Picture it. You’ve been waiting months for the release of a game, perhaps even years. Launch day is finally here. Your pre-order turns up. You insert the disc, buzzing with hype. The only issue is, amidst that hype, you forgot about those blasted install times.
We’ve all done it, and install times are only getting longer. A major release can take you four to five hours to install these days, if it boasts a hefty file size. I recently sat down to playGod of WarRagnarök’s newValhallaDLC, completely forgetting that I’d need to reinstall the main game. I quickly realised that with a long, long wait ahead of me, my evening plan to playValhallawould most certainly have to be rescheduled. There is hope though, forPlayStationgamers at least.Sonyis seemingly working on a new download mechanism that allows you to play the game in chunks whilst it downloads.
Speaking ofValhalla, take a look at the epic DLC in action below.
This isn’t the first time Sony has attempted to tackle this problem. As I’m sure you’re aware, PlayStation consoles install essential files first so you can start playing the game without needing to wait for the full installation to complete. That being said, reaching that point can still take two hours or so with larger titles. The new patented technology would seemingly cut that wait time down further.
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To break that down into something more digestible, it appears that the patent essentially outlines a technology which aims to use playtimes to work out how long it takes players to reach certain points, splitting these into “application chunks”. In theory, it would then be possible to download an isolated application chunk, allowing you to dive into a section of the game, whilst subsequent chunks download in the background, granting you access to the game far quicker than is doable via the current system.
Given that it’s just in the patent stage, this is something Sony is in the early stages of working on and as with all patents, this idea may never be fully realised. I would be surprised though if we didn’t see some kind of evolution surrounding the downloading of games. After all, they’re not getting any smaller.
Topics:PlayStation,Sony,PlayStation 5
