According to recently revealed documents, global entertainment giant Sony is planning to enter the NFT and blockchain space. Sony has applied for a patent for a system that tracks in-game assets using blockchain – particularly NFTs. First filed in 2021, the patent was made public only a couple of days ago, on November 10, 2022.
What Is The Sony NFT Patent All About?
Sony is a Japanese multinational technology conglomerate corporation widely known for its PlayStation gaming consoles. Its newly revealed patent explains how people enjoy owning unique items related to their favorite celebrities, activities, or esports tournament winners. Similarly, video game players would enjoy having the same items used by their favorite players.
However, according to Sony, “In traditional video games, there is no way to differentiate a specific instance of an in-game item that a famous player of the video game used to win a famous tournament from any other instance of the in-game item.”
The patent is titled “Tracking Unique In-Game Digital Assets Using Tokens on a Distributed Ledger.” As per the patent application, Sony plans to use blockchain for recording digital media assets, gameplay, and video clips. In addition, the company also specifies plans for a unique token for digital items. The token would have a unique identifier and metadata to identify the properties of the digital asset.
The patent reads, “Changes to properties of the digital asset, such as ownership, visual appearance, or metadata, can be identified in a request to update the history. A new block can be generated for, and appended to, the distributed ledger identifying the changes to the history of the digital asset.”
Sony’s NFT and Blockchain Integrations
While Sony is not the first company to integrate NFTs and blockchain into games, it’s indeed one of the largest. However, this isn’t Sony’s first time dabbling with NFTs. Back in May 2022, Sony launched a 3D NFT collection in partnership with Theta Labs. You can view the limited edition NFT collection on Sony’s Spatial Reality Display.
Moreover, Sony already has digital collectibles, which they released as part of their newly launched PlayStation Stars program. However, even before the program rolled out, Sony pointed out that these collectibles were not NFTs. But even if Sony doesn’t consider the PlayStation Stars collectibles as NFTs, they can definitely be seen as the testing grounds for a potentially larger blockchain integration.
Traditional Game Publishers Embracing NFTs
Meanwhile, other game publishers have become much more explicit in embracing NFTs. For instance, Sega has announced plans to release a “Super Game” by March 2026 and said the game would feature blockchain technology. Also, Square Enix has announced its first NFT game title, Symbiogenesis. The game developer hopes it will begin an NFT game franchise. If things don’t work out, we can expect other blockchain titles from his partnership with blockchain developer Oasys.
As all these unfold, though, crypto prices have taken a hit amidst a larger crisis in the crypto market. Over the weekend, two of the biggest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum, plummeted by 65% and 20%, respectively. The second largest crypto exchange, FTX, recently filed for bankruptcy, and its founder is currently under investigation for criminal misconduct.
