Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a patent describing the new tracking technology that deals with in-game digital assets. What led the company to make such a milestone step and why it might be important for the industry — let’s find out.
What happened?
- On November 10, released patent filings describing the new technology targeting in-game assets and developed to control their usage, circulation, distribution, and modification with the means of Web3.
- Technically, the patent called “Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger” is not brand-new, being filed on May 7, 2021, but its publication was postponed until recently. The system is meant to be comprehensive and oversee all sorts of items including game characters, chosen moments of gameplay, unique tokens, and even cosmetic items.
- The technology will record a history of NFTs in a distributed ledger and keep it across devices through a unique identifier and metadata assigned to a digital asset and describing its properties. This way, the system will be able to monitor any change made to an NFT item, including its metadata, visual modifications, ownership, and so on.
- Identification and tracking of the amendments will be made possible through a request to update the history of a chosen item. Every new block generated will thus be adjoined to the distributed ledger that will summarize all the modifications in the history of a particular digital item.
Why it matters
- One of the issues with digital items employed in video games is connected to their fungibility and lack of technical abilities to prove their uniqueness: many in-game items, from characters to their outfits and tools can be present in other copies of the game owned by consumers, which makes it hard to trace, recognize or authenticate them.
- “In traditional video games, there is no way to differentiate a specific instance of an in-game item that a famous player of the video game used to win a famous tournament from any other instance of the in-game item,” specifies Sony.
- The patent intends to make it easier and more transparent for gamers to own in-game assets and rare collectibles from celebrities, especially esports stars, and be sure of their uniqueness. Also, providing more transferability of NFT items across platforms and blockchains would eventually add to their value.
- With the new technology, Sony aims to introduce the cross-platform checking mechanism, including the systems from another manufacturer and hopes to overcome the controversy by converting assets from interchangeable to non-interchangeable and thus generally expand the capabilities of in-game digital items and the ownership system.
Sony delving into Web3
- Meanwhile, Sony is pioneering several ambitious Web3 projects ahead of some Western media giants. One example could be the work on 3D NFTs compatible with spatial reality displays provided by Sony. The project is made in collaboration with California-based web app developers Theta Labs and is meant to advance the global decentralized video streaming network and expand the capacities of NFTs. It mainly focuses on creating a new generation of tangible NFTs viewable in mixed reality and is currently in development.
- Sony Music is also keeping up with the global trend, having filed a trademark to employ the Columbia Records logo to NFT-ize music and video releases, as well as podcast production, and assist in artists’ management, marketing, and distribution services.