Sony Files for NFT Patent

Despite the criticism from some fans and the mixed response from the public, the gaming sector still seems very interested in pursuing NFTs. Case in point, GameStop launched its own NFT marketplace and the NFT gaming field only grows more prominent by the day. 

NFT fans will be excited to hear that Sony, the parent company of the popular PlayStation console, might be tossing its hat into the ring. This comes as the company has allegedly applied for a patent that would track in-game digital assets. This patent, which was applied for back in 2021, has just been made public. 

Sony Getting into NFTs?

Speaking on the patent, the company cited the popularity of gaming around the world and the demand from fans to own their own in-game assets. As such, its patent is looking to leverage a distributed ledger system that would record the details of in-game assets such as video clips and issue a unique token to distinguish one from the other. This, as many have pointed out, sounds a lot like an NFT. 

And as the company has explained, in-game assets already exist in many games. The problem is that all the assets are alike and players have no way to know if one of the assets is especially unique. 

“In traditional video games, there is no way to differentiate a specific instance of an in-game item that a famous player of the video game used to win a famous tournament from any other instance of the in-game item,” Sony says. 

Sony also noted that changes to an asset over time can be recorded on a blockchain, including its ownership. This ability to trace the history of an asset has been touted as one of the many benefits of blockchains and its by-products like NFTs and it seems Sony agrees with that sentiment. And considering how big the Sony gaming empire is and all the titles under its belt, there is massive use potential for this sort of development. 

“Changes to properties of the digital asset, such as ownership, visual appearance, or metadata, can be identified in a request to update the history. A new block can be generated for, and appended to, the distributed ledger identifying the changes to the history of the digital asset,” the company said. 

How this Sony Move Can Change the Industry 

Those familiar with gaming will tell you how much of a force Sony is within the industry. As such, if these plans materialize and NFTs do begin appearing within Sony and PlayStation titles, it would have massive implications for the industry. 

First, it would signal to other companies how valuable NFTs are and could lead to more embracing them. It could also possibly lead to more gaming fans warming up to NFTs. But most of all, it could change the way that gamers interact with titles in that having the history of various assets accessible at all times and having assets distinguished from each other as the norm.