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Like it or loathe it, the way we play games is changing. Lifecycles are longer than ever before, with seasonal updates keeping things fresh years after launch. It’s something that Sony’s paying close attention to, and may influence the direction it takes the PS Store. A new patent spotted by Op Attack and shared on Reddit introduces the concept of dynamic, personalised product pages which can change and evolve alongside the game.

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The abstract, issued in May of this year, outlines “techniques for providing information and functionalities based on a video game lifecycle and user context”. It goes on to demonstrate some examples, showing a hypothetical racing game and its latest content. The information is contextualised with additional data, such as which friends you have playing the title. It’s easy to see how this could be applied to real examples: the Fortnite product page, for instance, could be themed around its latest Battle Pass and skins.

PlayStation pulls an enormous chunk of its revenue through microtransactions and in-game purchases these days, so it’s in the organisation’s best interests to keep users abreast of any updates or expansions. We also reckon, with the way games are designed now, it just makes sense to make PS Store pages a bit more dynamic and relevant to what’s happening within a release at any given time.

[source pdfaiw.uspto.gov, via opattack.com, reddit.com]