A Sony patent that was recently made public explains how the PlayStation 5 could let users bypass menus and loading screens to boot games precisely where they want to start playing. Along with the PS5’s upgraded SSD, the new technology could be one more way that Sony is focusing on cutting out load times in its next-generation console.
While the specs for the PS5 have finally been revealed, the raw numbers don’t mean much to the average person and can’t communicate what the actual experience of using the new console will be like. Some sources are even saying that Sony’s much-hyped next-gen SSDs are not going to be as big of a deal as the console-maker has been suggesting. They could certainly lead to faster load times, but that on its own won’t dramatically change the way that games are designed or played.
What Sony does behind the scenes with its souped-up hardware is going to make much more of a difference to users than stats like load times and teraflops. Twitter user Roxanne, a PS3 Developer Wiki administrator, recently shared a Sony patent that shows how the PS5 could achieve faster boot times for games than simply relying on the speed of the SSD. According to the patent shared on FreePatentsOnline, Sony is investigating a method to launch games into user-specified points using “templates,” rather than always booting to the main menu. For instance, a player could use a template to automatically launch into matchmaking for an online game from the PS5 home screen, or even start the game in a specific location, such as the Tower in Destiny 2, without having to manually navigate there. The patent also describes using these templates to create more accurate summaries of player activity, which could then be displayed to users. That could mean the system dynamically creating a message about the most recently started quest in a game, which could be used as a shortcut to immediately boot into that quest the next time the player starts the game.
As this is just a patent, it’s not guaranteed what form this new technology will take in the actual PS5, or if it will be implemented at all. It is, however, a hint about where Sony is focusing its attention for PS5 development and what types of features might be in the works. Another feature that's actually been confirmed - and that’s a lot easier to understand - is the PS5’s backward compatibility with thousands of PS4 games.
With the technological advancement between console generations getting less immediately obvious than past changes, like the leap from 2D to 3D, it makes sense for Sony to start focusing more on quality-of-life features like faster boot times and better UI. While they aren’t as easy to describe as raw stats, those are the things that will define the user experience in the end and set the PS5 and Xbox Series X apart.
Source: Roxanne/Twitter, FreePatentsOnline