Sony Developing 'Super-Fungible Tokens' for Gaming

05.03.2024 - 09:51 / gamerant.com / Clayton Cyre / Sony

According to a new patent, Sony may be developing «super-fungible tokens» to purchase game assets. Non-fungible tokens, also known as NFTs, have received a mixed response since being introduced in recent years, but this idea from Sony may be more enticing for gamers.

The gaming industry is constantly evolving, and patents play a critical role in its achievements. Sony is among the big video game corporations to make regular advancements via its patents. Some recent Sony patents include one that could allow players to take voice and video calls in-game, an age restriction system that could lock PlayStation accounts, and another that adapts difficulty to a player's skill level. Gifting in-game items has become popular on current-gen consoles, with games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and Minecraft offering the option. Steam has also provided gamers the ability to gift games to their friends, potentially opening the door for new audiences to experience them. Sony seems to be working on a super-fungible token that can be exchanged in a similar manner.

According to a new Sony patent, the gaming company is working on the ability for players to purchase and exchange a new type of token. The patent calls this a super-fungible token that consists of multiple non-fungible tokens in one package. Tied to these NFTs are various gaming assets that can be applied to multiple types of games. The patent references athletic, sports, and fighting games as examples, suggesting that franchises like Madden NFL or Street Fighter could benefit from the concept. Although players can currently gift games or in-game items to their friends on specific platforms or games, there are fewer methods to exchange currency on these platforms. Sony's super-fungible token could allow players to gift a one-time-use token that's tied to certain gaming assets.

The Sony super-fungible token uses metadata to recognize which gaming assets are tied to it based on one player's inputs. This could presumably include skins and their potential variants, and in-game items, weapons, or abilities. Beyond potentially exchanging items with other players using this super-fungible token, the patent references a player accessing individual NFTs in one token at a time. This may suggest that players could take something from one game and use it in another, an idea discussed by Ubisoft and other companies looking at NFTs. This would seemingly rely on these games, dubbed «gaming applications» in the patent, to allow for the use of such super-fungible tokens.

While most gamers currently use fungible digital currency on storefronts like the PlayStation Store and Steam, this super-fungible token could provide an alternative way to exchange things with friends. Given how