It may not be one of the killer features the PS5 needs to beat the Xbox Series X, but a recent patent filing from Sony may be giving us a glimpse at a unique feature that could find its way into the PS5.
The patent was filed on May 7 and outlines an in-game assistant that would help give you advice regarding how long a specific in-game activity is likely to take and then compare it against your calendar or other known events to give you advice on whether you should have enough time or it will recommend a task you will be able to finish (via Gaming Intel).
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Given the digital assistants that we've all become accustomed to on our mobile devices, it wouldn't be surprising to have some form of digital assistant on our consoles as well.
And to be clear at least as it is imagined in this patent the assistant it carrying out one very specific task and that is monitoring your schedule or in the example in the patent image monitoring your TV schedule and letting you know that you are about to set out on a mission/quest/activity in-game that is going to take you too long to complete. The assistant then offers another option that would fit into the allotted time that you have.
Presumably, the assistant would look at aggregated data regarding how long specific activities take in games on average and make its recommendations based on that data. Ideally, it would compare your specific performance in other games against the aggregate data available to try to make better projections based on your relative skill level.
I would venture to guess that this is not a feature that you will find on the PS5 at launch, but it is certainly an interesting concept and something I can definitely imagine making its way to the console down the road.
Particularly with the average age of gamers rising with more responsibilities outside of their gaming time, this does seem like a helpful feature to let you fit your gaming into your life and prevent you from getting lost in a game and simply forgetting about a class, meeting, meeting, or event.
