14 DAY TRIAL // On the last stretch of this year, gaming companies have started thinking outside the box. This has led to some pretty strange ideas and some even stranger patents. Nintendo's Vitality Sensor has been flying around, looking for a friend and it's rumored that it has found it in Wii Relax, and that's not the end of it. Microsoft filed two new patents in the last couple of weeks, and casual seems to be the market that the company focuses on. The first thing MS claimed rights to was an in-game system meant to help players along when they were stuck, as if titles haven't gotten ridiculously easy lately anyhow.
The second thing it patented not so long ago was the “Avatar Individualized By Physical Characteristic,” where online users could no longer hide from their real-life traits. If the concept in itself could be considered admirable, and one could say that it's meant to encourage a drop in the obesity rate of many fast-food-reliant countries, getting away from your daily life is what the computer, video games and social online networks are all about.
As for the next patent to strike us as a bit strange, this time, it's supplied by Sony. The company has been prodding the market lately, trying to see if people are receptive to the idea of a paid PSN service, and whether the two things are connected or not, Sony has filed a patent for “Qriosity.” According to Siliconera, the ones that spotted the filing, the concept is meant to be used in conjecture with “portable gaming machines” and “game services provided on-line from a computer network.” Now, if the idea at this point is not detailed enough to seem that bizarre, the strange factor is brought in by Sony's latest fascination with the letter “Q,” with other recent entries in its portfolio, like Qore and Qrios.
As far as speculations go concerning the new product, it's worth mentioning that it's not Sony Computer Entertainment that filed the patent, but the big Sony itself. Now, considering that the fine print of the written form stated that this was closely tied to “online shopping mall with links to the retail websites of others,” “file sharing and information portal in the field of e-commerce,” and “online distribution of music, image, or video,” this could very well mean that the company could plan to expand the PlayStation Store to a general online shop, making other things available for purchase, not just digital products.