PlayStation May Let You Pay To Kick Your Friends Off Games Soon
Sony has been granted a patent for a voting system that lets viewers kick players from video games if they deem their performance poor. A tad harsh, maybe?
What Is Sony’s New Patent?
Filed back in 2020, and recently approved by the United States Patent Trademark Office, it allows livestreaming spectators and participants to vote on removing players from games. A player who is doing poor can be kicked if the votes reach a 60% threshold, while you can also pay for the privilege of outright removing someone.
The full patent can be read here. In short, it’s described directly as: "A method for displaying a video game to spectators includes receiving votes from spectators to remove a player from a video game. The method also includes determining whether the number of votes received to remove the player from the video game meets a threshold level required to trigger a removal of the player from the video game."
How Does The System Work?
Click to enlargeAs described above, it’s designed to allow viewers to kick (or bench) people, or send them a message warning them to improve. The player seemingly has no option to ignore or veto this, and might be forced to play in a different match instead. It would reportedly work through cloud gaming, and the system is able to display in-depth stats on players' performances that viewers can use to influence their decision.
Despite the almost cruel nature of this system, there are some checks and balances involved to halt potential abuse. A 60% voting threshold must be met to kick a player, and spectators with a higher level of skill with have more weight to their votes. Sony does claim the system is useful for removing griefers from matches, but that begs the question of why users can also pay to kick players?
The patent does specifically list Twitch as a platform that this system could work for, but it’s well known that giving the hive-mind that is Twitch chat any form of power will certainly backfire.
Truthfully the idea seems asinine, but it’s worth noting that even though Sony now have the patent, it doesn’t mean they are developing it. We’re curious to see how this will go forward and how PlayStation intend to keep such a seemingly easy-to-abuse system fair.
