Sony’s AI “Ghost Player” Is Everything Wrong With Modern Gaming
I’ll start with a quick note: yeah, I’ve been gone for a bit.
Real vacation, real grass touched, no consoles harmed in the process. But now I’m back, and apparently Sony spent that time patenting one of the most aggressively stupid ideas I’ve seen in gaming in years…so let’s talk about it.
Sony recently filed a patent for what it calls an AI “Ghost Player,” a funderful system that would allow PlayStation games to play themselves when players are having trouble. Not guide you. Not teach you. Not help you improve.
Straight up take over and clear the content for you.
If that sentence alone didn’t make your soul cry out in pain, congrats – you might be the exact demographic this tech is being designed for…or a Kotaku writer.
So What Is Sony’s AI Ghost Player, Exactly?
According to reporting from Video Games Chronicle, Sony’s patent describes an AI-driven “ghost” that can step in during gameplay when a player is struggling and either assist them in real time or outright complete sections of a game on their behalf.
“Sony AI patent will see PlayStation games play themselves when players are stuck”
The system would be trained on real player data, including gameplay footage sourced from PlayStation Network activity and even public videos like YouTube walkthroughs and Twitch streams. Dexerto expands on this, noting that the AI wouldn’t just give hints – it could replicate player inputs and execute solutions exactly as a human would.
Sony hasn’t announced plans to ship this feature yet, and yes, patents don’t always become products…but patents do reveal intent.
And Sony’s intent here is crystal clear.
This Isn’t Accessibility...It’s Surrender
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately before the gaslighting starts: this is not accessibility.
Accessibility tools help players overcome physical, sensory, or input-related barriers so they can actually engage with the game themselves. Remappable controls, subtitle options, colorblind filters, controller adaptations – that’s accessibility.
Letting an AI beat the game for you is not accessibility. It’s just removal of participation.
Gaming, at its core, is about friction. Learning systems. Failing. Adapting. Improving. When you strip that away, you’re not making games more “inclusive”…you’re turning them into cutscenes with extra steps.
And the most dangerous part?
This kind of tech encourages dependence. Once the option exists to skip difficulty with a button press, players will use it. Not because they need it, but because it’s there. Over time, skill erosion becomes inevitable.
Why spend hours learning difficult game mechanics when the machine will do it for you?
Who This Really Benefits (Hint: It’s Not Gamers)
This is where things get uncomfortable for a certain corner of the industry.
Sony’s Ghost Player patent feels tailor-made for modern games journalists who don’t actually like playing games, yet insist on shaping the conversation around them anyway. The same writers who argue for skippable boss fights, frictionless design, and “difficulty as gatekeeping” can now theoretically bypass gameplay entirely while still presenting themselves as legitimate critics.
If an AI can clear the hard parts, suddenly:
They never have to learn mechanics
They never have to adapt
They never have to git gud
But they do still get to publish takes about balance, pacing, and design philosophy.
That’s not journalism. That’s automation-assisted propaganda.
Failure is essential to understanding games. Remove failure, and critique becomes hollow. At that point, you’re not reviewing a game…you’re just reviewing the cliff notes of it.
This Fits a Disturbing Pattern for Sony
The Ghost Player patent doesn’t exist in isolation. It fits neatly into a growing list of Sony AI patents that prioritize control over creativity and comfort over player and developer agency. Let’s not forget these other gems that SONY has patented:
The “Bad Actor” Detection System
Sony has previously patented AI systems designed to track player behavior and identify “bad actors” in online spaces.
The AI system would actively monitor your speech, actions, and behavior to generate internal scores that could block you from online services, effectively locking you out of games you’ve paid for in the name of creating a safe space for snowflake gaming.
Many critics correctly pointed out that this resembles a social credit system for gaming, where opaque AI judgments dictate who gets to participate fully and that instituting these overreaching features like this will just lead to players no longer using voice chat (which we already see in games like Call of Duty).
AI Content Censorship Tools
Sony has also explored real-time content filtering that would censor blood, violence, sexual content, that AI could find “offensive” – overriding developer creativity and intent entirely.
Because what the world needs is Sony telling us what is appropriate to see in a game…
And why is it that every time that an entity wants to remove freedom in the name of censorship, they try to do it under the guise of “won’t somebody think of the children?!”. Just like KOSA trying to remove everyone’s online anonymity and keep tabs on everything you do online, Sony’s censorship patent can easily be abused in the future to completely change or remove a game’s “problematic” themes or messaging.
Do you want the publishers of Concord telling you what is and isn’t okay in a game?
Because I sure as hell don’t. Individually, these ideas are concerning. Together, they paint a very clear picture.
Sony doesn’t want to empower players.
Sony wants to manage them.
Sony Is Acting Untouchable and That’s a Mistake
Sony is riding high right now. PlayStation dominance has clearly gone to their head, and the assumption seems to be that players won’t leave no matter how much control is stripped away.
History says otherwise.
Gaming is full of “untouchable” companies that pushed too far, ignored their audience, and opened the door for competitors who respected player freedom.
If Sony keeps down this path (replacing agency with automation and creativity with compliance) they’re inviting someone else to win by doing the exact opposite.
Freedom Is the Point
Games are supposed to test you. Frustrate you. Reward your time and effort. Let you fail and come back stronger.
An AI that plays the game for you isn’t progress…it’s insulting.
If Sony really believes the future of gaming is watching a machine overcome challenges on your behalf, then they’ve forgotten why people fell in love with games in the first place.
And if they don’t remember soon, someone else will happily remind players what real freedom to play looks like.
This was a commentary article based on publicly available information and personal opinion. Readers are encouraged to form their own conclusions based on the sources cited.
All images, logos, and video clips used in this article are the property of their respective owners. This content is used for the purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting under the guidelines of Fair Use (17 U.S.C. § 107). No copyright infringement is intended. If you are the copyright holder and believe your content has been used improperly, please contact us directly.
Want More?
Check These Out Next!
About Report AFK
A place for gamers, by gamers, untarnished by corporate gaming media and their nonstop attempts to elevate bad games while denouncing any developers brave enough to stand up to them.
Site Links
Copyright 2025 ReportAFK.com
Be the first to leave a comment