Modern games offer various ways to assist in gameplay. Some allow disabling QTEs, perform combos with one button, and often characters themselves suggest solutions to puzzles. Sony has taken it a step further and patented an AI assistant capable of playing through difficult game moments instead of live gamers.
How the idea should work: the user can summon a "ghost player" — an AI version of the gamer's character — to complete part or all of a level. For example, in Uncharted, you could summon the AI version of Nathan Drake, who will demonstrate puzzle solutions as a guide for the player to replicate. In an alternate mode, Drake's "ghost" would leap across beams or solve the puzzle on its own.
The document states that the AI assistant will be trained on gameplay recordings, not pre-recorded actions. As noted by VGC, the registered patent for the ghost assistant expands on ideas from the "Game Help" feature for PS5, which includes helpful videos or screenshots to assist players.
It’s important to highlight that Sony filed the patent application in September 2024, but the World Intellectual Property Organization only published an international patent status report last week. It remains unclear when PlayStation games will start playing themselves.
There is a possibility that Sony patented it just to prevent others from doing so. There are similar past examples (example, second example, and another example).
The AI assistant is not Sony’s first experiment in neural networks. Previously, a video was released showing the main heroine of the Horizon series answering user questions about the in-game world and gameplay, and chatting on various topics.
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