- A new Sony patent wants to greatly reduce the size of AAA games by streaming high-quality assets.
- This will allow games to run without latency because the logic runs locally during gameplay.
- The games can run locally with limited functionality, even without an internet connection.
AAA games have certainly come a long way in the last decade, but so have their storage requirements. Some high-profile titles now require a whopping 100GB of your SSD, but Sony has found a viable solution to significantly reduce game sizes.
We have identified a new patent that discusses changing how games use storage. It aims to strike an ideal balance between local downloads and cloud hosting, reducing 100 GB downloads to as small as 100MB without latency penalties.
Sony discusses streaming space-hungry texture and audio assets, while a small launcher and critical core logic files are downloaded. This way, games can run locally without facing any latency.
There would be no input lag or frame delays since technical files used during gameplay remain on the system.
[The Executable] may be as part of a package comprising core assets […]. Such a package may be on the order of 100Mb, for example, rather than the order of 10Gb or 100Gb as may be more common for large-scale games.
Why it matters: Sony wants to optimize how games consume storage by streaming high-quality assets while logic runs locally. This will address the latency issues cloud gaming faces while significantly reducing storage requirements.
The patent called ‘ASSET STREAMING SYSTEM AND METHOD’ mentions that a bad connection affecting the streaming of high-quality assets may cause degraded visuals at best, instead of the latency issues currently seen in cloud gaming.
The game can just use downloaded low-quality textures or stream enough assets for a level or area in advance to keep the game running smoothly. Without the internet, however, a game may run only on low-quality assets or face other limitations.
Cloud-based gaming can bring its own problems. For instance, a user’s internet connection may be limited (such as a mobile network connection) so as to cause a significant degree of latency to be experienced.
Sony also previously secured a patent with a similar end goal, though using a different technical approach. This new corroborative legal document further implies that the publisher is seriously exploring the most optimal method to shrink the size of AAA games.
Sony has previously patented several other unique concepts, including one that reveals a generative AI system to create personalized podcasts for gamers and another that describes a next-gen chat system to enable real-time lip-sync control in games.
Do you think Sony reducing game sizes to such an extent is even possible? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or join the discussion on the Tech4Gamers forum.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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