On July 22, 2021, the U.S. Patent Office issued U.S. Pat. No. 11,779,844 to Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. The patent relates to an AI-based “inventory coach” geared toward helping video game players sift through their in-game items to decide what to throw out and what to keep. Inventory management has been the bane of many video gamers since the rise of complex RPGs in which characters have limited space in their bags to carry items. Sony’s AI solution suggested by this patent is meant to make this process smoother, “suggest[ing] video game inventory items to discard, obtain, and/or use based on a user’s gameplay style and clusters of other players.” It is also worth nothing that the inventory coach may be “turned on and off at a target player’s discretion.”
As complex, loot-based RPGs like Baldur’s Gate III and Diablo IV continue to capture massive audiences, Sony’s investment in technology to help make inventory management more streamlined seems well-timed. It will be interesting to follow how the company’s increasing reliance on AI tools will affect video game experiences down the line.
Illustrative Claim:
1. A device, comprising: at least one computer storage that is not a transitory signal and that comprises instructions executable by at least one processor to: analyze, using an inventory coach model executing at a server, a video game player’s playing style in relation to a particular video game that is being played by the video game player;
and communicate with the server to, based on the analysis performed using the inventory coach model executing at the server, provide, via a graphical user interface (GUI) presented on a display, at least two different types of suggestions of video game assets to discard, obtain, and/or use, the GUI providing a first suggestion indicating a first video game asset to discard, obtain, and/or use as determined based on past gameplay data for elite players that share the same playstyle as the video game player’s playing style, the GUI providing a second suggestion indicating a second video game asset to discard, obtain, and/or use as determined based on past gameplay data for elite players from a broader class of players than those sharing the same playstyle as the video game player’s playing style.
