Shudder

The next time you criticise the Xbox 360’s dashboard for being inundated with advertisements, you might want to stop and count your blessings. Sony has patented a new interactive commercial scheme that shows users playing branded mini-games on PlayStation consoles.

The patent flags the DualShock 3 controller, PlayStation Move motion controller and PlayStation Eye as potential input devices.

“A media player coupled to the broadcast or streaming media source identifies the existence of the interactive segment and presents the user with an enhanced and interactive mini-game commercial that can be played with other ‘viewers’ in a common or disperse demographic,” reads the patent.

We can imagine a group of marketing executives being really proud of this idea, and it would probably work if all of the games were exceptional. But imagine being forced to play through an awful platformer or puzzle mini-game just to conclude a commercial. Gross, huh?

Thankfully, patents almost never become a reality.

[source gamenmotion.blogspot.co.uk]