Sony has patented a new universal controller button that could change the way gamers interact with games on the company’s PlayStation consoles. A new “rewind gameplay” button can allow gamers to view certain parts of the game that have already been completed, review those sections, and then return to the live game. Players can also create “bookmarks” while playing, and an intuitive rewind button will allow them to repeatedly access their favorite parts of their games.

Sony patents a ‘Gameplay Rewind’ button for controllers

A patent document (via Tech4Gamers) titled “Gameplay Rewind with User Triggered Buttons” describes a special button on the controller that will allow users to create a bookmark of the game they’re playing. The device will remember these user-created bookmarks, and the game the user is playing should also be able to automatically generate them.

In fig. 4A shows the rewind button, and fig. 4B is the rewind interface
Photo: WIPO/Sony

Sony explains how such a feature can be useful for gamers. The company says the rewind button can allow users to “revisit” recently played parts of the game if they missed instructions provided by a non-player character (NPC).

For example, you can play Life is Strange: True Colors where you walk around a bar and talk to patrons, report back to the bartender, and repeat what two people ordered. If you were attentive when the visitors were talking to you, you might be able to give the right order, or you might get it wrong. Although there is no penalty for wrong answers in this game, the rewind button could help you in such a case.

Getting access to previous moments of gameplay can be difficult, and Sony says that accessing certain parts of the game will require hacking the existing service. The company adds that even if the player managed to record some parts of the game, they will need to quit the game to access the content.

According to the company, gamers will be able to press a universal button during live gameplay, and the console will display a new interface that offers replay-style controls, including a “rewind” option. Selecting the rewind option will show users “a subset of captured gameplay image frames,” according to the company.

These captured image frames can be manually (or automatically) bookmarked and saved during gameplay. They will appear sequentially — in reverse order — when the player enters rewind mode, according to details provided in the patent document.

As a result, gamers will be able to interact with past moments of the game. For example, they can replay a certain section if they don’t remember the instructions given by the NPC, or they missed some information that the game shows when going through an important area.

Sony’s patent document also suggests that users will be able to “interact” with moments in the game while rewinding, but there’s no word on how that will work. It is worth noting that the presence of a patent does not necessarily mean that Sony will include support for such a feature on its controllers in the future.