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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsSony’s patent proposes using machine learning to change how computer-controlled opponents behave, based on players’ past attempts. A boss might counter a move players repeatedly use, or ease up by dropping an attack that keeps defeating them. The filing describes a possible system—not a confirmed feature in a released game.
How the proposed system would change a boss fight
The proposal describes a feedback loop: the game collects information about attempts against an opponent, analyzes which tactics succeed or fail, and may use that analysis to alter the opponent in a later gameplay instance. The opponent could be a boss, but the patent also gives examples such as rival drivers, teams, or groups of enemies.
- Record attempts: The system gathers data about one or more players’ encounters, including successful and unsuccessful tactics.
- Analyze patterns: A machine-learning model identifies tactics or outcomes that could inform a change to the opponent.
- Adjust a later encounter: The game may change the opponent’s behavior or the difficulty of defeating it in a future gameplay instance.
The filing discusses reinforcement learning as one possibility, but also allows supervised and unsupervised methods. It does not prescribe a single AI architecture. Sony’s patent text describes a computer-controlled opponent whose difficulty may be increased or decreased.
What might change—and in which direction?
The proposal is not limited to making a fight easier. It allows adjustments in either direction, depending on how players fare.
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- Counter a successful tactic: A boss might move faster to avoid a punch players often land, or gain a shield against a weapon they rely on.
- Reduce a punishing attack: If an attack repeatedly defeats players, the opponent might stop using it.
- Raise the challenge: If players beat an opponent too easily, the system could make it harder to defeat.
These are illustrative patent examples, not reported behavior in a Sony game. The filing includes a hypothetical developer-set threshold—beating a boss less than 50 percent of the time—but that figure is an example, not an observed success rate or study result.
Whose gameplay data could inform the adjustment?
The model could use one player’s data, data from multiple players, or information from a selected group. That creates two distinct possibilities: an opponent could respond to an individual’s habits, or it could be altered using patterns gathered across players. The patent describes both; it does not establish which approach, if any, Sony has implemented.
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Would players control the feature?
The patent describes possible player controls, including opting in to adjusted difficulty and selecting opponents already changed using other players’ gameplay data. It also gives examples of rewards for beating an opponent at a changed difficulty, such as trophies, medals, points, in-game currency, or e-commerce currency. Those are possibilities in the filing—not confirmation of a planned reward system or a promise that players would receive them.
How this differs from a standard difficulty setting
A conventional difficulty option sets a level directly. Sony’s proposal instead describes adjusting an opponent in response to analyzed gameplay data, potentially changing its behavior as well as how hard it is to defeat. It could draw on a single player’s attempts or a broader pool, and the adjustment could make the encounter easier or harder. These are dimensions of the patent proposal, not evidence of a finished feature or a particular game’s settings.
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What Sony’s patent does—and does not—confirm
The U.S. patent record identifies the filing as “Use of machine learning to increase or decrease level of difficulty in beating video game opponent.” It lists a filing date of July 25, 2019, publication on July 20, 2021, and grant as US 11,065,545 B2. Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC is named as the original assignee. The record also notes a maintenance-fee payment in December 2024; that entry alone does not establish the patent’s current enforceability. The patent record documents the proposal and its examples, not a commercial launch.
The Next Web’s February 2, 2021 coverage summarized the concept as adjusting boss behavior when players struggle. The patent itself also allows the reverse—making an opponent harder when players beat it too easily. Neither source establishes that a game has deployed the system or provides measured results for effectiveness, player preference, or adoption.
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