PlayStation Dives into NFT World with New Patent, Rival XBOX Lags Behind
A newly published patent suggests that the gaming giant Sony PlayStation may use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in-game – or at least they’re looking into it. Microsoft’s XBOX, meanwhile, seems to be looking in the opposite direction.
Sony’s patent is titled “US20220358450 - Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens On a Distributed Ledger”. Notably, its original application date was actually May 7, 2021. However, the publication date is November 10 this year.
The abstract describes “a system and method for tracking digital assets associated with video games,” saying:
“The digital assets may be in-game digital assets, such as in-game items or characters [and/or] video game digital media assets representing moments of gameplay of a video game, such as video clips or images.”
It goes on to describe the usage of NFTs in gaming, specifically creating in-game assets, as well as making any changes to them, including their appearance and ownership.
“Aspects of the present technology include systems and methods for creating, modifying, tracking, authenticating, and/or transferring unique digital assets associated with a video game,” the description said.
The document stated that some games allow the usage of digital assets during gameplay, but that these are traditionally fungible and indistinguishable from one another – no matter how rare they are, explaining:
“Thus, in traditional video games, no one digital asset is unique from other instances of the same in-game item. As a result, in traditional video games, there is no way to know, track, or authenticate a history of a particular instance of an in-game item. For instance, in traditional video games, there is no way to differentiate a specific instance of an in-game item
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