rewrite this title Sony has an idea for a gameplay rewind button, but it’s not what everybody thinks

In a nutshell: A recent patent filing shows Sony is considering a dedicated “gameplay rewind” button for future PlayStation controllers. Several outlets are reporting that the button would work like a “save state” feature seen in some emulators that would allow players to rewind their game to replay when they screw up. We don’t think that’s the case.

Tom’s Hardware notes that the feature would work similarly to some Nintendo Switch Online games that allow you to rewind your gameplay to a certain point and essentially start that section over. For example, if while playing Mario Bros, you make a misstep and are about to die, you can back up to try to avoid the hazard. The article also points out how this feature has been supported natively in games like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

However, we looked into the patent titled “Game Play Rewind with User Triggered Bookmarks,” and it appears that Tom’s and others have the wrong impression. It’s actually a system that lets players rewind buffered video of their previous gameplay and view it while still playing the game. The PlayStation 4 and 5 already have a partial implementation of this feature.

As you are playing a game on a PS4 and PS5, video of your gameplay is stored in a 15-minute rolling buffer. At any point, you can hold down the Share button and pull up the option to view, save, and share up to the last 15 minutes of your gameplay. However, all this has to happen outside of your game.

According to the patent document we reviewed, it sounds like Sony wants to change the functionality of the current Share button to eliminate the need to leave your game to view gameplay video. The document describes a button, positioned exactly where the share button currently resides (above), that allows the player to rewind a video of their gameplay and watch it while they are playing their game.

Diagram of the Rewind screen overlay providing playback controls.Return goes back to the most recent bookmark.

Here’s how Sony frames it verbatim:

During live game play of a video game, a player may wish to review recently played portions the game play. For example, the player may have been given some important information to perform a quest, such as when a non-player character (NPC) provides details on capturing an object (e.g. weapon) with additional instructions to bring that object to a particular location. At some point during the live game play, the player may have forgotten portions of or all of the information, and may wish to revisit their recent game play … Accessing recent game play while the player is playing a video game is difficult, and requires hacking an existing service to view the portion of the game play of interest.

The patent then roughly outlines the current method of viewing gameplay video, highlighting how cumbersome and disruptive it is to the player. It then details its strategy for making a more user-friendly and integrated experience.

The system will allow players to create “bookmarks” to rewind to that point to review details – the beginning of a mission or quest, for example. They can also simply rewind from their current point in the game. These actions are facilitated by a screen overlay that appears when the player presses the Rewind (currently Share) button. The overlay provides several options for creating bookmarks or clips and scrubbing forward or backward through video. It sounds like players can also view their past gameplay while playing the game – most likely picture-in-picture or pinned to the side since that’s how multitasking currently works (above video).

Other publications understandably got the wrong impression of this feature. The abstract is poorly worded and confusing to the point of being useless. It’s not until you dig into the description that the meaning becomes clearer using straightforward language.

That said, it’s just a patent filing. There are no guarantees that Sony will implement this. However, as described, it would not be too hard to implement. The hardware already exists on current controllers, and part of the video buffering system is mostly there. Additionally, the PS5 user interface already allows players to pin hints and YouTube walkthrough videos to the side of the game screen to watch as they play (above). Sony refers to this system as “cards.”

To make this patent happen, Sony only needs to create a native video card that uses the PS5’s existing buffering solution and any supplementary software to drive the system. Additionally, since it would run natively, it wouldn’t require developer support, so it could work for any game, just as the current buffering system does.