Sony explores blockchain technology with NFT integration for PlayStation

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(Kitco News) – Sony Interactive Entertainment, the Japanese entertainment giant and maker of the PlayStation gaming console, is looking to integrate non-fungible tokens (NFT) into its gaming consoles, according to a recently published patent application.

The patent, originally filed in September and titled “NFT Framework for Transferring and Using Digital Assets between Game Platforms,” ​​outlines Sony’s plans to integrate NFTs so that the “digital asset[s] can be used across several different computer simulations and/or across several different computer simulation platforms.” It also enables NFTs to be transferred to “other end-user devices for their own use across different simulations and/or platforms.”

The reason the patent was only published recently, despite being filed in September, was to prevent Sony’s rivals from copying the idea before it was fully developed.

In the text of the patent, Sony highlights the benefits that blockchain technology offers and notes that NTFs can represent the artwork or an asset in the game, such as a character or weapon, but notes that “current systems are technologically insufficient for the owner to use the resource across of different games and/or platforms.”

Sony suggests that game functionality “could be improved by enabling players and/or spectators to exclusively use the asset and possibly transfer the rights to others via NFT.”

The technology described by the patent would create a standardized format for NFTs that “can be readable across different video game platforms such as PlayStation and Xbox. The digital asset can be usable by the first end-user device across different video game platforms based on the first end-user device’s ownership of the first NFT.”

An example of how NFTs can be integrated to enhance the gaming experience is in eSports tournaments, where the reward for victory can be distributed as an NFT, which can then be used by the end-user device across multiple “computer simulations.”

“The several different computer simulations may include different annual versions of a particular video game title, different video games of different game genres, and/or different embodiments of the same video game,” Sony wrote.

In other words, players will be allowed to transfer in-game assets between devices such as virtual reality (VR) headsets, tablets, computers and smartphones. The patent application also noted that “In some examples, NFT can be used across generations (eg, from PS4 to PS5).”

The framework is also being developed to be interoperable between products outside the Sony ecosystem, such as the Xbox or a “cloud-based video game”, making assets fully transferable and usable between different gaming ecosystems.

The technology is also designed to prevent players from repeating tasks to earn the same NFTs with different products or games. Specifically, the design will prevent “execution of the task again in other instances of the computer simulation being executed, and/or refuse to provide additional NFTs for subsequent additional execution of the task.”

Sony has stepped up its efforts in recent months to integrate blockchain technology and increase its presence in the Web3 space. In November, it announced the release of motion-tracking wearables that allow players to control metaverse avatar bodies in real time. And in February, Sony Network Communications, the company’s ISP division, partnered with blockchain protocol Astar Network to launch an incubation program for companies focused on building NFTs and DAOs with practical utility.