Ads that pause gameplay – coming to PS3?

Technology that pauses gameplay to display advertisements has been filed in a patent by Sony Computer Entertainment America.

The tech would work by effectively pausing any in-progress game and forcing an ad to be displayed on screen for a pre-defined period of time.

It is described by SCEA as "a method for use in advertising includes initiating playing of interactive content, suspending playing go the interactive content, displaying an advertisement, and resuming playing of the interactive content".

This would be preceded by a warning that gameplay is about to be paused. Gameplay would also be rewound for a small amount of time prior to resuming.

The patents also mention the possibility of gameplay slowing down” as the ad approaches. It also includes server synchronisation that could mean all players of a specific title could be shown the same ad simultaneously.