FutureEAgames could keep track of your emotions and attempt to match the soundtrack with your mood, according to a new patent. In the patent application, we can see that EA has outlined plans to “predict” players' feelings, as well as ways to programme a game to mix up the soundtrack to suit these emotions.
According to the plans, EA hopes to track our emotions based on our “in-game attributes”, as well as the tone of what’s happening on screen. In doing this, EA hopes to set up the soundtrack to change on the fly, transforming it from its original composition.
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The patent, first spotted bySegmentNext, can be viewedin full online. Here, EA breaks down how it will track our emotions, and respond to them accordingly.
On one of the pages, the document lists some of the in-game occurrences that will be used to predict how we feel. These include not getting any kills, taking damage, trying to escape combat, and the speed we’re moving our character. These inputs will then be used to judge how we’re feeling (in this instance, frustrated) and change how the music sounds.
“The player’s emotion may be based on various player in-game attributes,” reads the document. “The in-game attributes may include speed of gameplay, damage taken, number of enemies defeated, whether the player is escaping etc.”
The patent doesn’t appear to make any mention of using existing hardware to boost the technology’s capabilities. For example, theDualSensePS5controller could make assumptions based on how hard the player is mashing the buttons and moving the analogue stick, but it seems EA will be sticking to what we see on screen more than anything else.
Part of the process will also involve using machine learning to judge the tone of the music and the changes the game could make to it to suit the player. This would involve splitting musical motifs into different emotional categories, so the game can respond to the player data it gathers.
Of course, many games already have a more rudimentary system in place to ensure the soundtrack is tonally consistent. For example,Final Fantasy 7 Remakewill make the soundtrack more exciting whenever you’re fighting enemies. Similarly, theSpyro the Dragon Reignited trilogyfeatured a “dynamic” music option, which made the soundtrack more intense when you were running around and platforming, calming down when you brought Spyro to a standstill.
The difference with this patent, however, is that it targets the player, not just what’s happening on screen. It remains to be seen if these plans amount to anything.
