According to a Sony patent, some type of Picture-in-Picture may be in the works for the PlayStation 5. Sony has yet to officially incorporate any such capabilities since the debut of its most current platform, forcing gamers to exploit vulnerabilities in order to have several programs show at the same time.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 has had a busy month in terms of software information, discoveries, and breakthroughs, with the first week of October providing a basic system performance upgrade. Recent data mining has revealed that the long-awaited Discord integration may be coming to PlayStation 5 shortly, with a trustworthy source suggesting a March 8th, 2023, release date as part of update 7.00. Last but not least, the PlayStation 5 has been jailbroken, albeit in an out-of-date fashion. Of course, modders have been installing P.T. to demonstrate the attack, however, the needed firmware is already outdated, and running P.T. has shown inconsistency. A Sony patent now reveals that a Picture-in-Picture-like feature is in the works, which adds to the potential improvements for the PlayStation 5 in the coming months.
The patent is titled “Game Console Application with Action Card Strand,” but the history and description, luckily, offer a summary in less technical language. It begins with context provided to justify the concept, describing how Graphical user interfaces are essential for “interfacing with computer systems” and claiming that “there is a need for an improved GUI that allows for better information sharing and control switching.” Although the following summary does not include the words Picture-in-Picture, it outlines that very system in all but name, detailing how it would allow users to continue playing their game while allocating resources to other applications. Picture-in-Picture is mentioned seven times in the detailed description, with it being used to describe what some of the offered images are conveying or as an illustration of the planned functionality.
This is great news for PlayStation 5 customers, who are presently unable to utilize specialized programmes like YouTube while playing games on the device. Users have only been able to get past this by using the party chat and explore tabs, but these are sometimes unstable and confusing workarounds that could never live up to a dedicated system.
Sony has also been promoting hardware, with regular updates for the future PlayStation 5 DualSense Edge controller. Sony’s answer to Microsoft’s Xbox Elite series, the DualSense Edge, claims to be extremely modular and a really premium experience, which gamers will certainly hope for considering the $199.99 price tag, which is over half the price of a PlayStation 5 system.
