An interesting patent from Sony has recently been discovered, and it concerns the use of an AI assistant capable of providing contextual guidance while you're playing a game.
As first reported by Boing Boing, Sony filed a patent for this concept back in April 2025, and it involves an AI "ghost" character that can help you get through in-game challenges by showing you what to do, giving you advice, or simply performing the actions for you.
The patent says the AI assistant would be trained on playthroughs of games by other users, as well as online resources like YouTube videos and Twitch streams. Using this information, it can identify specific game scenarios.
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Then, if you enable the AI assistant, it could manifest in-game as a ghost NPC. Depending on what you want it to do, it could provide an overlay of what to do next, show you the button prompts needed, have a conversation with you through natural language, or even complete segments for you.
The idea is that it would help players who are stuck or require additional assistance to complete games they would otherwise have to quit playing.
There's an argument to be made for such an AI assistant in terms of accessibility, but we've also seen concerns about such a thing trivialising any challenge and being potentially intrusive.
This is only a patent, meaning it's effectively just a concept at this stage and may never be fully implemented.
What are your thoughts on this? Does an in-game AI-assistant providing contextual tutorials sound like something you'd want? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source patentscope.wipo.int, via boingboing.net]
Comments 72
I wonder how many people play games to not play them.
@somnambulance quite a few kids these days prefer to watch people play games rather then actually play them
Ok then … if the A.I plays as well as it answers my questions sometimes it will probably result in the A.I. shooting my own troops or trying to win a race in reverse.
@Toot1st Not just kids, but who would pay the price of a game just for an AI to play it for them, rather than watch someone else do it for free?
Sony will need to move mountains to get me to purchase a PS6! This is from a Sony fanboy!
@somnambulance Its seems like it just an assistant, like using a navigation system. Heck some games need this to help get into the main stream gaming public. Life of Pi is a great examples. Even with an easy option th game is still hard as *****!
So this is like Sony's version of copilot? not sure how I feel about this...
This is AMAZING. I will no longer have to play games, woohooo! What next?! Pre-digested food that I can chuck straight down the toilet?!
This could be great for players who have actual physical issues that would make simple things really hard.
@Propaperpusher we know nothing about the ps6 besides a patent that's not even directly ps6 related and you're already anti ps6?
Demon's Soul Platinum Trophy will become more common.
Is this for people that watch people play games?
@springer17 i dont understand it myself but no different then paying to watch a movie i guess
From an accessibility standpoint this is an amazing idea.
From a general standpoint, it's bad in terms of people abusing the feature and not actually playing games, plus it could cheapen trophy hunting.
Though as someone who has been asked to beat levels for friends in the past, in person and through remote play, and also asked a friend to play the spider sections of Hogwarts for me, I can also see the benefits there.
Double-edged sword this one.
@somnambulance Judging from how long the “pay to skip content” microtransactions like XP boosters are around, quite a lot of people i guess.
I think its a good idea helping when you get stuck
you dont have to use it
I bet nobody expected the 90s' title screen demo autoplays to come back with such a vengeance.😅
Welcome back Super Guide.
Is this a problem that really needs solving? I thought this already existed ever since Mario Galaxy 2.
Now video game cuckolding won't require streamers.
um why? I play my games on easy but I still have to learn them and play them.
Here comes the pitchfork crowd because they saw "AI" in the title. Nevermind that it's just an option and no one has to use it. Are people that decide to use it "smooth brains" by any chance?
/s
@SteveJaye and this is from a “fanboy” 😂
Lol this is dumb. Good thing it is only a patent and a lot of time these patent didn't get greenlight / implemented.
I know 1 person who would be happy with this, so the A.I. could get the unobtainable trophies for him and he doesnt have to rage about an uncompleted trophy list on his account.
This is an excellent idea for physically disabled people.
I know someone very well who would love this sort of thing. They really like games, but find most games these days too difficult to play as they only have 1 working hand.
And remember, whilst some disabilities are from birth, others can affect us later in life, whether through age, an accident, or a medical condition.
Everyone here negatively commenting on this, could need something like it, someday.
Edit: and just to expand on the above, physical disabilities are variable and have varying degrees of severity - disabled people don't want to sit there and just 'watch' a video, they want as much interaction as possible. An AI system that can adapt to their individual level of capability sounds like a very good idea.
That sounds like something a blind player I once met could have used. His girlfriend helped him play the game, he had some vision but overall he really struggled and didn't stick with the game. Really sweet guy, but his situation was so rough. I think he developed some kind of problem with his vision and overtime he was starting to lose it. He was only in his twenties.
Edit: More context, I think he was in a car accident. He was losing his sight over time, I knew him for maybe three weeks. There was someone else like that in the PC Satisfactory community, he developed some kind of eye problem. The community came together, the Devs saw the post and called a meeting to implement some kind of system to allow people with that condition to play. I'd never seen a developer respond like that before, and still haven't. I think vision and hearing are two things I take for granted on a daily basis. My original piano teacher has now lost their hearing, I'd send them pieces I recorded, I can't anymore. I instantly changed the settings on my audio equipment, I want to keep my hearing and not blow it out with daily doses of Metal and screaming (the music not me)
I use gaming to deal with agoraphobia so I get it. I build worlds from the ground up. By definition it's an impairment, gaming helps a lot. I spent years building 1:1 replicas of real life places. It's lead to an interest in architecture and city planning. Games like Satisfactory, Minecraft, and Cities Skylines give a lot back, they are my forever games. The backlog grows, but the hobby remains. I don't know what I'd do without them.
His original post.
I've played Satisfactory since 0.5 when my son showed me the game and it took me about a month to "figure it out". I've been addicted ever since. I loved the hype of each new update and even starting a new save because, I could do better. Then I was diagnosed with ALS and it was devastating. I could no longer work or do the upgrades around the house that I loved to do. But I could still build in Satisfactory. I could build, organize and be efficient. Playing the game gave me an escape where I could feel normal again. CSS was awesome to me and gave me a key to play the closed beta 1.0. I was so excited to complete 1.0 the day before the release which was difficult to do as there was obviously no documentation or online resources to help out. As my ALS progressed, I found new ways to play. I used voice controls for keyboard commands and a disability mouse. I was lucky enough to take part in a symposium for disabled gamers. I was featured by Snutt on a livestream twice for my factory screenshot. I had my factory shown in the CSS 1 year anniversary video. And TotalXclipse will be doing a factory tour of my nuclear build. But after 6,000 hours and maybe the largest nuclear build to ever be made, I have to call it quits. My hands are no longer usable and I use eye gaze exclusively. Thank you CSS for all the enjoyment. I hope someday you can make Satisfactory compatible with eye gaze so maybe myself and others like me can continue to be efficient. I know the ROI isn't there to add this but it would mean a lot to those who need your game the most. I've included some of my favorite builds I've done. In the meantime I will keep enjoying watching other pioneers on twitch.
May as well just watch a walk through on You tube
While it's not something I can see myself using I can see uses for this, either for accessibility or if you are just stuck at some part. As a kid there were parts of games that were infuriating hard and i'd often just drop a game because of it.
@somnambulance Its a genre on mobile isnt it?
@Oram77 Don't know do they steal all your personal data even when you are typing your passwords.
@nomither6 One time AI makes a positive impact i can handle that it seems like it could help people who can't play a because of maybe medical issues. Sounds like something that would benefit people.
This could be pretty useful my dad would sometimes ask for help on bosses and leveling up/equipping gear while playing games. Sidenote: My dad was once playing God of War on easy mode and killing the vallyries most of them are very very easy on easy but the final one still feels like a hard boss fight like on other difficulties. I taught him how to abuse the special axe attacks and it destroyed the other ones. He asked for help on the last one I said its easy you can just do the same thing, and I died. Then had to learn how to beat it the normal way.
I think this could have its uses for some players that don't have time to master or do overly difficult trophies and also players who have disabilities etc.
For instance, my mother(shes 68) absolutely loved FF7 back in the day and really wants to play the remake, but she finds some of the battles too difficult and gave up. Even on story mode. She has COPD and gaming is pretty much all she can do. I would love for her to be able to play it just for the story.
I imagine any time it's activated trophies and potentially in game unlockables will be disabled, not to mention it's almost certainly for single-player titles only, so I can't see a feature like this 100% removing challenge. Growing up my mom would constantly hand me the controller when she played games with a frustrated, "Do this part for me," and now my daughter is the type to give up altogether the second she gets stuck. Personally, depending on its implementation, this seems like a better use of AI than most things, and it might help a wider audience see games through to the credits.
This is a win-win situation if it is implemented. If anyone just wants to chill and enjoy a game segment without having to deal with more difficult stuff, or doesn't have anyone around to help them at the time, or, as mentioned by other comments here, have any disabilities, then they have the option to use it. And anyone who doesn't want to use it, seemingly has the option to never use it.
As for me, I would never use it myself. Just occasionally looking up a website guide or YouTube video is good enough for me, since I like doing things myself. Though I do totally understand why some people would love this option.
I never thought AVGN's beat-a-game button would become a reality, but here we are.
Nintendo did this in a cave...with a box of scraps.
Anyone curious how it's implementation might work, just look up Super Guide. Basically, if you're capable of beating the game yourself, you'll never use it and forget it exists.
me when I get stuck in the next God of War game and Kratos suddenly starts advising that I put glue in my pepperoni pizza instead of cheese:
Some games have a version of this, in effect, like Gran Turismo with the ghost car that’s based on other players or on your best lap which you try to follow for better lines and improvement of your times.
A rudimentary version is also present in things like the ghost images at blood stains in the Dark Souls games showing you how other players died, the pawns in Dragon’s Dogma giving you advice based on playing the game with other players while you’re gone, etc. Of course none of these actually perform the game input or play the game for you, and this sounds like a much more advanced form of these pre-existing mechanics, but it’s still not that far from what’s been available for years through YouTube walkthroughs and game guides.
I’ve barely used PS5 already existing “Game Help” feature, but I appreciate that it’s there for the few times I have used it. So this could be ok, despite the whole excessive indulgence in AI tech and all that implies.
This feature should automatically disable trophies.
Games already feel like they've been dumbed down to be "interactive experiences" rather than "games" with proper fail states and skills checks.
At this point just lash on a YouTube or Twitch playthrough and save yourself the price of admission
I can see the use for the disabled, but if I had it as a kid it would have robbed me of some of my favourite gaming achievements and memories.
Eh this is fine, you don't have to use it, it'll 100% block trophies from being earned, and for the casual player this will most likely encourage them to finish a game despite a potential difficultly spike or something. I'm all for this.
We’re so close to that perfect future where ai can play games for us, watch movies for us, read books for us, do pretty much everything for us instead of us wasting our time doing it ourselves, all so that we can finally do what we’ve always wanted to do: Sit in a chair and stare at the wall!
Seriously, there’s also this to consider: Why is Sony allowing games to be made that are so difficult people need artificial intelligence to help them even be able to beat them? Wouldn’t Sony’s time and money be better spent creating a well thought out set of criteria developers must adhere to if they wish to release a game on sony’s machine?
In other words Sony is permitting a problem to exist and then trying to mitigate it with ai. Solve the problem in the first place.
This is all well and good but when's AI going to wipe my muck smeared butt?
This would let me finally finish Arkham Knight. I knocked it down to easy, restarted the game and put every possible point into the Batmobile, and still couldn’t catch the bad guy because I suck at driving games. I hadn’t realized I’d bought one.
Some very dramatic people in here. Talk of an AI 'Assistant' with varying degrees of options, to assist gamers if they're stuck, which sounds entirely optional that can simply be ignored and left off.
Comments: 'Oh so I can't play my games anymore and it'll be like a movie and my life won't be the same anymore because I'm being forced'
There were plenty of moments I watched a youtube clip when stuck on a game. I see this as a great alternative if implemented well.
This was already a complaint for me about playstation games. The second you step out of the direct path in the last of us, you get bombarded with the "need a hint dummy?" message. A very annoying thing for a game that makes you scavenge for resources and has collectibles. Seems like you should be encouraged to explore, not ushered to the endpoint. Im not looking forward to AI interrupting to ask if I want its help every time it notices me doing 360s off tables, trying to climb unclimbable areas, or other tomfoolery.
AI could be great for making you better at the games but having it take control of the character isn't going to help you. Personally, I hope it is used for more of a session analysis where it breaks down your play session with statistics that teach you what hurt you or helped you.
Things like
You died while reloading 8 times and reloaded with more than half a clip 12 times. Don't reload as often.
Here is a heat map of where you died last round. Which weapon killed you the most. Etc.
Using spellX instead of spellY would have led to X increase in damage against that boss and here is why.
Is it going to get a platinum trophy for me?
I mean y'all accepted Fast Travel and Quality of Life Improvements...Sent to Stash. 😉
It is 2027 and you are stuck in Tomb Raider Catalyst when Lara slowly turns to the camera and looks you dead in the eye.
"So, Brian, I see you and Gemma are having problems in the bedroom. Here's what you want to do..."
Somewhere deep in Sony HQ the klaxon sounds as Lara advices another man to gift his wife an Aztec Death Whistle to liven up their intimacy.
@sikthvash
They already have that! It’s called Arby’s!
Yall never grew up with code books and game genies. Also it's not like we are losing some time honored skill. It's a fancy toy you play with. Who cares.
Sounds potentially helpful for those that need it. I don't see how its very different from using a guide or watching a video demonstrating how to do the thing that the player is struggling with. I have found AI is quite good at helping me in games already when I get stuck, and is a far better than trying to look up an answer in a guide that is covered in irrelevant SEO nonsense, riddled with ads, or spread across 20 pages you have to click through.
@DennisReynolds Woah Woah get that logical and empathic opinion out of here lol.
If it helps me grind in some games then I'm okay with it not gonna lie hahaha
Where’s the sense of achievement in this 😋🙈
@species @Flaming_Kaiser @Propaperpusher @Toot1st I think this is great for people with physical limitations that prevent them from playing, but I suspect most users will be the fomo crowd.
I always tell my son while he plays games that, if he can’t find enjoyment in what he’s playing or it’s too frustrating for him personally, to put the game down and play something else or do something else. There is something more enjoyable for you to do out there. Games, at the end of the day, should be vehicles for fun and entertainment. It just strikes me as odd that there will likely be a demographic out there born from something like this that purchases games to let the games play themselves. I suppose I’m being judgy with that, but it feels like it’s missing the point.
Just what we've all been pining for, more AI Slop. No F*** the folders or themes or PS3 compatibility we've all been asking for, for years!
While I likely wouldn’t use this, I appreciate it. First, it can help people with disabilities that may not be able to do certain things in games. Second, it’s great for kids, I’ve lost track on how many times my five year old has asked for help. Finally, it could be useful for people who get stuck in general and need help.
Well that's disappointing. Come on Sony, get your act together and focus on making new games instead of this BS. This generation has been really poor regarding 1st party games.
IF controller menus for certain2-3 button moves are not clear, and has been for 20+ YEARS, it says how much they don't look over things enough, I know as I can use right stick dodge/attack/item use games of the past to Knack/Echoes of the End just fine, let alone 2-3 ways of some game doing things in certain ways. Casuals won''t but many hardcore will as they know and try what they know of past games approaches to things.
They don't need AI, they need to better understand their menus and gameplay, not their animators (hat modern movesets but that's besides the point they do what is expected)/artists doing better work then UI designers or programmers.
Heck even Days Gone had the skip feature that was fair. I was fine with that. Same with the Ratchet 2016 puzzle skip and doing them for trophies, but I like the puzzle gadgets so that's just me doing them for fun.
Or offer easy to hard mode level design, Indie puzzle games do. Oh no they can't as it pushes level designers. Well why should UI designers or programmers have to do it and tweak numbers all the time? It's a load of stupid decisions I still see and annoys me.
Well then could you know offer 2 to 3 button combos (not talking combat I mean in general use case stuff for abilities or puzzles) in controls menus. XD I have had this issue with Lost Soul Aside, to old God of Wars, to many other AAA/AA over 20+ years. It annoys me. How incompetent are you people.
The 2-3 characters thing of Astral Chain, Bayonetta 3, DMC5 and Bayonetta Origins, sigh. At least they solved that. But still, the control schemes were atrocious for those games or better handled. Heck even playing PN03 with it's awkward aim first and tank controls reverse of most games was fun, eh level design but I knew that and was fine with that.
That or switching modes varies or particular control schemes that feel like they are out of inputs or 3rd analogue stick like at times.
Guides to just not clear feedback from QA or devs own mentality for things, etc. Like come on. Us players know the issues and make clear and they still fumble. Then again programmers to me also catering to other things also is my issue. Let alone engine staff and the garbage character movesets but that's besides the point.
Every single genre that has those use cases for combat/puzzles or simple things by any team have this issue. How can they dumb games down so much of themes/settings/movesets yet still have the same issue in controller menus or prompt visual options toggleable.
No different to making clear what L3/R3 are, just different. Yet I'm the one who gets excited by touchpad use by AA Japanese devs or any other gimmicky stuff I still see many things that have issues as core features.
From guides to all sorts of solutions, why are devs unable to just offer more options for level design or tutorials and stop cutting corners, missing details or not offering more options.
Part 2:
I mean if they want to better visually/wording present tutorials do so, or have more prompts (or toggle to turn them off) when using abilities.
Some devs are just too lazy/too stuck in their own heads, too busy or whichever the case, or think only of hardcore gamers yet miss how casuals interpret things, newcomers or even gamers going what is the way to do this.
Or have no budget or time apparently to do this. Or can't see past their own minds how dumbed down, well communicated for each audience something is. Offer just enough for each type of person.
If devs can offer quiet to obnoxious character dialogue, it shows they can even if that feature may be a joke or fair to scale. The others are more important to offer.
I still see in AAA/AA the same 3rd person or any other camera or button inputs or whatever issues. Said so to the person with playing Lost Soul Aside, the buttons were not detailed in areas so simple to solve.
I have made adventure maps and put clear signs or rules and faking out dark areas to test but still make clear what players can do. I still think what would the player think.
Many devs either don't understand how they communicated their game or overcomplicate things with AI and other solutions they can't see past themselves. If QA or any others don''t make it clear then why even bother?
Echoes of the End I had the highs and lows of that game like any other AA/AAA game issues of controls to tell you how to do things. But it's animations were sharp and very well designed or fun abilities.
It's jumps of use L1 and jump to just jump, it varies on some things you use key buttons for and other times it was not. I literally helped someone beat it and had to remember how it worked for another and forgot. Design ideas vary per studio no doubt and I know of the 2-3 ways to jump that way between walls or many other things, but not every audience has that experience.
The more Sony keeps talking about AI features for Playstations, the more it makes the PS6 sound like it's going to be an AI slop machine.
Hardcore PlayStation fanboys support this because they support everything Sony announces, while other PlayStation fans criticize it.
Trophy fanatics will be able to get those chores done for them. At least they wouldn't waste hundred of hours getting a worthless platinum trophy.
Whilst it's not something I would use I don't see the problem of it being there if people want to utilise it. Surely more options for gamers is a good thing yes? So long as its not a mandatory system update its not an issue unless people want to make it an issue.
I assume that people are going to be informed that their footage is being used for these purposes?
I would welcome this had I not sold my copy of Sekiro. Might have finally beat that final boss.
@Oram77
"So this is like Sony's version of copilot? not sure how I feel about this..."
The same surely?
I see the only reason why to use it: "Hey AI, complete all multiplayer trophies, so I'm not bothered with them anymore." ...and voila, 30+ Platinum trophies are at home. 😀
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