SONY
PS5 Release Date Backwards Compatibility SHOCK: Good News for XBOX, not Sony, if it's true (Pic: SONY)
The PS5 release Date is still nowhere near close to being announced but already sites are in a frenzy over the possibility that it could be set for one of the biggest and most requested console features to date.
No, we're not talking about PSN name changes – although that already looks like it may be happening – we're of course referring to backwards compatibility.
The feature, adopted some years ago by Microsoft's Xbox One, has been often talked down by PlayStation bosses who's looked to remain forward thinking.
However, recent moves, such as the PlayStation Classic Mini, does suggest that the company is perhaps warming to the idea of making a few big changes that would be welcomed by the community.
The latest news as mentioned concerns a patent spotted by Gearnuke, and in the documentation, it mentioned something about Remastering by Emulation.
Keep reading for a full look at the patent.
Here's a quick summary of the patent:
Each asset such as a texture called for by legacy software such as a legacy computer game software has a unique identifier associated with it. The unique identifier can be rendered by imposing a hash on the asset, and then the asset stored with its identifier in a data structure.
An artist remasters the textures for presentation on a higher resolution display than envisioned in the original software, and stores them back in the data structure with their identifiers.
The original software is then played on the higher resolution display, with asset (such as texture) calls being intercepted, identified, and the data structure entered to retrieve the remastered asset having a matching identifier. The remastered asset is then inserted on the fly into the game presentation.
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Now, on the face of it, you can see why the first initial conclusion to jump to is backwards compatibility.
However, PushSquare, the PlayStation focussed news site has an alternative theory, which actually makes more sense. Especially when you consider the context of when the patent was filed, back in 2016.
"The abstract talks about taking original software and then inserting new assets on the fly, effectively allowing classic games to be played on higher resolution displays in “remastered” form," explains PushSquare's Sammy Barker.
"While this does sound a lot like backwards compatibility, we personally believe that the patent pertains to some of Sonys recent remasters, like PaRappa the Rapper Remastered.
"For those of you who dont know, the Japanese giants actually created a PSP emulator for the PlayStation 4, which its used for several games like LocoRoco Remastered and Patapon Remastered."
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"The way this works is that it takes the portable game code but replaces the original assets with 4K ones, resulting in more modern presentation."
"We believe that this is what the patent is referring to, especially when you consider that the documentation was filed in 2016, a few months before PaRappa the Rapper et al were announced for the PS4.
Despite everything mentioned, we believe, along with PushSquare and many other sites funnily enough, that the PS5 probably will be backwards compatible.
It's just a case of by how much. In all likelyhood, we can envisage a situation where the PS5 is backwards compatible but only for PS4 games.
We've spoken about this before in our main PS5 Release Date Guide. But if you'd like to know more, we've dropped in our thoughts on PS5 Backwards Compatibility, just below.
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PS5 Backwards Compatibility – Will PS4 games work?
The current PS4 console uses an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU), built upon the machines x86-64 architecture.
Now, this is hypothetical, but if Sony uses this same architecture in the upcoming PS5 console (which appears, likely) there's a good possibility that the machine will be able to offer backwards compatibility functionality with PS4 titles.
PS5 Backwards Compatibility – Will PS3 games and older work?
This seems more unlikely given that the same architecture doesn't support this functionality.
We believe that moving forward it's more likely that Sony will continue to push it's existing PS Now digital service which currently offers over 650 games spanning the various PS2, PS3 and PS4 systems.
Previously, PS Now worked as a streaming service on PS4 and PC. But more recently PS Now has let fans download their games for offline play.
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