Esports have exploded in popularity in recent years with games like Overwatch, League of Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege raising the bar for organized professional play. A new patent filed by Sony, however, gives Sony the potential to change the playing field of esports.
Most esports programs stream events on Twitch or, like the Overwatch League, stream on YouTube Gaming. The streams typically function with live editors cutting between different player perspectives with broadcasters talking over the gameplay. The system works well and allows the broadcasters to show multiple perspectives to make the narrative of the matches clear to the audience and allows them to use replays to specifically highlight exciting moments and plays that the live feed may have missed.
However, Sony could be looking to change the professional gaming scene. The new patent takes notice of the recent growth of esports events and looks to enhance the experience for viewers who are unable to attend live events in person. The patent points out that viewers watching an esport for the first time may find the perspective being shown too boring and may leave before they see something that catches their attention. The solution Sony presents in the patent is to provide viewers with the ability to control what viewpoint they are seeing using various commands.
The ability for viewers to control what perspective they see could stand to greatly enhance the remote viewing experience. Not only would it allow viewers to focus on the team or a player that they have a preference for, but it also would allow viewers to focus on a particular role being played in the match that they are more interested in. This could encourage viewers with no interest in the playing teams still watching certain roles like World of Warcraft's Healers or Tanks to try and learn how to improve their own gameplay from watching professionals.
While many patents never lead to any actual hardware or software releases, Sony's patent does have a lot of potential if the company does pursue it. A system allowing viewers to switch between perspectives could have a large impact on viewership for live events like esports matches as they continue to grow and be more popular as competitive-focused games like Valorant or League of Legends continue to grow their professional play scenes. With esports matches even being a medal event in next year's Asian Games, the sport is clearly growing, and a system like Sony's could help expand its reach even wider.
Source: USPTO