For decades, pausing a video game has meant one thing: everything stops. That works fine in single player titles, but in online matches, pressing pause usually does nothing at all. Currently on PlayStation, though, they are potentially working on a better way to “soft pause.”
Recently found through a new patent, Soft Pause is basically a way to continue to play your game, but make the game easier to play if you’re not able to concentrate fully. Instead of freezing the action entirely, this system adjusts gameplay in real time. It could be a major shift for multiplayer gaming.
How PlayStation’s Soft Pause Technology Works
Image via Wipo.
According to patent documents, Soft Pause Technologies changes the way that video games are processed from their ‘normal’ state to “soft pause” state whenever a game is triggered into this new state. Triggers for changing to a soft pause state can occur either by manual activation (for example, using a dedicated button) or by automatic activation (for example, via notifications being received).
Once activated, the game does not stop. Instead, several adjustments may occur. Time can slow down. Difficulty can decrease. Player assist features may activate. Audio intensity may be reduced. The goal is to make gameplay less demanding without completely halting progress.
Any such implementation will also have an artificial intelligence (AI) assisted component in which the system will evaluate incoming notifications and determine how urgently those notifications need to be addressed. For example, an urgent message may provide a greater level of slow down in a video game for a player to allow sufficient reaction time to respond to that message without the player feeling rushed because the video game is still being played at normal speed.
Sony has not confirmed implementation plans, and patents often serve as protective filings rather than guaranteed features. However, the concept suggests serious experimentation with how interruptions are handled during active play.
What Soft Pause Could Mean for Multiplayer Games and PS6
Image via Sony.
Multiplayer Video Games have always had the same problem:
You can’t really pause unless you’re stopping everybody at the same time. For example, if you need to walk away from a competitive game such as Fortnite during the match, you will normally lose right away. There are also many other types of video games that will remove you from the game if you are not active for a certain amount of time.
As opposed to stopping the match from continuing altogether with all players pausing the match, Soft Pause allows only the person taking a break to alter their match conditions. While that person may be experiencing a modified gameplay experience, everyone else will be able to continue playing normally. Doing this keeps the flow of the match going and helps keep the overall competitive balance of the match.
Depending on how successful they implement Soft Pause, it could reduce the number of matches that are abandoned, help eliminate the need to penalize players for various reasons, and allow for players with interruptions from their real life to be able to play video games online in a much more flexible way.
Though there is no way to know when Soft Pause will begin to be utilized within the gaming industry, if it is approved by Sony it would most likely be a part of the PlayStation 6. Regardless of whether or not Soft Pause is a feature that is used for marketing purposes or remains just a patent, it is one of the most creative ways to recreate how the pause system works for multiplayer games today.
