Sony Interactive Entertainment has been envisioning a matchmaking system that functions a bit differently from what most modern-day multiplayer games are usually running in the background.
According to a recently published patent, Sony believes that neural networks with complex machine learning capabilities can be integrated with multiplayer games to not only learn from recorded gameplay data but also generate new gameplay data by mimicking players in an artificial environment.
The proposed matchmaking system would begin by capturing and analysing gameplay data that includes player-inputs and accompanying stats in response to a given gameplay session. The patented matchmaking system would then utilize machine learning to create an AI-controlled bot of the player that can be exposed by to various scenarios of the same multiplayer game to evaluate the response of the real-life player within the same context.
Once all scenarios have been played out, the matchmaking AI can then determine the skill level of the player and match them against equally skilled players.
A method is provided, including the following operations: recording gameplay data from a first session of a video game, the first session defined for interactive gameplay of a user; training a machine learning model using the gameplay data, wherein the training causes the machine learning model to imitate the interactive gameplay of the user; after the training, determining a classification of the machine learning model by exposing the machine learning model to one or more scenarios of the video game, and evaluating actions of the machine learning model in response to the one or more scenarios; using the classification of the machine learning model to assign the user to a second session of the video game.
It needs to be brought up that popular games like Call of Duty have been using skill-based matchmaking for years. Those systems can and most often have to be tuned by developers as time goes by and more players and content get dropped in. The matchmaking system that Sony has patented would make the entire process more efficient. Due to its machine learning nature, developers would not only have real-time data but also the potential data of scenarios that players are yet to experience.
It also goes without saying that with such a complex matchmaking system available, most developers can choose to simply piggyback instead of designing their own matchmaking algorithm from scratch based on needs.
