The PlayStation 5 may hand-hold you during the next big boss fight and even help plan your gaming alongside real-world appointments

We may not yet know what the final PlayStation 5 console officially looks like, but Sony has been gradually revealing more information about the console and making available patents that give us a fair idea as to what to expect from it — at least a few years down the line if not immediately at launch. 

The latest such information comes via a patent no. 2020/0139245 filed at the US Patent Office (USPTO) that describes an "In-Game Information Platform'. This platform enables game telemetry that can provide information such as the time taken to beat a particular game level, tips to complete levels, and even TV schedules that may clash with your gameplay. 

One of the patent drawings shows a PS4 console hooked to a TV set and the player being informed that it takes 45 minutes to complete the level. The system also notifies that a preferred TV show is about to air in 30 minutes. The player is given the choice of continuing the game or switch to an objective that takes less than 30 minutes to complete. 

The diagram also details how the game data and telemetry interface with the user's profile and machine learning functions to accomplish the above. This is done by aggregating previous patterns from a pool of PS5 players who have completed that level and factoring in variables such as the player's skill level and real-life schedules. All this processing occurs in the cloud than on the console itself.

The platform also seems to offer in-game walkthroughs, directions for specific resources or collectibles to beat boss fights or come out of a tricky situation. How far will this be effective remains to be seen. Many would even argue that such hand-holding could kill the surprise elements and the visceral experiences that the developer intends to give the audience.

That being said, these concepts are just patents at this point and there is no guarantee that they will be part of the PS5 feature-set at launch. However, the PS5 will be here to stay for quite sometime and we may see Sony experimenting with these features with select titles down the line. 

These features could ultimately be part of a larger virtual assistant platform for the PS5. We know that the DualSense controller already packs in a built-in microphone array, which is likely to enable voice assistant features. This is still speculation for now and if true, whether will it be capable of taking on the likes of Alexa, Siri, or even Cortana is something we will know only sometime in June.