to make entire games, or even just self-contained parts of a project, like a single mission or activity.
The company has noted that development of the technology came about thanks to a lack of resources and support for developers who might just be starting out in the gaming industry. Owing to this, many developers tend to go with simple mobile games as their first projects. The patent is meant to offer these developers an alternative, getting them ready to create and release console-ready projects without having to worry about the daunting steps involved with Play Store and App Store certifications and approval processes that could hamper potential console ports.
In one of the diagrams submitted for the patent, Sony has described two indie game developers simultaneously working on their own projects through a cloud service, which would offer all the tools required for development, prototyping, and debugging. The cloud service would provide all the storage, compute power, and other resources that would be needed during the development of a project. Another diagram also indicates that Sony plans on tying in machine learning technology with the cloud service to give developers the ability to create game assets at a faster pace.
Interestingly, the same technology also allows for methods through which developers can get feedback on their projects. One diagram shows a player’s screen presented with options to share their details with the developers, which would likely include analytics as well as a player-written message. The developer could then quickly see these metrics and messages through their own development portals. To help with marketing these games, the technology also includes a “one-button” option to publish short-form videos to platforms like YouTube Shorts and TikTok.
Without going into too many technical details, the patent describes a method by which studios can develop their projects entirely through the cloud, and without having to worry about getting their hands on a local console development kit, which tends to be incredibly expensive.
It is difficult to ascertain to what extent this technology has already been developed by Sony. Cloud-based platforms are far from a revolutionary idea these days, with the technology being used for just about everything from storage to compute. However, an entire game development suite available through the cloud would open the doors for just about anyone to get into game development without having to worry about logistical aspects like needing powerful hardware.
