Sony Patents 'Gameplay Rewind' Universal Controller Button: How it Works

Sony has patented a new universal controller button that could change the way gamers interact with games on the company's PlayStation consoles. The new 'gameplay rewind' button could let gamers revisit certain parts of the game that have already been completed and view those sections, and then return to live game play. Players might also be able to generate "bookmarks" while playing games, and the purported rewind button would allow them to repeatedly access the favourite parts of their games.

Sony Patents 'Gameplay Rewind' Button for Controllers

A patent document (via Tech4Gamers) titled "Gameplay Rewind with User Triggered Buttons" describes a dedicated button on the controller that will allow users to generate a bookmark of the game that they are playing. The device will remember these bookmarks generated by the user, and the game being played by the user should also be capable of automatically generating them.

Fig 4A shows the rewind button and Fig 4B shows the rewind interface
Photo Credit: WIPO/ Sony

Sony explains how such a feature could be useful for gamers. The company says that a rewind button could let users "review" recently played portions of the game, in case they missed instructions provided by a non-playable character (NPC).

For example, you could be playing Life is Strange: True Colours, where you go around a bar and talk to patrons, report back to the bartender and repeat what two people ordered. If you were paying attention when the patrons were talking to you, you would be able to give the accurate order, or you might get it wrong. While there's no penalty for providing a wrong answer in this game, the rewind button could have possibly helped you out in such a scenario. 

Getting access to previous moments of gameplay can be a challenge, and Sony says that it would involve hacking an existing service to gain access to a particular part of the game. The company adds that even if a player managed to record some parts of the game, they would need to stop playing the game to access the content. 

According to the company, gamers will be able to press the universal button during live gameplay, and the console will display a new interface that offers playback-style controls, including a "rewind" option. Selecting the rewind option will show users a "subset of captured image frames from the gameplay", according to the company.

These captured image frames can be manually (or automatically) bookmarked and stored during gameplay. They will be displayed in sequence — in reverse order — when the player enters rewind mode, as per the details shared in the patent document. 

As a result, gamers will be able to interact with past moments from the game. For example, they can replay a particular section if they do not remember instructions provided by an NPC, or they missed some information shown by the game when passing through an important area.

Sony's patent document also suggests that users will be able to "interact" with gameplay moments in rewind mode, but there's no information on how that would work. It's worth noting that the existence of a patent does not necessarily mean that Sony will include support for such a feature on its controllers in the future.