Innovation is something that should be admired. Even if by any realistic measure, it is doomed to failure. To innovate is to advance technology, and often even failures will inspire later success or uncover methods that see their true potential realized long after the original discovery. For this reason, I do not chastise or throw shade at Sony for their new innovative Deep Link. Even though I am often critical of the company, this appears to be the sort of innovation consumers will want and benefit from.
Long story short, the feature has not been officially discussed, though a patent for “Direct Gameplay” registered in March of this year that matches the description of the feature—giving some insight into how it will function. What the feature is reported to do, according to Eurogamer and VideoGamesChronicle, is allow a user boot right into a specific part of a game or “activity” -see trophies- from the user interface rather than going through loading screens.
To achieve this effect, the PS5 will feature custom architecture. Making it radically different from Microsoft’s instant resume feature that keeps a game loaded in the background. The problem is, this is terribly reminiscent of Sony’s attempt at innovation with the Cell Processor with the PS3.
On the surface, the Cell Processor was quite innovative. It allowed for the acceleration in processing multimedia and vector processing applications. In layman terms, it allowed games to process assets and mechanics faster, allowing for higher fidelity in the experience. The problem was it was challenging to program for due to all of the SPUs, as Sony failed to aid in facilitating its adoption, which led to third-party studios having to help with optimizing games for the PS3’s architecture. This oftentimes led to publishers simply ignoring the Cell’s potential and refusing to draw out its true capabilities.
Similarly, it would be cool for a system to automatically load experiences, but developers will be required to integrate that capacity into their games. If the publishers see no pragmatic reason for doing so, they will just order their developers to ignore it. Worse, if the processor cannot be ignored, it could result in issues with developing for the PS5, making the console less attractive for publishers unless Sony achieves market dominance.
Another issue that will arise is in regards to displaying rights at the beginning of the game. If this can be skipped, some legal issues may arise, preventing companies who otherwise have an interest in implementing the feature from doing so.
That all is speculation, but one does have to wonder why Sony hasn’t formally revealed this function for the console? If it works flawlessly and is ready to be adopted, what benefit is there to withholding its existence?
