Sony has a patent for restarting the what-if game

Replay is not new. However, watching your replays, have you ever wondered what would have happened if things had gone differently in this replay? Well, while you can imagine what-if scenarios in your mind, you ultimately can’t show them to anyone. SonyInteractive Entertainment It appears that a patent has been granted explaining “what-if techniques and systems” using original gameplay videos and machine learning.

Methods and systems for generating the result of a previous game are provided. The method involves providing access to the recording of the previous gameplay, where the recording is shared by one of the players in the previous gameplay. The method involves providing an interface that defines one or more what-if scenarios for the previous game. One or more what-if scenarios selected for inclusion in the interface rely on the processing of past gameplay history by a machine learning model to define what-if scenarios for a user.

Sony’s method involves allowing at least one of the what-if scenarios to be selected from the options. Selecting will modify the metadata associated with your previous gameplay recording. The system involves replaying the selected recording using custom metadata to produce the alternate score for the previous game.

But is this useful? Well, for one thing, it can be very useful in the esports scene and in competitive gaming, since alternative scenarios of events that have already occurred can be a great source of learning. The patent describes machine learning as the primary method for creating new “what if” scenarios from the original clip.