Sony PS5 PlayStation Movie Theatre 1

Sony may be exploring a way it can bring co-op experiences to the masses in cinema-sized sessions for potentially hundreds of players. While the platform holder posts a lot of patents that rarely ever come to fruition, this massively multiplayer solution is interesting enough to warrant reporting on – even if it’s unlikely to ever become a reality.

It proposes a single screen scenario where an entire audience is armed with a control pad in front of a giant screen, allowing each attendee to independently control a character or avatar. A diagram showcases a proposed scenario where dozens of players are each controlling space ships on the cinema-sized display.

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The patent describes: “In a theatre with one hundred people in the seats, for example, one hundred respective avatars can appear on the screen, each controlled by a respective different player.” This, of course, would be a gigantic expansion on the four-or-so players who usually partake in co-op sessions on home consoles.

While it’s certainly an interesting idea, the jury’s out on how engaging it would actually be. For example, it may be difficult to keep track of who you’re actually playing as with so many characters on the screen – in fact, it’s hard to imagine any gameplay scenario that would be enjoyable with so many participants, apart from perhaps some kind of Fall Guys-esque experience or quiz game.

As we mentioned at the top of this article, though, Sony files these kinds of experimental patents all the time and rarely do they actually become a reality. We’re going to suspect this concept won’t get much further than the PDF it’s printed on – but it’s still an interesting idea, and an example of Sony’s continued pursuit of compelling new gameplay experiences.

[source image-ppubs.uspto.gov, via opattack.com]